Lights and more lights and more lights and.. wait... i think.. yep more lights

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Ok, from the beginning. Flew out of Auckland on the Sunday. Couldn’t really be bothered doing anything that day so just hung around the hostel pretty much. Wandered around outside a bit but that was all. Was kinda lucky that I asked about a shuttle to the airport a little earlier than I was going to because I assumed it would take about half an hour to get to the airport but it takes an hour… so left straight away (about 3:30pm) to the airport.
Rocked up at the airport exactly 2 hours before my flight.. as is recommended. Qantas had 2 flights leaving about the same time, each flight with about 200 ppl boarding it. But the silly thing on their behalf was they only had 4 check-in thingys open to put us all through. Everyone was getting really impatient and to make it worse, as soon as it hit 5:30pm, 2 of them went home only leaving 2 check-in things. I eventually got to the check-in about 6pm where I was told that I had to have an address for a hotel I am staying at in the US otherwise I cannot board the flight. So frantically I rang mum to see if she could have a look on the internet for me. My saviour…. Ran back to the check-in where she had said that I didn’t have to line up again but cut infront of all the other angry people still waiting to check-in. they were happy jan! anywho, eventually got through all the screening & stuff.. note I had to chuck out my nail polish remover and the new bottle of sunscreen I had bought about 2 days earlier & only used once (not happy jan! I should get a refund of the NZ$18.99 that cost me!).
Ok, so I eventually got on the plane, which was supposed to leave at 6:40pm, at 7pm and it didn’t end up taking off until 7:40pm.

Flight was ok. Had a really nice American lady next to me & also had some good practice at sleeping in an upright position (from the bus trips around NZ) so got about 3 hours sleep. Overall, the flight went really quickly.
Landed in LA about 11am LA time. Was waiting in the immigration line & to my surprise I spot my manager from the Cott standing a couple of lines infront of me. Of all places, I swear. It was freaky. Too many people were yelling out & I really didn’t want to speak to him anyways, so I didn’t say anything. But was still freaked out by it.
Ok, mad rush from LAX to the greyhound station which was in downtown LA to catch my bus to Vegas. The shuttle went through this area where the driver said apparently there are 8 missions in about 3 blocks and there were so many homeless people just wandering aimlessly about there. It was really sad.
Got to the station about 1:50pm for by 2pm bus… waited & waited in line. Checked I was in the right line to a lady who worked there as security but spoke hardly any English?? 2:30pm came and a bus finally rocked up. Got about 1 person from the front of the line & was told the bus was full & that we would be advised what to do my the station manager. I was furious. I hadn’t encountered this before, the whole just cause you have a ticket that says one time means you are entitled to a space at that time. So waited & waited. Eventually I heard some guys saying there was another bus at 3pm so I chucked my stuff at the front of that line to make sure I got on that bus. As it was, the bus I ended up getting on got to Vegas quicker than the one I was meant to be on.

Arrived in Las Vegas Sunday night about 10pm tired as & booked into the Mirage Hotel… it is so nice hey… complete with its own “mirage” i.e. a water fountain thing with pretty little bird noises and palm trees etc both inside & outside of the place. It was a little full on. Room was very nice & considering I hadn’t had a shower for 48hrs (not my fault! Those damn double days when crossing time zones) I stayed in the rest of the night to get rid of all the grottiness..
Now, this is my week of luxury hey & was it luxurious. Stayed 2 nights in the mirage (Sunday & Monday night) then booked into the Bellagio on the Tuesday. My nights at the Mirage were good & the hotel staff were really friendly & would do anything for you. It was realy nice.
I was a little disappointed with the Bellagio. It is meant to be the most luxurious (and is one of the most expensive) hotel is Vegas but they didn’t even have me booked in for the right day even though my confirmation said check-in Tuesday. Anywho, they ended up re-assigning me so I could check in but it was on the condition that it was on a smoking level. The level stunk but the room was ok. Smell wise that is. The other thing that peeved me a bit was the lady who was checking me in I’m guessing was new to the job because she had a supervisor guy standing over her the whole time showing her what to do. She was trying so hard but when they discovered they had me in for the wrong night, the guy was very abrupt and not quite rude but bordering it. Now for a hotel which costs US$289 per night, I’d expect them to paste the smile on regardless of whether they want to or not. I don’t care to be honest. At that much a night….
So I had one night there. It was a nice room but a little over the top for my liking. Marble bathroom, huge bath & shower, a bed the size of 2 doubles.. it was crazy. I felt like I was swimming when I eventually crawled into bed.
Checked into the MGM Grand on Wednesday. It expressly says on the confirmation that check-in wasn’t until 3pm however check-out at the Bellagio was for 12pm so I head straight over to MGM to see if I could stick my bags somewhere. The guy who I saw at the desk was so nice & checked me in early just so I could put my bags down. It was so nice of him.
Room was nice again. The bathroom was right at the entry into the room which I though was a little weird but it was all ok.
Stayed there for 2 nights until I had to leave for LA courtesy of greyhound buses on Friday.

Now, enough about the hotel rooms, lets get to what I actually did the whole week. In 3 words… not a lot. Caught up on a whole lot of sleep & wandered up and down the strip a couple of times taking some pics & generally exploring. To some it may seem like a waste of a week, but I felt like I needed it. I was so exhausted from not only the jet lag but from living the same day over and also from hiking it from the south to the north of NZ so fast. Very very tired.
Anyways, I did actually do some things. Went to see Cirque Du Soleil’s “Love” which is at the Mirage. My god, words cannot explain how good the show was. Had awesome tickets right in the front row. Its quite a strange sensation actually being in the front row. At first you don’t know where to look but the thing that actually overwhelmed me more, and to some this may sound stupid, but that these are actual people performing in the show. Sometimes I take it for granted & you get too caught up in absorbing the story etc to actually realize the personalities behind every moment, act or story. All the people in the show would have been between 10 and 25 years of age. They were so young. On the exception of one lady who I think was about 60 but I’m not too sure whether they just made her up like that or she is actually old.. yes mum & dad… hear that. OLD!
It was more of a dancy kind of show than Quidam was.. I’m only basing it on that because it’s the only other one I have seen. But that is right up my alley and I loved every single moment of it..

Oh, & they blew up the Stardust hotel (which was 2 blocks from me at the time). It all happened about 2:30am so it was a little strange. It wasn’t until the following day I saw it on the news that I knew what it was all about.

I did manage to go through pretty much all of the hotels. Each one was completely different yet the same to the next one. They all had these huge features in the middle with endless amounts of gambling stations, glitzy restaurants and nightclubs. It was full on. MGM had a lion habitat, Mirage a water fountain, the Wynn a lambourghini outlet.. go figure.

The thing about Vegas is you get over the whole lights & glitz very quickly. Yes, its impressive but how many times can you look at the same thing & go “WOW”. Its an extremely expensive place too so I was a little eager to get out of there by the time Friday came.

Friday, checked out of the MGM & headed over to the greyhound station to catch my bus. All went well but the bus driver didn’t know where he was going so we ended up having a 1.5 hour detour through surburban LA which was interesting. It gives you a lot of faith in a drivers ability when the passengers are telling him where to go. But, all in all I arrived in LA safely. Caught a taxi to my hostel & that was it.

My hostel is in Hollywood. Walked around a bit this morning & there was an anti-war protest going on just around the corner. I couldn’t help but laugh. You see all the movies imitating it and also on the news etc but to see it and be in it was kinda.. well.. very typical American. A lot of the people there I think really didn’t know why they were there. There were so many conflicting agendas going on from anti-war to greenpeace to peace in general to politics to legalizing marijuana. It was all over the shop. People with their signs yelling out & the police to the sides with their little bikes. It was very stereotypical. I heard them before parading down Hollywood blvd yelling something a rather. They had police on horses and had blocked off a lot of the streets surrounding it, with a little man at each block-off implementing his authority just because he has a little orange jacket thing which makes him stand out. Crazy I tell ya.

The other thing is the smog. It is really bad. You can hardly see 200 metres in front of you because of it & it just gives a general “dirtiness” to the place. The taxi driver was driving down the freeway last night & I was very tempted to ask him if it was just foggy or if it was a permanent thing but from today, I have realized it is permanent.

Anywho, there is not much to see here so am thinking I might try to re-arrange my flights so I can get to Vancouver earlier. I can see the Hollywood sign from where I am but there is no point taking a pic of it because you probably couldn’t see it. It blends in with the haze.

I have included some pics of Vegas for you picture hungry people. They don’t look anywhere as impressive as it is in person because of the lights but the day-time ones look good.
It has changed a lot to when mum, dad & I were there 10 years ago.. ok so obviously. But mum & dad, you will notice some familiar sights and some vaguely familiar with a re-vamp.

Well that is all I have to report for now. Will prob get a chance to do another one in about a week. That way I have something to put down.

Hope you are all well.
Love you all lots & lots & lots

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Photos

The Venetian
Inside.. yes ythe inside of the shopping mall within a hotel. They've tried to replicate Venice fit with gondola rides & a blue sky

MGM Grand
Fit with the lion & all...

Comments

[Mum]

and more lights!
Do you mean that there is now a reason for me to get Dad to take me back to vegus to see all the changes!!!! I don't know if you remember, but when we were there they brought down another hotel - we were next door having dinner when all the lights were turned off! They must go thru hotels i.e. turn them over, every few months! I presume that there were a lot of scenes out of the front of the hotels e.g. sinking the pirate ship - that sort of thing still, hence your comment "walking down the boulevard" as there was just sooo much to see from the street when we were there (that was before you went into the hotels) that you could spend a whole night just walking. Have sent you an email also today. Luv u lots