Dirty Vegas

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Las Vegas (the meadows) October 10th to 12th

Arriving in Las Vegas after being in the desert was a complete assault to the senses, and it took us two attempts to land the Dodge Avenger outside the giant smoked glass pyramid ‘the Luxor’, where we would be based for the next two nights. As soon as the car door was opened it was game on, with valet drivers and luggage handlers vying for our attention, not to mention the touts desks lined up on the way to the hotel reception. (Before you know it, you’ve been talked into a real estate tour which takes a whole day and a large deposit towards a property you don’t want).
With sand from the desert still in our hair and our shoes, we cleaned up in our Egyptian themed suite before heading out to explore. Our hotel was joined to several other casinos via a series of corridors through the hotels and bridges over the infamous strip and eventually we found ourselves in New York having a late dinner. New York New York the casino that is. From the exterior, the casinos all have cheesy themes given away by their names, such as Paris, Treasure Island, the Venetian, Sahara, Circus Circus, but internally they have the same glitzy labyrinthine appeal.
We woke late the next morning and opened the blinds to be greeted by Vegas in all its searing daylight glory. It truly is the most unnatural place to be, especially after being surrounded by sandy nothingness, and the only way to cope is to throw yourself at its mercy or be completely consumed by the bizarreness of it all. So, with that in mind, we headed across the strip to ride on the roller coaster precariously attached to the exterior of New York New York. Well, Guy braved this new level of extreme sports and Rosie went off to find a coffee (with the hidden agenda of pretending to be in New York).
After meeting up in Times Square, we decided to check out the lion enclosure at the MGM but, as all sign posts directed us to the centre of the casino, we got a bit disorientated and discovered that the lions were not only next to the entrance, they were also very much asleep. So, it was across to the Bellagio for an indulgent buffet lunch and then onto the monorail (don’t say it, sing it!) to the Venetian to look at the Solomon Guggenheim gallery, which had a surprising good exhibition canvassing movements from impressionism through to modernism. Anyway, with the intension of seeing old town Vegas, we got back onto the monorail up to the Sahara, where the monorail ends, and walked up to the Stratosphere Tower which dominates the centre of the strip and is easily spotted in the opening credits of the original CSI television series. We stopped to admire the sparkling lights of the tower and out of the dark appeared a homeless guy who showed us the tarmac burnt to his skin from sleeping in the car park across the road and asked us to buy him dinner. After a discussion about poverty in Vegas, we eventually made it up to the top of the Stratosphere to view the city with new eyes and a reluctant realization that Vegas is just another gritty US city with a glittering façade, and not the Disneyland equivalent that most visitors seek. There really was only one thing left to do at this point, so we trolley bused back to the Paris for a spot of gambling and the fountain and light show outside the Bellagio on the way back to the hotel.

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Photos

Bellagio buffet lunch and dinner.
I mean, who really needs that many desserts?