SEDUCTIVE Bella Smiles

CJ, a photographer from Hawaii, has been coming to Bangkok for many years. He knows the city - as far as one can say that for a metropolis of millions.

Instagram @bellasmilesmodel

One district has always fascinated him: Patpong. Bangkok's oldest and most historic red-light district. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what happens in Patpong can't even be imagined' perhaps best describes this district.

This is where the U.S. intelligence agency, the CIA, had a safehouse in the 1960s. David Bowie shot a music video in a club in the neighborhood. Mohamed Ali, Kendall Jenner, Steven Tyler and Hugh Grant strolled down the storied street of Soi Patpong 2. James Bond chased a car through the district, and in Hangover it served as a backdrop just as much for The Deer Hunter starring Robert de Niro. Patpong is probably one of the most famous red-light districts in the world. And now in 2022, the countless neon lights of the street Soi Patpong 2 are flickering again. But one club had always caught CJ's eye. He had been there hundreds of times. But only felt. Because the club is a bridge on the third floor, connecting a parking garage to a building. It's all glass and open to the street, so you can see the go-go dancers dancing in the glass and feel the bass of the beats as you walk underneath. And the roof is a black Japanese roof. Hence the name: 'Black Pagoda.' CJ thought to himself, I'm sure it's the same for the thousands of others who stroll through this street. Every one of them has been in the Black Pagoda. They all see the club, feel the beats as they walk under it. But where is the entrance? How does one get into this club? CJ began to look into it. He found out that the club served as a backdrop in the international award-winning indie film "Crazy Medicine." That's how he finally got to the operators and after learning their story as well, it was clear to him that he had to do a photoshoot here to tell the club's story in pictures. But from the beginning.