christmas in the girlie bars

From Christmas in Cambodia

Street 104. It's one of Phnom Penh's girly-bar streets. You've got the Pickled Parrot, Zanzi-bar, and a bunch of places with cutely euphemistic names. The girlie bars around here cater to a lot of forigners, and they really kick ass when it comes to Christmas decorations. Buckets of tinsel and ribbon? You name it, they've got it. Shiny ornaments and tinsel and Santa hats with your gin and tonic? Bring it on, baby.

They're all about the same inside. There's a bar, a television playing pop videos, and a whole lot of girls. You don't necessarily have to be on "a mission" to hang out at these places - I'm a heterosexual female and have had more then a few drinks in these environs. In an odd way, I like girly bars. I don't get that many chances to interact with young Khmer women my age. They are most definitely here. They're often pretty interested in me. Where I'm from, what I do, why I'm in Phnom Penh. They're usually nice girls who speak good English. And the people watching at these establishments: choice. (One Russian guy! 20 Khmer girls!)

From Christmas in Cambodia

I'd be the last person to judge what they do for a living. If I was 22 years old, poor, and living in Phnom Penh, I don't doubt that I'd be doing the same. They're good people in a very difficult situation, or at least a healthy number of them.

From Christmas in Cambodia

Phnom Penh has a permanent population of what are usually termed "sexpats" for reasons that should be really, really obvious. Many of them seem to spend most of their waking hours at these bars, moving from one to another in a circuit known only to themselves. I've talked to a few of these guys before - they're often pretty amiable - and they're usually some sort of IT or business type from the US or Britain who decided to chuck the rat race, cash out, and move to Phnom Penh. And spend all their waking hours in girlie bars of one sort or another. A lot of these guys end up opening restaurants or bars to make some cash on the side. They often seem to end up with one (sometimes two) steady girlfriends. Some say the life expectancy of a sexpat is pretty low. I haven't been here long enough to be able to tell. Some of them look lost as hell. 100 mile stares. Somehow I'm not surprised.

This is supposed to be Christmassy, so I'm just going to say "Mary Magdalene" and stroke my beard thoughtfully for a second.

Ok? Done.