The Night Pt. 1

Nighttime in Phnom Penh can be very quiet.  Many Cambodians go to bed quite early by western standards – only an hour or two after sun down.  The streets shift from unbelievable congestion during rush-hour to eerie serenity.  Most of the city powers down to sleep save for a small portion that restlessly shifts awake.  Karaoke bars, hostess bars and massage parlors open their doors, turn on their lights and display women out front to bring in customers.  Some of the clubs are more or less like clubs in the west.  You have a good time with your friends, sing, dance, throw back a few drinks and go home.  Many others however offer escorts who will accompany you for the evening and into the night if you so choose.  Women with seemingly no recourse do what they can to make a wage and do the only work that some of them have ever known since they were children.  What is hard to bear in the daytime wafts out at night and a cold neon pall looms over tattered streets with no name and resigned people who work to forget their own.

Neon Pall
Phnom Penh – October 2012