Money, food and bling

We booked the Luxor hotel. Less than US$100 a night and pretty cool to stay in the pyramid. Somehow it was not as big as I expected but, by crikey, it was busy. Huge queue at the check-in and people everywhere. The casino was massive and there was an atrium complete with fast food joints, IMAX theatre and museum. Our room was on the 15th floor and we reached it via an inclinating elevator which tended to knock us off balance.

While exploring the hotel we were collared by a lady promising free gifts. Only at the last moment did she metion the timeshare tour we would have to endure in order to get our gifts. For US$75 in gambling vouchers, tickets to the Tournament of Kings and a Bahama cruise we decided to go. The next day we were picked up by a cross between a bus and a limosine and driven down the southern end of the strip, supposedly called the 'new strip'. We were told this by John, our personal salesman. We were given an intro in a room full of people and salesmen .. scary really. The John took us to see the development which had a number of towers open and a number under construction. We saw the condos which were quite lovely. All the time we were given a very relaxed sales pitch. Nothing too scary until we got back to the rooms where John gave us the prices. $30,000 for a week a year. Then the discounts started being applied. We said no. John was telling us we had to make a decision then and there and that we would not be able to have the same offer for another year. We said we couldn't make such a big decision without thinking about it and this annoyed him. A big-boned supervisor appeared to make us some other offers and before we left another guy in another room slashed the prices in half and told us we could return in the next few days to accept. It was a relief to get out .. 3 hours later.

That evening we went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excaliber hotel. It was a dinner show downstairs under the casino with an arena for horses. Seats were laid out as for a regular arena but there was a bench in front where waiters served us. We had to eat with our hands following the medieval theme and that was fun, got a whole baby chicken. The show had bad guys and good guys and jousting and sword fights and acrobats and dancers and a jester. And the horses were beautiful. Very entertaining.

The next day we went to the Star Trek Experience and Quarks Bar at the Las Vegas Hilton. There was a Klingon at the entrance. It was all trekkie with metal and space ship style panels. While eating at the restaurant Quark came up to us for a chat. He was cute. I had to try very had not to rub his ears. We brought a US$70 package for the experience which included the museum, rides, a backstage tour and photos. We started with an interactive Borg ride which was quite fun. The second ride, the Klingon ride, was absolutely dreadful for me. They put us in an airplane simulator and bounced us around until I felt crook. But the special effects were quite good, like being in a real shuttle being chased by the Klingons over 1980's Las Vegas. The backstage tour was brilliant and we saw how some of the effects were done. And we found out some interesting facts. Next time you watch Star Trek look at the writing on the pipes on the ship. They have written on them 'GNDN' which stands for 'Goes Nowhere Does Nothing'. And a lot of the small printing on labels and consuls contains smart comments and jokes.

The other show we went to see was 'Penn & Teller' at the Rio hotel. Our seats were at the front where a little round Philipino fella was watching the stage stairs on our side. He chatted with Pieter for ages until the show began. The show was quite short but they were very entertaining and some of the tricks were quite mind-blowing. However, because of our position at the front and to one side I spottted the secret compartment in the fish tank and I saw that the nail gun was sucking and not sinking nails into Penn.

I haven't mentioned it yet but of course we did some gambling. Me more than Pieter. We would have a flutter at whichever hotel we were visiting and I won some serious money at the Luxor. US$200 from US$25. But, of course, I didn't know when to stop and lost it all again. Our favourite was the poker machines. I tried the tables but found the croupiers impatient with newcomers and returned to the machines.

We visited the Las Vegas Outlet centre where we found some great bargains from top-end stores. The poshest mall we visited was the Forum shops in Caesars Palace. All roman, shops built like houses, a trojan horse, and an aquarium with stingrays and lots of pretty fish. The ceiling was painted like the sky but being quite dark it felt a little oppressive. We found a toy store which we were drawn into by a giant US$4000 cuddly elephant. We found a fantastic collection of Steiff toys including 4 elephants, 2 of which were blue. Before leaving England we had ordered a Steiff elephant but it had not arrived before we left. So we left that shop with a US$150 solid fluffy blue book end elephant. Lovely.

Our only wander downtown was spoilt by a raging wind, but we did see the cowboy. Just before we needed to leave for the airport we spent the last US$15 of our vouchers (hard earned from the timeshare presentation) and left with US$55 because we had run out of time to continue. Luckily there were a few machines at the airport. We knew they were programmed not to pay out so often but we needed to get rid of the last gambling urges.

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