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Published: July 13th 2009
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From Los Angeles, we booked tickets via the internet for the Greyhound bus and headed to Las Vegas on 20 June. We also pre-booked a couple of nights in a Travelodge in Las Vegas (which if you can believe it worked out cheaper than a hostel). The bus ride was 6 hours - with a 30 minute stopover in Barstow.
We arrived in Las Vegas around 4pm and were met with a wall of heat!
We grabbed our backpacks and headed for the nearest bus stop. It took a while (plus a lot of walking and moaning from Dianna!) to find the right road and the right bus to take us up the 'strip' to where we were staying.
We took the 'deuce' bus which is a 24 hour bus that runs up and down the strip every 5-10 minutes all day every day. We got off the bus outside the MGM Grand Casino and headed in the general direction of our motel. Again, after much moaning from Dianna (her pack was heavy, she was hot she was sunburnt, etc, etc grrrr!!) we found the Travelodge, checked in and whacked the air conditioning on full blast!
The
Travelodge was in a great location - right at the top of the 'strip' which is the main road where all the casinos are - just behind the MGM Grand. We also had the 'Hooters' casino next door!
What can we say about Las Vegas? Well, it is simply unbelievable! Just amazing. We have watched so many TV shows and seen things like the 'Hollywood sign' in Los Angeles, the casinos and strip in Las Vegas, etc and suddenly we were there seeing them for real. It was quite surreal.
We had originally planned to spend a couple of weeks maximum in Las Vegas but unfortunately our laptop went kaput only a few days into the trip so Matt had to take it into a computer repair shop so we ended up in Las Vegas for well over 3 weeks!
Having no laptop was a nightmare. We haven't been able to research anything, book anything, check emails, send emails, contact people etc unless we use an Internet cafe which ends up costing a fortune. Apologies to everyone for the lack of communication.
From the Travelodge, we moved to a small motel/hostel called 'Wild Wild West' just
on the other side of the highway which was even cheaper than the Travelodge.
Las Vegas is great, but apart from gambling and lazing by the pool there is not much else to do. Lazing by the pool would be great it it wasn't over 108 degrees everyday! The heat is so intense. You can't sit out in it for too long and even in the shade it is boiling. Dianna sat in the shade reading for about an hour (with no cream on naughty girl) and burnt to a crisp on her front! She was glowing and so sore for 2 days! She couldn't complain though as it was her own fault.
Matt celebrated his 30th birthday in Las Vegas (28 June) with a poker tournament (which he didn't win unfortunately) but it was certainly a birthday to remember! Thank you to everyone for the cards and messages.
We finished the day off with an all you can eat buffet which Matt certainly took advantage of - I think he had a starter, 5 plates of main course food and 2 plates of dessert. To be honest it was just nice to eat some 'proper' food
as we have been living off cheap and cheerful 'value menus' from places like McDonalds, Denny's, Wendys, Subway, Quiznos, Burger King, etc.
The Rio Casino was hosting the 2009 World Series of Poker which was running while we were in Las Vegas so we just had to stop by. Not only did we get to see all of the action live but we got to see some of the biggest names in the game. For all you poker fans, you may know Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Peter Eastgate, Doyle Brunson and Scotty Nguyen, - plus we got a picture with Mike 'the mouth' Mathesaw - very exciting!!
You can spend a lot of money in Las Vegas but there is also a lot of things you can do for free. The best thing (which we only found out a few weeks into our stay in Las Vegas) is that if you are playing in the casinos you get free drinks! When we were sitting playing the slots and saw the waitresses walking round asking if people wanted drinks, we assumed you had to pay for any drinks you ordered. But no, they are free!! As soon as we
discovered this, we went out the next evening, went in and out of the casinos, got loads of free drinks and did not get back to our room until 4am!
What else can you do/see for free? Well we saw the lions at the MGM Grand, we walked around the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio, we saw some circus style performances at Circus Circus, watched the fountain show at the Miracle Mile shopping centre, watched the volcano eruption at the Mirage, saw the flamingos and fish at Flamingos, walked around M&M World, went in the Adventuredome Theme Park at Circus Circus, watched the roller coaster at New York New York, visited the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and Casino, watched people on the gondola rides at the Venetian, went downtown to Freemont Street and watched the worlds largest TV screens on the roof play music and videos but best of all has to be the dancing fountains at the Bellagio. Absolutely amazing.
What else have we seen in Vegas? Well, I think we have been in pretty much every casino on (and some off) the strip - Tropicana, Stratosphere, Hooters, Venetian, Rio, Palms, Mandalay Bay,
Sahara, Buffalo Bills, Excalibur, Golden Nugget, Luxor, Riviera, Casino Royale, Ballys, Imperial Palace, New York New York, MGM Grand, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Mirage, Flamingo, Circus Circus, Palazzo, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Plaza, Treasure Island, Monte Carlo, Slots a Fun, Wild Wild West, etc etc!!!!!!
Not sure how many of you know but Dianna's Sister, Wendy, is an Air Hostess for Virgin and we found out that she would be flying to Las Vegas while we were there so we arranged to meet up with her. We went out for a lovely dinner while she was here - thank you again Wendy for treating us. It was lovely to see her.
Next stop will be San Francisco. The Greyhound bus ride from Las Vegas to San Francisco takes 16 hours so we will keep you posted....
Hope everyone is well and we look forward to hearing from you.
Take care
Dianna and Matt
xx
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Have just watched them. The fountains are out of this world! Loved the Queen vidoes on the ceiling, fantastic!