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Published: January 23rd 2006
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Welcome to Vegas
Clean girls need not apply. In the 1930´s a few states got together and started building the Hoover Dam on the border between Arizona and Nevada. In a stroke of quick thinking genius, a few weeks after construction began on the dam Nevada legalized gambling to attract all of the bored workers to their state to spend their fat pay cheques. Soon the border town of Las Vegas sprang to life and since the 30´s only Anzac Parade, Sydney has rivaled Las Vegas for having more Dens of Iniquity per square mile (and for that we all have the Waterhouse family to thank).
We did th big drive from Yosemite to Vegas in one day. As we crossed into desert and Nevada night fell. It was a Sunday evening and we were driving against the weekend visitors leaving Vegas. I have never seen a longer, more continuous stream of traffic in my life! For a good 100 miles there was a constant stream of headlights pouring out of Vegas on a double lane highway. It was quite remarkable.
We arrived in Vegas and toured ¨the strip¨ (AKA Las Vegas Boulevard) before arriving at our accommodation in Vegas. Home of the world's highest roller coaster
On Road to Vegas
Cool wind farms. the Stratosphere - Casino, Hotel and TOWER (also known as ¨the Strat¨ by locals and its detractors alike) is a needle tower that sits proudly at the (dodgy) end of the strip. One taxi driver told us that directly behind the Strat is known as ¨Naked Town¨ and it's frequented by ¨crack heads and hookers offering twenty dollar blow jobs¨. Needless to say we were stoked with our accommodation that we had scored for $20 per night.
Las Vegas is certainly a sight to behold. The strip is groaning with the weight of casinos, slot machines and the hordes of tourists that have come to Vegas in the pursuit of free money.
On our first full day in Vegas we drove out to Hoover Dam. This amazing modern engineering feat is partly responsible for the new engineering feat of someone re-creating the Eiffel Tower in the middle of the desert in Nevada. The dam was pretty cool actually.
That afternoon we cruised the strip and that night we hit the casinos. Some of you may know that I find gambling about as interesting as a trip to Yosemite National Park. So the prospect of spending six hours
I'm navigatin'
Not getting lost in the Nevada Desert. gambling in smoke filled room engendered a fair amount of dread in me. I have recently learnt Texas Hold Em Poker but the level of intensity they play here pretty much sealed my fate as purely a slot machine player for the trip.
As you all probably know, if you are gambling in Vegas it's free drinks. I soon found out that even if you are in the same vicinity as someone gambling it's free drinks too. Generally, I spent my first night of gambling standing expectantly near a pokie machine. As a waitress would walk past (mutton dressed as lamb - you get the idea) I would lean towards the machine and gently stroke it like I was coaxing it to pay out. This was usually enough to convince the woman I was a high roller and I'd secure myself my next free beer until my brilliant ruse was ready for implementation again.
We spent a good portion of our time in the MGM casino where every half an hour the bar staff would jump on the bar and dance to hip hop numbers - that was entertaining.
Interestingly, a cab driver discovered I was Australian
Happy travellers
Linda Patrick and Ben. and started telling me how Kerry Packer had died. Apparently that was big news in Vegas because he was very well known in this city. He was known for his generous tipping of staff and a lot of the casinos didn't like him visiting.
Our second full day in Vegas was spent exploring the strip a little more in depth. I took a stroll from the top of the strip where I was staying all the way down to the bottom. It's a long walk but a fascinating one that's for sure. On the way I ran into someone I know - Delta Goodrem and Brian McFadden! They were strolling past me outside the Bellagio Hotel and they stopped next to me to atch the water and light show there. In the relative anonymity that they could enjoy in Vegas, Delta and Brian were all over each other. I discovered from their conversation that they were staying at the Bellagio. Delta demanded that after the water show they should go back to their room, watch a movie and drink champagne. Demonstrating that you can take the girl out of Baulkham Hills but you cant take the westie out of
the girl she added it'll be just like Gold Class at the movies!¨
Vegas is an interesting town and we spent our final night there at a few of the casinos. I m pleased to report that I doubled my money in Vegas. A rare feat I'm sure! But I think I found a much more enjoyable pastime than gambling - making Americans feel uncomfortable. In the great tradition of Sigfreid and Roy several of the casinos have huge Perspex ¨habitats¨ where they house enormous big cats like lions or white tigers. Huge groups of tourists stand outside the cages while the cats sit their looking bored and irritable.
To make the Americans think a little more I adopted the practice of standing in the middle of the crowd and saying very loudly - Isn't it cruel to leave these beautiful animals locked inside all day just for the benefit of us?¨, ¨Shouldn't these animals roam free in the wild rather than sit here and have us gawk at them?¨, Isn't the more humane thing to do is put a significant portion of the profits from gambling towards saving the habitat of these animals rather than having them
Hoover Dam
The reason for Vegas. Thank goodness for engineers. here to entertain us?¨
Needless to say I've never seen groups of 100-200 Americans look so uncomfortable and move so quickly. Great fun!
I really liked the signs and lights of Vegas so that's what a lot of these photos relate to.
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