Viva Las Vegas

Trip Start Mar 08, 2008
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Trip End Mar 28, 2008


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Where I stayed
Travellodge
(Las Vegas hotels)

Flag of United States  , Nevada,
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Locals say the journey to Vegas from San Diego should take about 4.5 - 5 hours. Vaughan &  I did this in the record time of 8 hours. This is entirely the fault of the American freeway system & Maybe making a critical mistake in heavy traffic. We were doing fine until we hit San Bernadino, and followed the exit as directed only to be told by Maybe it was the wrong one (she dinged us) and then it took an hour to get back onto the freeway in the direction we needed to go. Then we needed fuel, I've noticed gas stations here are about as common as in Canberra, and so we exited the freeway only to find that it wasn't possible to get back on! There is a consipiracy theory going on that Americans don't want you back on the freeway, once you're off they want you to eat at the diner and stay at the hotel. A note for new players - never leave the freeway in America. Of course not long after this we were hungry and again we left the freeway following the signs to a Mexician restaurant that turned out to be closed. Again we had to backtrack, find a town nearby, eat and then begin the complex process of getting back onto the freeway. Maybe they're trying to cut back on traffic by keeping us off?

The journey from SD to LV is nothing short of breathtaking. At first you pass snow capped mountains in California (remember its still winter here) before enterting the Mojave dessert. Sweeping big planes of nothing come before you and before you know it these huge mountains dominate the landscape in front of you. The view could easily be something out of a countless number of westerns. We made is safetly, despite the crap US roads that contain little traction, far too many bumps, and drove down the Vegas strip into our hotel that is right in the middle of everything.

Las Vegas is a fairly new city and one of the fastest growing in America. Named 'the meadows' by Spaniards who used the water in the area when venturing on the Old Spanish trail the name is the english equivalent. Scene of countless movies and now CSI the city is the perfect example of American excessiveness. The strip is where all the action is and numerous casino's can be found in the area of just a few miles. Now the thing is there are plenty of things to do here even if you don't want to gamble. The city is open pretty much all the time and there is always something going on. But for us going to Vegas really meant 1 thing - Paris.

Paris is a Casino that is a replica of the Hotel de Ville in Parie as well as numerous other areas of the city. It contains an Arc de Triumph, la tour eiffel, numerous boulangeries, cafes, restaurants all in the Parisian theme. It provides the perfect opportunity to practise 'Frenglish' a curious dialect of language perfected by the 12th Man in his phone conversations to his vineyard curator, Henri, at le Chateau vers de flore. And here in Paris they play the game. Signage is everywhere containing - Le Buffet, Le Restuarant, Le Burger, Le Necessaties and several people try and put on a fake french accent speaking english. Our first stop was the Eiffel tower where we were treated to majestic views of the city at sunset. The purpose for coming here was that when people asked if I had been to the Eiffel tower I could now reply, 'I've been to both. Which one are you talking about.' Vaughan hasn't been to the other (bigger) Eiffel Tower but when people ask him if he has been to the Eiffel Tower he will say yes and have people think he's been to the original.
In Vegas all you do is walk, walk, walk, spend, spend, spend and eat, eat, eat. We ate all our meals in Paris at le buffet, le boulangerie and le burger. Curiously the baggette I had here was more like French Canadian food then French but I guess that is the US influence. Other highlights of the city include the Venetian (not a Casino made of blinds) but a replica of Venice in Italy without the horrible smell and gondolas and canals are flowing throwing the area. There is also Luxor, a replica of the Pyramids and New York New York, which surprisingly is a replica of New York containing the Empire State Building and a Coney Island Rollercoaster. It also boasts a Brooklyn Bridge which apparantly has more pedestrians crossing then the original! The Bellagio is a big Casino with a beautiful lake in front of it that features a waterfall show every 15 mins to a different piece of music. Its exciting stuff to watch, particulary at night. There is also Caesars, a mega complex that is so big and contains so many shops, theatres , Cafe's and restuarants it takes forever just to get through. And of course there are the slot machines, tables which look exactly as they do in the movies. No point in me describing them.
After taking in the highlights of the city we decided that we should see a show and I settled on Cirque de Soliel. I don't know much about shows and theatres but what I do know is that all the best things from Canada come from Quebec (with the exception of Celine Dion & Micheal Bubble) and so it must be good. The only tickets we could get were in the far corner of the theatre at the back, the loser zone. We saw Cirque de Soliel - Beatles Style (Love). This was the Sgt Pepper of Cirque de Soliels. It was certainly a specactle. Not only do you hear Beatles songs sounding better then you've ever heard them (am not a fan but some were remixed) you get to see trampoline acrobactics, intelligent use of DVD and screen projection, lights, rollerbladders, props and people flying all over the place on harnesses. It is some sort of a progression of Beatles music but as all I know about the Beatles is from studying trivia questions I couldn't pick any sort of story or link between things. Each song starts a new set of acrobactics. It went for 90 mins and was definetly worth the money.
And so we went to Vegas and managed to avoid the dodgier side of things. This is of course difficult as adult entertainment options are thrust at you wherever you go here.  So we're now all packed and ready to head off south because storms are coming into the north and there is no way we want to drive on these crap US roads when its raining.
Paul.
 
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