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Published: September 7th 2008
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Vegas
Having woken up at ungodly hours to depart Chicago and endured over twelve hours worth of transit, it was a relief to finally arrive in Vegas. Even from the airport, you could tell that this was a 'party city', large screens flashed and the slot machines lining the airport (well who wants to go to all the effort of walking to a casino!) played their jingles. Walking out of the airport to the bus the heat hit me hard, and I remembered that Vegas was basically in a desert.
An hour or so later, after just missing the bus that would take me in the direction of the hostel, I arrived. Understandably keen to check in, I was nothing less than delighted with the 45 minute wait whilst the grumpy looking eastern European receptionist took about half an hour to process one couple in front of me, and then wandered off. Eventually, he deigned to check me in and the escape from the filth of the Chicago International Hostel was complete! Beds were comfortable, floor clean and other staff I spoke to significantly more friendly.
Also met up with Ben here, which was extremely welcome after two
and a half months dealing almost exclusively with Americans. For the first night, we accepted the invitation of some Germans to head out onto 'The Strip' and soon a large group departed from the hostel on foot. To my shame, when Ben asked the German girls “Where are you thinking of heading then.. a bar... a club?” I muttered 'Poland?' under my breath.
An hour later, we were there. Huge, elegant casinos rose from the heat of the night. We ventured for a look into Treasure Island just in time to see the 'Family Friendly' pirate show. On one side of the entrance, the 'Good ship venus' was sailing merrily, overflowing with female 'pirates' who seemed less concerned with thorough navigation and significantly more with gyrating at high velocity.
I was wondering whether it might be possible to somehow harness this power to generate electricity when my thoughts were interrupted from the opposite side by the arrival of the male ship, with the crew firmly at 'action stations'. The ensuing dance off was effectively soft pornography (well, who am I to complain!) combined with some quite spectacular pyrotechnics. At one point, fire leapt from the top of the
ship in a huge ball of flame which felt hot to me from quite some distance.
The male pirates then 'boarded' the female ship (this is not, for the avoidance of doubt, a cleverly disguised innuendo), with their swords gripped in their hands for the joust that was to follow. More explosions, a few plank walkings and lots of exaggerated thrusting followed to wrap up the performance. At which point, I'd been up for far to long and left the group to head back the hostel, whilst the rest continued in search of the party.
The second day was an incredibly lazy one. I was feeling tired from the travel of the night before, Ben had also yet to fully recover from hours of flying and the heat just seems to make sitting in the shade relaxing that much more of an attractive prospect.
Still, come six, we decided that we should do something and headed out to the Stratosphere tower which rose upon it's white column some three hundred and sixty metres (from memory) into the air. Here we had a chance to see vegas from the skies, and ride on the second highest thrill
ride in the world, so they claimed. A gigantic arm dangled you in your seat from the edge of the tower, with no reassuring shoulder supports, and span you at 40mph whilst tilted at 70 degrees facing downwards!
We also we lucky enough to witness the sun set behind the mountains which surround the city, and then the subsequent spectacular of the strip by night, lit up with elegant neon and stretching into the distance.
For dinner, we treated ourselves to the buffet, which was both excellent value – and delicious!
Looming over us at this time however was the shadow of Hurricane Gustav. New Orleans was to be our next destination, and it was still unclear whether we'd be able to make it. Whilst the hurricane had apparently caused very little damage in the city, the evacuation order was still in effect. Some power had been lost and the airport was still not open. When we returned from dinner, we saw that the order would be lifted on Thursday, the same day we were due to fly in. In the light of this, we decided to nudge back our flight by a day (free of charge) and
stay another night in Vegas.
We had noticed that the Stratosphere had cheap rooms, so booked ourselves (for $20 each) a luxury room with two 'queen size' beds, including access to a swimming pool for the final night. We also booked ourselves a tour of the Grand Canyon for the next day.
The tour isn't something that a lot can be said about. We were up at six for the coach trip, we were taken to the West Rim, for the last 45 minutes this was via an unpaved road – ouch, and got to spend several hours at two venues – Eagle Point and Guano Point. The views were stunning, and pictures cant' even begin to capture the beauty of it. At Eagle Point we walked the skywalk, a glass semicircle jutting over the edge of the canyon at a great height, whereas as Guano point we walked to a small peak that was towards the middle of the this part of the canyon.
Refreshingly there were absolutely no safety barriers (although we were warned not to fall into the canyon) here. We were also served lunch by the tacky, jean wearing, native American Indians, who
'owned' this section of the Canyon, and treated to some tribal dances. I thought this looked a little like a fat woman just bouncing up and down – but obviously I lack the in depth sensitive understanding to let me appreciate the meaning behind such things. Unless it was related in some way of an earthquake, of course.
For the final day, we vowed to have a more in depth look into a casino. It's been frustrating to be too young to do anything traditionally associated with Las Vegas, but we could at least attempt to soak up some of the atmosphere. We picked, at random, MGM, which had as its 'highlight' a lion enclosure where the keepers dozed besides the lionesses in the sun. The whole experience of the casino was one of ornate elegance. The bright lights that would have risked looking tacky in some places were complemented by the beauty of the building itself; plush carpets, mirrored ceilings and intricate lighting arrangements.
Leaving this, we checked into the Stratosphere and I headed straight for a dip in the pool whilst Ben sat in the hotel room with an enormous room service pizza and brownie he'd
accidentally ordered watching films. I shall endeavour to scan the bill thoroughly for any additional costs under discrete titled such as 'entertainment' or 'movies' which doubtless would be used to politely describe the “Revenge of the MILF's” entertainment feature advertised on the television for a small fee.
As I type this now, there's one hour left until arrive in New Orleans! I just hope there's some transport available from the airport...
Update : Airport shuttle. $15 each one way, so not too bad.
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