Vegas, baby!!

So, Vegas....it's difficult to write about because everyone knows about it! I was surprised at just how big it is as we approached - forgot that all these thousands of people that work in the megaresorts on 'the Strip' have to live somewhere! Once you're inside you forget you're in the middle of the desert (such a cliche, I know). There's lots of construction going on and one massive shell of a hotel called Frontier that's awaiting demolition. At regular intervals along the front of the building there are panes of glass missing - we assumed they were a different colour and have been used elsewhere.

We had pre-booked a hotel on the Strip. It's pretty cheap to stay here - we ended up paying about $60 a night. Our hotel was called Circus Circus. It has free circus acts during the day, plus a theme park in a tent with fairground rides. It wasn't bad at all, a little in need of a refurb but our room was nice.

When we first got to our hotel, I thought I was going to hate LV. The casino area (always at the front of the hotels so you have to walk through it to get anywhere) was noisy and bright and so bloody smokey. Full of people staring gormlessly at flashing one-armed bandits. Forget Washington or Sand Fran, this is where all the proper Americans are - the big ones! We arrived in the evening and hadn't had much sleep the night before (remember we'd arrived at our motel the night before at 5am!), so I was pretty grumpy.

LV only really comes alive after dusk of course. That's when all the neon flashing comes into it's own. All the hotels have numerous bars and restaurants, plus most also have some form of free entertainment for everyone, not just guests. The 'Mirage' had a faux volcano with lights and real fire that erupts, the Bellagio has a waterfall that is choreographed to music, the MGM Grand has real lions. There's also the Venetian, New York-Las Vegas and Paris Paris which have replicas of the monuments and buildings of the places they are named after. Inside the relevant hotels, the shopping malls are designed so that it feels like your alongside the Grand Canal in Venice, Central Park in NY....you get the idea.

Even a short distance from 'The Strip' (the section of Las Vegas Boulevard where all the big hotels are grouped -about 2 miles long), things get a little bit seedier. Funnily enough, this is where all the stand-alone wedding chapels are (the bigger hotels have nicer-looking ones). There are groups of (mainly Mexican) men handing out flyers for escorts/call girls, whatever you want to call them, at every street corner. No expense has been spared - there are groups of 5/6 blokes handing out pictures of girls on coloured bits of card. They flick these cards in the men's faces, even if they're clearly walking with their girlfriends ;)

We spent some time in downtown Las Vegas (north end of the Strip), which is where Vegas as we know it started - things seemed a little less glitzy there. They're trying to attract the tourists there by having this covered pedestrian section which spans 4 blocks. It's covered in millions of LEDs and had this very loud light show every hour after dusk with animation to cheesy 80's tunes. It was a bit random.

Here it's like everything that can be done to minimise physical exertion, is. The toilets have automatic taps and motion-activated soap and hand-towel dispensers. While we're on the subject of toilets, I'd just like to say that all the toilets I've seen so far in the US are spotless - they all have dispensers for those paper toilet seat covers in each cubicle which flush away with the water when you flush. The only thing wrong with the toilets (sorry, bathrooms) in the US in that either side of the cubicle doors there's a gap, so you never really feel you can relax properly - people can see you if they look carefully enough! Anyway, what was I saying?.....oh yeah, I was talking about being lazy. There are escalators everywhere to take you between some the hotels and up to the hotels from the Strip, but because the hotels are so bloody massive, there's still so much walking involved, it can't be avoided!!

It's so weird in up-tight America to get used to it being legal for people to walk through the streets and casinos drinking alcohol. If you're going to do it, you have to do it properly. Most places sell these half-yard coloured plastic bottles. It took us a couple of hours to drink ours (I had a 'Mudslide' slush puppy with vodka and coffee liquor - yum, Brad had margarita), and they were pretty strong - despite being stuffed from eating at one of the infamous buffets at the Luxor, we got pretty smashed.

Ah yes...the buffets. Amazing value. Even the shittier-looking cheap ones have pretty good food which looks fresh and is well-maintained. You name it, they've got it. We were going for second and third helpings. And that's just dessert. After a diet of pizza, Mexican and burgers, some fresh fruit and veg was a welcome bonus. It goes without saying that you eat a muffin on the way out and have a couple of bananas in your bag for later!

Last night we went to see the Cirque du soleil show called Mystere in Treasure Island hotel, which was awe-inspiring. The most impressive bit was when two really massive (as in muscular) men in lycra trousers did a choreographed routine to music which was based on strength - only one of them would be touching the ground at any one time. It was amazing that a human bodies so strong and muscular could be so graceful. Needless to say, it tended towards the homoerotic - I mean, you can't go through a massive range of moves without certain body parts being in close proximity at times!

I know you're probably wondering - no we didn't gamble a single cent!! I'm very proud of us (particularly Brad!). On a backpacker's budget, it wouldn't have been clever.

You've probably heard of the California forest fires that have been raging over the last couple of days and are massive news here. We're actually heading back to California now, to Palm Springs and then San Diego. We're likely to be aware of smoke, but hopefully the places we're planning to go are well away from the action. We'd better not have any more 12 hour detour drives!

I'm sorry if anyone finds my blogs too long, I can't help it!!

xx