Vegas!

  Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Friday, October 17, 2008

Ah Vegas... In some ways one of our most heavily anticipated stops, since there is just no predicting what it will be like and what we will think of it. To get there, we left Williams and followed our last stretch of Route 66.

Our last stint on Route 66

Hoover Dam

This time we were able to take a road that actually followed the old route and is even still labeled as highway 66. It took us through some little towns with old-fashioned diners, motels and petrol pumps, while the scenery changed again, losing most of its green colour and turning various shades of earthy brown. On the final approach into Vegas, we crossed the Hoover Dam, stopping only to take some quick photos from a lookout since the dam itself was absolutely crawling with people. Then, out of nowhere, we rounded a hill and across the flat, brown, featureless plain in front of us we could see the outline of Vegas, with its tall casino-hotels. Planes were landing every minute or so into the airport at the southern end of the city's skyline, providing the first clue of how busy the place would be.


Our hotel was easy to find, located as it was at the Southernmost end of the strip and modelled to look exactly like Manhatten, complete with Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

New York, New York - Las Vegas

Yes, we had chosen Hotel and Casino New York New York, partly because it has a roller-coaster looping around the outside of the building. We checked in and took our things up to our room on the 22nd floor. From our window we could look straight into the eyes of the roller-coaster passengers as they climbed to the top of the ramp before being released onto the twirly track. Back down on the ground floor level was our hotel's casino as well as some shops and restaurants. There were people everywhere, eating, drinking and gambling and the crowds never abated here or anywhere else for the entire 48 hours that we were in Vegas.

Paris - Vegas

We dutifully lost 2 dollars each in slot machines (Laura losing hers much faster than Mark) before heading out onto the strip to explore the other casinos and attractions.


Outside the throng of people became even thicker - all of them wandering around with their chins up, looking dumbfoundedly at the buildings around them. Behind our hotel were the medieval towers of Excalibur and the glittery pyramid of Luxor.

Venice - Vegas

Hanging out in Venice - Vegas

Ahead, in the direction we set off in, were the huge edifices of those casinos whose names are so familiar - Caesar's Palace, the Belaggio and the Venetian. Tĥe lights were already starting to come on and lining the pavements were people trying to coax us into this restaurant or that bar with flyers and discount vouchers. But most of the bored-looking people in brightly coloured t-shirts who were handing out flyers were trying to entice us with the promise of "Hot girls to your room in 20 minutes". Along a 50m stretch of pavement were litterally dozens of people, spaces barely a metre apart, all trying to hand you these little cards with pictures of the girls in question - or, presumably, their better looking colleagues - and they were snapping these cards and thrusting them towards you with a mixture of aggression and desperation. It didn't matter whether you were alone or with a partner or family, a man or a woman, they wanted you to take these cards off their hands. And they were not all the perhaps expected young men handing out these little gems, many of them were middle-aged women, presumably earning money to support their children and grandchildren.


Anyway, back to the other sights of Vegas. All of the hotels were collossal and once you got inside and wandered round for a while, you could very easily get completely lost. So many of them had arcades of shops as well as room after vast room of slot machines and poker tables stretching back for more than a mile from the road. And it was all artificially lighted, so you couldn't tell what time of day it was or where the exits might be.

Fountains at the Belaggio

Treasure Island

It is an experience that is really beyond description. We did stop to admire two of the major, free attractions that are known around the world: the fountains display at the Belaggio (stunning) and the pirate show at Treasure Island (spectacular).


That, sadly, is where Vegas' value for money ends. Generally, the city is astonishingly expensive, food and drink in the hotels in particular. There are clearly ways to cut corners, like by lining up at a special discount ticket centre to buy a coupon for a discounted meal or by using some of the coupons that you gather as you wander around. Even so though, that just reduces the prices to manageable, nothing is remotely cheap. One trick that we learnt quickly though was not to buy anything to drink in the hotel's bars. When we first arrived, we bough beers in one of the bar's in our own hotel to celebrate the publishing of Laura's book (a copy had been forwarded to the hotel and was waiting for us when we checked in). Those two beers cost us a total of 11 dollars, more than you would spend in a real Manhatten bar. A little shell-shocked, we savoured every drop while we cursed the hotel's greed. Then, at Treasure Island we decided that we could probably afford one more beer each while we watched the free show and wandered over to the outdoor kiosk besides the viewing platform. But when we glimpsed at the price list we saw that a bottle of beer (that would cost under a dollar in a supermarket) would set us back 7 dollars! Ludicrous. So, in a burst of brilliance, we decided to pop back inside the hotel and have a look in their little convenience store. Sure enough, they had a fridge full of drinks for sale and the same bottle of beer was priced up at "only" 3.50. What a mysterious system. There was absolutely nothing to stop you from buying your drinks there (or, for instance, at a supermarket on the strip) and wandering around with them. So we saved ourselves 7 dollars with a 50m walk and returned to the viewing platform to watch the pirate show. To cut a long story short, everything is overpriced and if you are not careful, you will pay double the already extortionate rates.


By the afternoon of our second day in Vegas - 24 hours into our stay - and having spent the morning doing some chores (Mark traded in our car because we had been forced to take out two separate rental contracts since we were in the country for so long, while Laura took a written assessment test in her efforts to secure some kind of employment), we were already wandering about unsure of what else to do. Yes, you could spend even more time roaming the fake streets of Venice or watching the lions in their glass cage in the centre of the MGM Grand's casino or spend plenty of money on rollercoasters, trips to the top of the fake Eiffel tower or simply having a meal. But the crowds were everywhere and the overpricing was beginning to wear away our patience for the city. We decided that the best way to kill a few hours was to engage in the cheapest activity on offer - the 1 cent slot machines. 15 dollars each and 3 hours later, we had fully sated our gambling urges and returned to our room to write some job application letters. Then, it was finally time for the absolute highlight of our stay: the Tournament of Kings in Excalibur hotel. We had cleverly bought discounted tickets from the booth across the road, instantly saving ourselves a total of nearly 50 dollars and with both food and entertainment included in our 40 dollar tickets, this was pretty descent value for money. The Tournament of Kings is basically a dinner show set in medievil times.

Excalibur hotel and casino

You eat your food without cutlery (but they have chosen an easy-to-eat menu, so it is not too much hard work), while the joker, magician, knights and princesses entertain you. In an arena that barely seems big enough for it, they manage to put on all sorts of fighting displays on horseback, including a jousting match, as well as more stunts on foot. We were sitting in the Norway section, so our task was to cheer for the king of Norway in his (completely hopeless) efforts to win the tournament. He was defeated at every turn and was the first to be killed when a real battle broke out with the evil dragon knight. But we happily carried on boo-ing the other competitors and were proud of the amount of noise our section made, even if it was a futile effort. The show was really great entertainment, with incredible stunts, beautiful dancing and breathtaking acrobatics as well as a nice sprinkling of pyrotechnics. OK, so we could actually have seen the same thing all the way back in Myrtle Beach towards the start of our trip since they put on the show there too, but we were pleased to have a real highlight to our stay in the "entertainment capital of the world".