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Published: August 7th 2007
This Is Vegas
The definitive image of Sin City...Hello everybody!
Welcome to my first travel blog entry on the road, coming to you from a sweltering Las Vegas. Yesterday, the temperature was 33 degrees - at midnight. During the day it is in excess of 40 degrees.
The heat here is very dry, so you don't sweat much, but the wind is hot and outside, it feels like you're in an oven.
Well, this is Las Vegas, a city that never sleeps - and neither do you ;-)
Having had about 4 hours sleep on a 13 hour flight with a 6 hour stopover in LA, myself and my friend Davies finally arrived in Las Vegas.
The first thing to greet passengers as they come through the gate is the tune of about 50 slot machines - only in Vegas ;-)
The first hotel we were to stay at was Terribles Hotel & Casino, which wasn't as bad as the name suggested, apart from the maze of slot machines you have to negotiate to find the front desk and then your room. I think it's deliberately designed like that in an attempt to suck people into playing the machines.
Anyway, although we had been travelling for
about 20 hours after leaving on Sunday night NZ time, it was still Sunday night over here after crossing the international date line.
On Sundays, The Hard Rock Hotel (a couple of hundred metres down the road from us) holds "Sunday School" in their resident nightclub, Body English. This party follows an all day, 500-people pool party called "Rehab" which they also hold every Sunday.
Fighting our exhaustion, Davies and I decided we wouldn't miss this opportunity and headed on down.
Unfortunately for us, you don't just walk into Las Vegas' hottest nightclub - you gotta have a pretty face, a nice rack, skinny legs or all of the above. Since neither me nor Davies met any of this strict criteria, we decided to cut our losses and head back to sleep after wasting 40 minutes in line.
The next day we checked in at the Hard Rock Hotel. We would have been there the day before too had they not hiked the room rates to $350/night to accomodate the pool party.
The Hard Rock Hotel was definitely the best place we stayed at. The room was spacious and the beds comfy. The music that they had blasting around
The Pool At The Hard Rock Hotel
Very nice set up, quite a nice view too. the hotel and pool was awesome too (I even heard Muse and Crowded House!) ensuring a young clientele.
And the pool area is magnificent. With sand, palm trees, a pool bar, swim-up blackjack, luxury cabanas and a waterslide - for one afternoon, life was good ;-)
And the people here are hot - even if they did seem like skanky, superficial bimboes or arrogant, posing jocks.
That night, Body English was closed, so we checked out Jet, a nightclub in the Mirage. Amazingly, for a Monday night, the queue stretched back 50m - so we didn't bother and caught a free show outside Treasure Island on the way home.
Tuesday saw us move into downtown Las Vegas, where all the old school, original neon casinos live.
Our hotel down there was the Golden Nugget, though perhaps it should be called the Olden Nugget such was the number of oxygen tanks, wheelchairs and walking frames in view.
Needless to say, the view poolside wasn't quite as compelling as it was at the Hard Rock, though it had a cool shark tank in the middle of the pool which the clear glass waterslide went right through.
On Wednesday, we went
Woah...
Nuff said ;-) to the Grand Canyon. A gruelling 16 hour round trip from Las Vegas by coach, all I can say is that this is something you have to see. The view is spectacular and you really struggle to comprehend the sheer scale of the canyon. The depth of it is measured in miles and most of it still remains unexplored. Apparently when it rains, the raindrops evaporate before they reach the foot of the canyon. Spectacularrrrrrrrrrr.........
Back in downtown Vegas that night, we went along to the "Fremont Street Experience", right outside our hotel. A pedestrian-only promenade the length of 5 football fields, Fremont St at night is flanked by the bright lights of the old school casinos including the Golden Nugget, The Golden Gate, Binions, and The Pioneer (with the famous cowboy neon).
Over the top of the street is an archway running the length of the street, lined with mini LCD screens. Every night on the hour, there is a spectacular light show on the ceiling.
That night, I also had a deep-fried Twinkie - a deep-fried sponge cake filled with cream aka heart-attack-on-a-stick.
Food like this is cheap (99c for hot dogs and deep-fried Oreos), but a salad
The Bright Lights On Fremont Street
Fremont Street is downtown, away from The Strip where the old school casinos live. will cost you. So it is no surprise that you see so many people who look like they've had one-too-many buffets, at the buffet. There are tons (no pun intended) of them over here and with overcommercialisation and the competition of unhealthy food rife over here, you fear it's only going to get worse.
Also on Wednesday night, I saw of all people, Darren Fletcher of Manchester United. Random!
Thursday saw us move onto the Strip and the Sahara Hotel & Casino. This old-school casino is ancient, although the same can't be said of the clientele here, unlike the Golden Nugget ;-)
That night we finally made it into a nightclub, the Manadalay Bay's Rumjungle, on "rumba" night. After reluctantly paying the $20 cover, I bought the first round - two Coronas for US$18 plus tips. And you thought Auckland drink prices were expensive?
We exited the club briefly to get tanked on the free drinks the casino provides if you look like you're playing slots, before going back in. Back inside, we got talking to some fly Latinas and some chicks from New York - nice girls, but unfortunately we got hustled out of it by some American
The Strip
View of The Strip from the bottom of it - you can see the fake Eiffel Tower at the Paris Casino among other things. jocks - alas.
We also checked out the MGM Grand's Studio 54 which was cool, before trying to get into upmarket "after hours" joint, Drais. However, when we saw what was being passed by customers to the bouncer with a big clipboard, I figured my $2 bribe was going nowhere, and we went back home. On Friday night, our last night in Vegas, we decided we couldn't afford another night clubbing and that we'd try and win some of our money back. Also, Davies had flight to catch early the next morning.
$50 on roulette, big 6 wheel and slots later, we were back home at 4am. Oh well.
Though I haven't had much luck at all this week as I finished $120 down. I think that Davies might've stolen my luck this week as he finished $100 up. B*stard.
I have enjoyed the gambling though, which I suppose at the end of the day is what matters - as long as you haven't lost too much money!
Davies checked out after a couple of hours sleep to catch his flight - I'll catch him again in Spain.
I had a much easier day, convincing the front desk to check
The Rum Jungle
Flashy, but expensive nightclub in Vegas, complete with cage dancers. me out at 6.30pm instead of 12pm so I didn't have to kill too much time before my 10.45pm flight to Boston.
Slept til 4pm figuring I wouldn't get much sleep on my overnight flight. Also had one last Las Vegas buffet before heading to the airport.
I guess at this stage, I should give my final impressions of Las Vegas, second time around.
To fully experience Vegas, you need to be willing and able to splash a lot of dough. As two backpackers with months of travel ahead of us, I guess this would've been beyond us.
If you are prepared to splash the cash though, then you'll have an wicked time as there's so much to do.
Living here would suck though. Some parts of Vegas are real wastelands and the relative poverty is in stark contrast to the bright lights of The Strip.
A couple of locals I've talked to have said that people are rude here and everyone is just after your money - and I could vouch for that. But I suppose most people here work for the hotels and casinos and it can't be nice to have all the glitz and decadence shoved
The King Is Alive!
Proof that Elvis is alive and well. He charged me $1 though, and then tried to flog me some strip club passes! Not cool. in your face everyday, while you're struggling to make ends meet.
Internet here is ridiculously expensive. The Sahara was charging $30/hour at their business centre! The cheapest you can get is $12/hour and internet in your hotel room never works properly.
And the fact that sales tax (GST) over here isn't included in prices can be really annoying, as you think you can afford something and then suddenlly, you can't.
And don't get me started on tipping - you even have to tip the guy that hands you a paper towel in casino restroom.
Anyway, I think the real travelling starts now - the sightseeing, meeting fellow travellers, and hostels - which may take a bit of getting used to after staying in 4-star hotels for the last week ;-)
If you've made it this far - well done, and thank you - it is appreciated.
Next stop is Boston - and I'll be reporting back again in a week's time either from New York or London. But until then, I hope things are going well for everyone.
Cheers,
Derek
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