So I've just arrived in San Fran and am staying at my friend Phil's house (he has a spare laptop for me to use which is great!) but this entry isn't about San Francisco. I seem to be doing a city at a time, so this is the time now to tell you about Las Vegas.
What a crazy town. Essentially it is Disneyland for adults, a playground where instead of swings and slides, you have gambling, booze and sex. And lots of giant replicas of famous buildings. Walking around the main strip of the town, is a bizarre sight. The Pyramids, Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty and Venetian canals complete with gondolas give you a bit of an idea of what this town is like. Each hotel has a theme, a casino and sometimes have free shows or drawcards inside (or outside) the hotel to get people into their casino.
My favourites were "New York New York" complete with a rollercoaster and authentic New York Streets, Paris, with the Eiffel Tower and The Venetian with the canals winding their way inside the hotel and transporting inside into outside. Very cool.
In MGM grand there was the lion's habitat, Treasure Island had a boat and a nightly show, Bellagio had beautiful fountains that dance on the hour in time with the music. Circus Circus has circus acts every half an hour, The Luxor has a Pyramid and the Sphinx and one of the most brightest lights in the world that can be seen from space, and The Mirage has a live volcano every hour erupting outside the hotel.
It's all quite beautiful and bizarre, and when night comes, Las Vegas transforms itself into a beautiful array of neon and what should be garish actually becomes quite amazing.
Of course Vegas isn't just all about the free shows that the hotels put on as drawcards. Mostly it is about gambling and drinking. I didn't do much of either, but on one day, I met up with the lovely Dee, an Irish woman I had met in an animal sanctuary in Bolivia last year, and together with her very cool Irish friends, we played the slots and $1 Blackjack. So much fun. Unfortunately Dee promised I would win(as she had had some good wins) but my gambling contribution of $20 got swallowed up into the abyss that is Vegas with no return. I suppose it could have been a lot more. When you gamble, you get free cocktails (you just tip the waitress $1) so it is possible to get very drunk very quickly, which is what I did with the Irish guys. After losing my $5 on Blackjack, we went down to Fremont Street, which is where they have this amazing light show every hour on the hour on this audiovisual screen on the ceiling. It is hard to explain but basically lights and music and a lot of very cool visuals appear above you and it is quite surreal and beautiful.
I felt like I had a great mix of most things that Vegas has to offer. I went to almost all the free hotel displays and shows on offer, I gambled (a little bit), I drank (a little bit), I went to real shows and I went to the Grand Canyon.
The real shows came in the form of a free one (The Rat Pack) which was a tribute show to the famous 4 classic Rat Pack. The woman that worked at my hostel (yep I slummed it by staying in a hostel,but it was a really good one) gave free tickets to anyone that wanted one because she worked there. It was a good show but not amazing. I wanted to see more. So I decided to go see Lance Burton, an absolultely phenomenal magician, and also Criss Angel and Cirque de Soleil (not a full Cirque show) which was also pretty good although after Lance, it was mildly disappointing. I was expecting more from CirqueDe Soleil as well, but some of the illusions were amazing, it was just not a very well put together show. I could have watched so many more shows, but my budget was starting to break at this point, so I got out of this great but expensive city.
Of course, I also took the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon, which is without a doubt one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. So beautiful, so rugged, so spectacular; absolutely none of my photos do the real thing justice. But you get the gist.
Paris in Vegas
Hanging out with Spongebob and Dee
The Grand Canyon
TheFremont Street Experience
The Venetian Gondola (this is INSIDE)
2 comments:
Was the grand canyon awesome?
ps. There are no buildings in Venice that look that clean! :)
Was going to comment on your trip but have just spied you wearing a top that I gave Mum last month. That is pretty funny seeing my old clothes in America!
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