Las Vegas Sign
After the heat of Death Valley we arrived in the bustling oasis of Las Vegas. Having been quietly roaming around deserted National Parks the sudden noise and commotion of so many people came as much as a shock of the senses as all the music and bright lights.
After a slow drive down the new strip taking in all the casino frontages we headed over to the old strip to see the Fremont Street light show. The old strip is a mass of neon and light bulbs and contains the old favourites such as Four Queens and the Golden Nugget. It’s the Las Vegas instantly recognisable from 70s & 80s films such as Diamonds are Forever and in some ways felt more hospitable.
The Fremont Street Experience light show was good, but not quite as amazing or long as I’d imagined. It only ran for a few minutes at dusk, so we had time for our first look round a casino. The old strip casinos are definitely not a patch on the newer ones, and seemed to be inhabited by ailing pensioners, most of whom were carrying round oxygen tanks on the back of their wheelchairs, to keep them playing on the slot machines.
We then headed to one of the famous buffets, where a crazy and angry waitress cajoled us into buying as many beers and cocktails as possible, whilst we tried to keep refilling our plates from the variety of cuisines available. Despite having missed lunch, something about it being laid out in front of you and watching the spectacular gluttony of some of the fellow diners, I wasn’t that peckish so didn’t really do very well.
We all needed a walk after the meal so headed over to the 24 hour drive through wedding chapel where for just $60 you can get married, photographed and drive off to the hotel without the bother of getting out of your car.
We headed to the new strip but high winds had closed the Stratosphere and a number of the outdoor casino shows such as the Treasure Island fight, Mirage Volcano and Bellagio Fountains so headed indoors to the Venetian, and were surprised to find it was a beautifully sunny day inside, with opera singing gondoliers punting newly weds through the streets of Venice. This was the only casino where walking through all the shopping areas there was no real evidence of gambling.
Feeling it was time for a flutter we walked across the street to Caesars Palace (the classic) and then the Bellagio (amazing decor, especially the lobby) where we made a start on the slot machines with varying degrees of success. These annoyed me as I couldn’t see why people were just shoving money into them with no element of control or skill, just repeatedly pressing the Spin button, but they did seem to pay out far more than we put in.
Passing through the bars of Excalibur (dated castle design) and New York, New York (mini Statue of Liberty, Chrysler building and Brooklyn bridge) we ended up at the Luxor, shaped like a pyramid. Here we started on the table games, easing ourselves in with the Wheel of Fortune before moving on to roulette. Luck wasn’t on our side here so we hopped in a cab and drove past the MGM Grand to the Paris which turned out to be my favourite casino. The outside had replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Montpellier’s Balloon, whilst the inside appeared to be an open air Parisian street. Live music played in the background as we continued on our gambling spree.
It’s worth noting that whilst the Vegas casinos have plenty of dollar games, the minimum bet is $10 per strip, so your money disappears very quickly, but overall I came out about evens.
With no clocks or natural light time slipped by easily and it was 3.30am before I decided to give it a rest and headed back to the hotel before getting up again at 7.30am for round two. Walking round at this time of the morning was interesting just spotting who was doing well and who looked like they were coming out a casino at 8am with just the clothes they were wearing.
We’d planned to leave at 3 for Zion, but about midday everyone had had enough so we detoured over to the Hoover Dam for a look round, which was far more interesting.
