A girl in your room? That'll be 20 mins...max.

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Here we are then in our room in an authentic Tuscany-themed villa in an authentic Tuscany-style village setting ............ in the middle of the desert. And it's pouring with rain!!!! As in pouring. Unheard of.
It notices too, Vegas drivers aren't very good in the wet, there were an enormous number of accidents. Hey guys it's not like NASCAR, this is real life, when it rains the show still goes on.

Is it cruel of me to say that I find Vegas bizarre in the extreme? Tacky? Sleazy? Maybe I'm missing the point of it all, but everything is just so obviously fake. I guess if you don't have a passport (as I'm assured most US citizens don't) it's possible to believe that you actually are in Paris, France or Luxor, Egypt or Rome, Italy or New York, New York, ....... anywhere really, but I'm not convinced.

That's not to say that I'm unhappy to be here, I've been walking round either open mouthed or grinning inanely.
I'm just amazed at the blatant way that everything is organized to remove cash from the pockets of visitors. Painlessly. There is much mention of all the benefits available to you as a 'player', but strangely, in a country that seems to be awash with warnings, not a murmur about the ease with which you can obviously piss away all your hard-earned.
The people-watching has been first class, from king-size mattress people wearing stained T-shirts walking round with a Miller lite (or half a yard of Mai Tai) in one hand and Marlboro in the other gazing at the delights on offer in the Chanel shop to the Mexican touts on the strip offering to 'deliver girls to your room in 20 minutes'. Excellent. As the News of the World promises, 'All human life is here'. The touts not only had handfuls of cards to hand out, they had extra BOXES of cards just a yard away. They give them away that quickly.

Still, everything is at least one step up from knuckle-dragging. You'd spill your drink or stub out your cigarette.
Never been anywhere like it in all my life.

Think the best way to reach Vegas is by road, it's fab, masses of desert with tumble weed blowing past, like the old western's I watched as a kid! And then.........toy town for adults - just very surreal, the Eiffel Tower Statue of Liberty a pyramid a huge sphinx a huge boat a lake, on and on.....Then we wondered into Caesar's Palace, how to describe??? Huge ceilings, massive light fittings, carpets, lifts the size of hotel rooms, indoor fountains, fish tanks filled with rays.....cocktails by the half yard, people smoking and wandering round with drinks in their hands (glasses & bottles) drifting in and out of shops.......Vuitton, Chanel, Dior blah blah, a ceiling that gives the illusion of a sunny blue cloudy day....that moves! whilst being underground with no windows. Huge swimming pools amongst landscaped gardens, tables with roulette wheels, computerized tables without wheels, machines after machine after machine, shops, lighting, music, Elton John shop, Cher & Bette Midler shop, Pussy Cat Doll shop - with casino area outside, more bars, more lighting, more fish tanks, more shops, more lighting...........are you dizzy yet.......

We had breakfast at our Tuscany Village, the breakfast area was a cross between a fairground & a pimps and whores party......and not in a bad way! I think everyone should go to Vegas so you understand life is just a passing phase........

We were going to move on to the Grand Canyon but there is a winter storm advisory, the rain in Vegas is falling as snow up in Grand Canyon country, driving conditions hazardous. Apart from those considerations we haven't got the right clothing for 20 degree temperatures (as they measure it here) so it'll have to wait for another time.
So we've taken the opportunity to save some money by overniteing in Victorville in the High Desert of California. No, you don't really want to know.

Next time we travel I think it would be more adventurous to take a vacation like this

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Comments

[Europe Rick]

I agree with you completely about Vegas! Not my type of place at all. I spent 2 nights there (at the Excalibur, possibly the most tasteless of the lot!)...it was an experience, but not one I'd care to repeat. One thing we did find out .... those prostitutes' cards make great 'Snap' or 'Happy Families' cards! It's even possible to devise a 'Top Trumps' game from them :-)

[Dani]

Ah JB, I LOVE Las Vegas !!! We have not been in 5 years but we know it well. Actually there is a whole side to it that tourists many times do not see. Red Rock Canyon is beautiful as is a very great drive in the desert circling to Lake Meade. The drive up to Lake Charleston , lunch in a mountain Chalet as humming birds circle. Hoover Dam an unbelievable structure and the tour is great. River raft ride down the Colorado river for the day. Liberace museum is a Hoot ! Las Vegas is Disneyland for Adults. All glitzy and kitsch aside, one can lounge by a pool , go up 50 stories at the Stratosphere and as you found stroll around to watch other people. We don't gamble but find the desert air fantastic. Viva Las Vegas !