Viva Las Vegas

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The pool side makes Vegas what it is; the party capital of the world. Now, I am not talking specifically of the bikini clad chicks that roam these waters (well, the pool side waitresses at least), its more than that; it’s a combination
of things including the endless line of cocktails and the sunny blue sky with 30 degree (Celsius) temperature - something my Australian skin has yearning for far too many months.

It doesn’t get much sweeter than enjoying a cocktail or three whilst lying beside the pool soaking up the summer heat of the Nevada desert…

We arrived in Vegas jetlagged and exhausted from our 18 hour multi-stopover, via Auckland New Zealand and San Francisco. Straight from exiting our plane and entering the arrival terminal we were surrounded by gambling machines and neon lights offering prizes to lucky players, we had indeed arrived at Las Vegas.
Our hotel was the Monte Carlo, located in the middle of the strip, next to New York New York, and a block away from Bellagio - and across the road from the M&M store which delighted me and Michelle. Wanting to force our body clocks to adjust as quickly as possible, we fought our fatigue and ventured out onto the strip.

Night time is the best way to experience the Vegas strip, not only is the weather a lot cooler than during the day, but seeing the hotel casinos with their neon glow makes for an amazing atmosphere. The strip is bustling with as much life during the day as it does during the night with just a smaller change in the clientele that venture onto the strip. During the day the strip is congested with tourists wearing their loud tourist shirts, sporting the ‘Grand Canyon’ and various ‘Sin City’ slogans. At night time these tourists are outnumbered by the younger clubbers, all of whom were dressed to impress, negotiating the strip from one club to the next. Out in force at night are the ‘card slappers’ (the name coming from their nature - slapping cards into their palms trying to get your attention), standing within feet of each other, spanning about 10 meters in some cases are guys and some girls wearing shirts saying ‘girls to your room in 20 minutes’ handing out playing-card sized advertisements of next to naked women with a list of the services they provide and cost.

Pity the poor guy which puts his hand out to receive just a sample of these cards, as these card slappers will surround him like a flock of seagulls would to a lone chip. Seeing just how many I could collect from walking one end of the strip to the other I was shocked to see I arrived back at my suite with well over a hundred cards.

Interestingly enough, the girls that featured on these cards were not all like those seen on classifieds of Australia’s FHM and Zoo Weekly magazines (the ones that make you want to get a Hepatitis C booster shot from just looking at them) rather some of the girls looked more like they were from prominent playboy centerfolds, appearing rather classy and beautifully.

A closer inspection of the cards I had collected revealed a few inconsistencies thus confirming my theory that the whole advertising campaign behind these ‘hotel room hotties’ was a sham; for instance the same girl in two different, one naming the blonde stunner as Sandy and the second as Julie. Moments later I found cards featuring Louise Glover - a prominent English glamour model and photographer and then one of Katie Price (Jordan). Somehow I don’t think that either of these successful women; Louise and Katie who were pseudo-named ‘Candy’ and ‘Sophie’ would offer ‘full services’ for $35 dollars as their cards suggested.


For the five days we were there, we journeyed up and down the strip, being transported into foreign and exotic locations with each hotel; from the ancient worlds of the Pharaohs of Luxor Hotel and Casino (appropriately shaped as a pyramid), to the medieval times of the knights of the round table at Excalibur, the castle shaped casino. Further down the strip was New York New York, with a front face of bustling New York Architecture, everything from the statue of liberty, empire state building and twin towers; the interior modeled as various streets, the floor cobble stones, the shop fronts as building fronts you would see on the street, the ceiling, blue skies with clouds. The Paris hotel and casino featured its own scale replica of the Eifel Tower and also had an interior modeled like the streets of Paris, and just for added authenticity, the reception staff all spoke fluent French. The Venetian next door had a massive indoor and outdoor canal system with gondolas you could ride in. Did I mention the Bellagio fountains that went off every 15 minutes, or the Volcano that erupts on the hour outside of the Mirage, or what about the epic sea battle/musical featuring the sexy alluring Sirens and hunky pirates?



There was just so much to see and do; too much for the five days we were visiting for, so with that in mind, we slowed ourselves down a bit, took in the highlights and then spent some time relaxing by the pool ordering cocktails and soaking up the Vegas heat.

It wouldn’t be a Vegas experience without seeing some of the evening shows on offer; ranging from magic shows, to variety shows, to adult geared entertainment for both men and women there was something for everyone.

On the second night we arrived we went to see Bally’s Jubilee. This was a ‘traditional Vegas showgirl’ show - the girls all glamour up with large exotic feather hats - the feather hats weighed 35 pounds (16 kg), the rest of the costume fitted into a tea-cup 😉 - The show prided itself on featuring beautiful girls, an array of costumes featuring every colsour of the rainbow, and incredible stories and performances on larger than life sets from the ancient world of the Samson and Delilah ‘a tale of love, romance, passion and betrayal’ through to the romance and tragedy of the 1912 voyage on the Titanic.



A couple of days later we ventured out on an epic 16 hour tour to the Grand Canyon’s south rim in Arizona. I can’t say the idea of a 16hr trip thrilled me all that much, especially since we were already fighting against the clock to see what the Vegas strip had to offer. At the same time though, I had never ventured through Nevada to Arizona on the road before - and was very excited to experience the ‘wild west’ from the comfort of my coach seat. The scenery was amazing, leaving the lights and glamour of Las Vegas early in the morning we ventured out passing small road-side coffee shops, and fast food outlets advertising bagels, horse ranches and used car yards, from the desert plains through to alpine fields as far as the eye can see, and eventually the incredible vastness of the Grand Canyon itself.



There are three tourist location sites of the Grand Canyon that the tour company shuttle people out to, the North Rim, West Rim and South Rim. The North Rim sees snow fall in winter and due to this is occasionally closed. The west rim on the other hand is always open and is popular to the helicopter tours which chopper down to the base of the canyon connecting to the boat tour which navigates the rapids. The south rim where we went is the most picturesque of the lot, and is home to the many Grand Canyon postcards and prints which are available to buy from Vegas.



Our trip to Vegas also happened to coincide with my parent’s trip to Las Vegas. It was great to catch up with them the times we did, and to just bump into them in the middle of the strip randomly.

Would I come back to Vegas again? Definitely, though I would spend more time relaxing by the pool and partying at night time.

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Comments

[Del Murray]

Lucky you Chris. This is great. Very interesting. Spoke to your Dad and he gave me this site address. Keep up the good work. I will pass it on to the others.