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Published: March 30th 2009
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Las Vegas is the city of hedonism, In my travels I have not encountered such a city. It reminds me of Costa del Sol, Falaraki and Blackpool.. full of complete tat and the worst possible excesses of humanity. But it is strangely compelling. Everything in Vegas is bigger better and completely over the top. When we arrived we went to the MGM grand and saw KA a Cirque du Soleil production that blew us away. The set was fascinating, it was a 20m x 10m platform that twisted from every angle possible and even became a climbing wall with rods popping out of it. The set broke briefly half way through the production so we were treated to a view of the machinery behind it whilst they fixed it.. An interruption well worth it as the machinery was fascinating and huge. Anyway the show was amazing and completely blew us away. The MGM grand is huge and an extension of the strip. Everyone says it but Vegas is something you just have to see as you just can't explain it. Plenty of people have told me all about it but it doesn't match up to seeing it yourself. It is reminiscent
of India with a crush of people swarming everywhere a lot of them unintelligible due to intoxication or various other excesses. People are standing on the street wearing billboards and handing out cards bearing the legend "Girls who want to meet you phone...." And then there are the fountains of the Bellagio choreographed to the music of Andrea Bocelli.. However none of it is classically classy.. but it is an amazing display of wealth and sheer opulence. One of the highlights of the trip so far apart from gawking at the opulence has been a coaster the Nascar ride. It accerates with 4g's and then throw's you in a loop a few rights and lefts then up a vertical ramp to reverse back down and do it backwards.. I seriously should have gone to Alton towers in london.. ah well..
After the weekend we moved hotels to the Gold Coast where Norm had stayed the last time he was in Vegas. Just off the strip it had everything you could want.. a gym for Debbie and full casino down stairs. I played poker here for 4 evenings and Debbie for 2. It was a simple limit Holdem game and combined
we ended up 30 bucks so got paid for 4 nights entertainment. We also moved our car hire forward, what a scare that was. We phoned up to see if we could move it forward with the same rate and deal (all insurance included) and everything seemed ok over the phone. However when we got down to Alamo we found they had changed it to a basic deal and it would cost us double the amount to rent a car.. Needless to say we were not happy and eventually got them to reinstate the prior deal. I hate car rental companies they try to screw you at every turn. However too their credit unlike Avis and Hertz whom I've had previous run in's with they did manage to reinstate the deal but after a lot of heart stopping time!. So with a rental car we decided to get out of Vegas and saw the Red Rocks natural park where Debs,Pauline and I posed for hear no see no and speak no evil pictures and shadow pictures. It is pretty beautiful out there and I'm surprised more people don't go out and see it. We also saw some ancient Indian petroglyphs
(that look strangely like today's graffiti and a drawing of a mans bits see what you think?) Two days later we went to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, The Hoover Dam lived up to it's billing a fascinating engineering structure with a suspension bridge being built beside it. Great for me but I think Debs wasn't as interested in all the cool engineering. Lake Mead is full of aggressive ugly carp (see pics) and a pretty uninspiring lake really. Created by the building of the Hoover Dam the lake shore is still indistinguishable from the desert no interesting rocky shoreline or sandy just dusty desert right up to the shore. The highlight of the time away from Vegas undoubtedly was the Helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. Taking off from Boulder city we flew over the Hoover Dam and then Lake Mead to the western rim of the Grand Canyon. Flying through the western reaches of the GC past the celebrated skywalk and then down to land beside the Colorado for Champers and a snack. And then the flight back. The Grand Canyon is huge and very impressive it was well worth the exorbitant price paid for the
heli flight.
The other things to see in Vegas are:
Downtown, boasting the worlds largest TV screen which is basically the roof of the downtown arcade which on the hour played a queen tribute move.
Stratosphere, Basically an observation tower in the same form as the skytower in NZ. There are three fun rides on the the top, The Bigshot, basically shoots you up the aerial on the top of the tower and you get weightless at the top great, did this 4 times. The Insanity which spins you around over 900 feet of nothing.. I kinda didn't like this one for some reason. And the X-Scream, a car like teater-totter that shots you over the edge of the tower... (this one was fine.)_
Ultimately Las Vegas is a theme park for adults with lots of money to spend!.. You can do it with minimal money backpacking and still have fun as there are plenty of shows and free entertainment. A great thing to see but glad to leave it.
Hi Debs here
I want to tell you about the best buffet in the world, which is at the Bellagio (where the famous huge fountains are!)
Basically we
had to queue for over an hour, when we eventually got in i could not believe how much choice, its was the whole worlds cuisine in one room, they had Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Mexican, American (basically junk food!), Italian, French and everything else. The Sushi was amazing, they also had Chicken Wellington which was divine, not to mention the salad bar!
However the desserts were most definitely the highlight! I actually had every dessert they had, which was a lot, here is just a taster, excuse the pun..
Raspberry chocolate mouse
Strawberry Tart
Lemon Meringue Pie
Key-lime Pie,
Chocolate cake,
Treacle tart
Carmel and Banana Pie
Choc and Vanilla Ice Cream
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