Trek America Day 18 & 19: Las Vegas

My Vegas trip in a nutshell: drank, partied, gambled, saw old men in mankinis, had a hangover, got stuck in a lift, slept a lot.

We had our last Walmart stop of the trip so I bought some sweets for back home (sorry guys you're all getting American candy) and a salad and ate in in the car park.  As we ate a guy drove up to us asking if we knew Greg Gibson.  We shook our heads, he cursed and sped off.  Ten minutes later he returned with a photo of Greg (who happened to be a really old man) but we still didn't know him, so he cursed and sped off again.  Bit weird.

We stopped off at the Hoover Dam which was pretty impressive, it looks like you could slide all the way down.  I think they're missing a tourist trick there.

We also stopped at a town on Route 66 that Radiator Springs from the movie Cars is based on.  It was very weird and just seems to be filled with shops cashing in on the Cars fame, the street is lined with old American cars made to look like the characters in the film.  There's also some weird quirky bits which you can see in the photos below.

We reached Vegas at 2ish and checked into our huge hotel, The Golden Nugget.  I love and hate Vegas in equal measure.  Actually I probably hate it a little bit more than I love it.  It's a place of pure indulgence, prostitution is legal, you can smoke indoors and you can gamble and drink till your heart's content. Sin city.

After camping for the past few nights in tiny towns and national parks, Vegas was a shock to the system.  Our hotel looked very classy but when you looked closer it's really just a seed pit.  It was massive, having three towers filled with rooms, a spa, 10 restaurants, a casino and a swimming pool that had a shark tank in the middle of it. Located in downtown Vegas, you step outside the hotel onto Fremont Street, an absurd strip filled with neon lights, hawkers and casinos.  Above is a covered area with zip lines attached - yes, you can zip line down the bloody street.  There's homeless people with signs saying they have stage 3 cancer standing next to an old man wearing nothing but a mankini, and he's standing next to a topless woman who has covered her nipples in glittery hearts, and she's standing next to a man with one leg and deformed arms who's playing the drums, and he's sitting next to a man dressed as a really bad batman and you can see the outline of his penis.  You get the picture. It's all a bit mental.

Me and Julie went for a quick wander to get some dinner and returned with necklaces given to us by some Chippendales men.  Their chests were so buff I wanted to lick them.  I refrained but I probably could if I wanted to, anything seems to go in Vegas!

We tried to chill by the pool for a bit but it proved impossible, Las Vegas is certainly not a place for chilling!  There were screaming children everywhere and they blast music in the pool area really loud, so we gave up and went to get ready for our night out.  We had all paid $35 each for a limo for two hours to give us a tour of Vegas.  There had been a mix up; we were expecting a stretch limo, we actually had a 40 seater bus, complete with pole and bar area.  Much better than a limo!!

Sun took care of the bar and we drank and danced on the bus until it was time to finish our trip.  It was so much fun that I would like  every night out to start that way!  I did wake up the following morning with sore thighs and huge bruises on my legs from falling over so much though.  It's hard walking on a moving bus.

We got dropped off at the Bellagio so we had a quick snoop inside, watched the fountains outside, then went to explore the rest of the strip.  We quickly got distracted by a casino (Caesar's Palace if you're interested) and spent the rest of the night playing roulette and blackjack.  I played it very safe (I was only really playing to get a free drink) and cashed in as soon as I had won, so came away with the grand total of 10 bucks.  Daniel managed to lose 100, and both Gen and Simon won over 100.  Gen was so excited by her win that she bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate which we drank into the wee hours.

It got to 2am and I was falling asleep and Daniel had fallen asleep, so we got a cab home when someone has the bright idea to go to a a strip club.  The taxi driver dropped us off at Spearmint Rhino (and refused to take me home) so I got out to join the others.  Luckily for me it was a crazy $44 to get in so we ended up back in the taxi to the hotel.  By the time we got in it was 3am so I tiptoed into my room so as not to wake Julie and slept till 10.30 the following day feeling a bit worse for wear. 

We began the day with a lunch buffet in the hotel then wandered up to the hipster bit of Fremont St.  It reminded me of Shoreditch.  Genevieve and I had a bit of an afternoon flutter in the casinos near our hotel where the buy-in is much cheaper than on the main strip.  I put down $2 on the roulette table and at one point was $35 up but got a bit bored and put it all on black and lost it all.  However the thrill from gambling and drinking in the afternoon made it worth it.  Sorry mum! Viva Las Vegas!

In the evening the girls had tickets to a magic comedy show.  It was the worst thing I've ever seen ever and I warn everyone against going to see him, he was called Mike Hammer and was one of those crap comedians who rely on taking the piss out of the audience to get a laugh.  I guess its always a bad sign when a comedian uses You've Been Framed videos as his warm up...he also made some sick jokes alluding to the fact he was a paedo when there were kids in the audience.  He spent more time arguing with drunk people than doing magic and it was a waste of $18, I'd have rather lost the 18 bucks in the casino than watch his show!

I was dead on my feet so lamely went to bed at 9.30 whilst the rest of the group went out in Fremont St.  A decision I regret now as it sounded like they had another great night, but in my defence I had a bloody good 11 hour uninterrupted  sleep which was well needed!

My great adventure is nearly over, we have one night camping in Death Valley, one day in LA then I fly home Sunday night.  I'm sad it's coming to an end!  I don't know how I will function as an independent adult again, I've got too used to Ben driving us round and telling us where to go and what to do and working out restaurant bills.   I can't even remember how to get home from Heathrow on Monday.  Maybe I'll just stay here forever ;)