Phnom Penh Street at Night

Phnom Penh Street at Night - Chris Coles

Phnom Penh's come a million miles since the Khmer Rouge and Year Zero but it's still a city with an edge, especially at night. Entire buildings and city blocks are often dark and unlit, sidewalks and streets in disrepair, piles of garbage are strewn in every direction. A small group of "Big Men" have their Mercedes, Toyota Land Cruisers and Lexus SUV, but most of the people who inhabit Phnom Penh grind away on almost nothing, living day to day, no real savings, no prospects, a daily darwinistic struggle for low-level survival .....with just a faint glimmer of hope far, far away, on a distant neon horizon.....

Wired Phnom Penh

Wired Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

How many more wires can be hung off a Phnom Penh telephone pole......is anyone keeping track of where they're all going........

Hindu Goddess Kali in Phnom Penh Night

 

Hindu Goddess Kali in Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Kali's but one of the many Hindu gods who, despite a Buddhist overlay, still reign in Phnom Penh.....a combination of creation and destruction without contradiction.........

Girl from Phnom Penh Night

Girl from Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

She's from the backwoods of Cambodia's northeast, working the Phnom Penh night...........

"S" Mercedes on Phnom Penh Sidewalk

"S" Mercedes on Phnom Penh Sidewalk - Chris Coles

A shiny new "S" Mercedes parked on a ratty Phnom Penh sidewalk, its owner's impunity on full display.........

Night Street Phnom Penh

Night Street Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

Not much traffic, kind of quiet, the chatter of the motorcycle taxi guys and melancholic Khmer love song drifting through the hot tropical night..........

Street Dog Phnom Penh Night

Street Dog Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

She wanders around in the Phnom Penh night, scavenging for scraps of food, keeping a wary eye out for horny males, looking for a safe place to sleep, life on the edge........

ATM Machine in Phnom Penh Night

ATM Machine in Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Lit up and lonely, waiting for a customer in the hot tropical night............

Phnom Penh Street Cafe

Phnom Penh Street Cafe - Chris Coles

Busy late when it's not so hot.....mostly for Khmers......civilized urban life gradually re-born.......

Phnom Penh Lo-End Massage Place

Phnom Penh Lo-End Massage Place

Not much excitement or "fun", just basic survival......the Khmer guys who are the "clients" make even less than the "girls"......

Two Bargirls in Phnom Penh Night

Two Bargirls in Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Lots of bargirls dressed up and waiting in the Phnom Penh night......Khmer, Vietnamese, Chinese, even a few from Africa.......

Phnom Penh Neon

Phnom Penh Neon - Chris Coles

The Phnom Penh night's full of neon, hissing and blinking in Khmer, English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, sometimes just abstract and pure, as if to celebrate the sheer pleasure and joy of light and to try to blot out the Khmer Rouge darkness that came before...

Pink Bubbles Karoke Niteclub Phnom Penh

Pink Bubbles Karaoke Niteclub Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

Who came up with the name Pink Bubbles? What spark in the Khmer male imagination does that name set off, only a couple of customers, a few girls, nothing hi-end in sight....

Shiny SUV Parked on Phnom Penh Sidewalk

Shiny SUV Parked on Phnom Penh Sidewalk - Chris Coles

Shiny new, custom wheels, parked on a ratty, littered Phnom Penh sidewalk, immune and protected...........

Cambodia's Royals in the Phnom Penh Night

Cambodia's Royals in the Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

All dressed up, elegant, re-touched.......but hardly anyone stops to look...........

Phnom Penh Niteclub

Phnom Penh Niteclub Brothel - Chris Coles

A bit of neon, bright lights, satin and silk, a few girls waiting for Khmer or Chinese customers......after so many years of the Khmer Rouge, so many millions put to death, maybe commercial sex has its good points...or at least is not so bad.....

Phnom Penh Garbage Array

Phnom Penh Garbage Array - Chris Coles

Sprawling along a sidewalk in the hot Phnom Penh night, the garbage is no longer random but an almost artistic array.....

Wired Phnom Penh Night

Wired Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Forget wires buried underground out of sight.....just hang them from the poles above the street, one on top of the other....luckily almost everybody's got a smartphone.....

3AM in the Phnom Penh Night

3AM in the Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

It's 3AM in the Phnom Penh night and things are kind of blurry....the heat....the swarms of Expats....the music....the girls.....

Barang in Phnom Penh Night

Barang in Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

So many "Foreign Persons"  or Barangs in the Phnom Penh Night.....what are they all doing, what do they want, how do they end up........