Las Vegas, The Home Of Slot Machines And Dry Skin

I was totally blown away by Las Vegas when I first flew in. I had a night flight and just happened to be on the good side of the plane. I was trying to spot “The Strip” from looking out the window and figured it must be the strongest little groups of lights, until it just appeared literacy right outside my window. Las Vegas international airport is only three miles from the strip, so it’s an amazing sight when you fly in. As soon as we landed I wanted to go again, it totally felt like a ride at a theme park.

Every single hotel is completely lit up with neon lights and just about every hotel has a crazy theme to it. There is a pyramid hotel here. It’s a hotel that is a an actual pyramid. It’s massive and has a huge light beaming up from the tip of the pyramid into the sky. There’s another hotel that looks like a castle straight out of Disney Land, another that’s a replica of Paris, and another that’s a mini New York complete with a full sized roller coaster that wraps around the hotel, upside down loops and all.

We stayed at the MGM Grand, so it was movie themed and had a huge gold lion out the front. There’s a real lion den inside the hotel too, which I was very upset about until I found out there are actually 30 or so lions that live on a ranch miles away from the strip, and they just come to the hotel in shifts to hang out for a couple of hours at a time during the day. They’re very pampered and very loved by the staff and the den is massive with little caves and waterfalls, and they just play with their trainers while they’re there. I guess that was okay.

Standing in front of millions of m&ms

Vegas is really only good for a day trip for people like me who don’t gamble, don’t smoke and don’t drink. Every single hotel has a massive casino on the lower floor, and it’s very loud and very smokey. It’s worth it to come here just to see how strange the buildings look (sometimes a wander into the hotels is worth it), and how ridiculously elaborate vegas is, but there’s not much more too it than that. It’s difficult to find good restaurants that don’t cost a fortune (you need to look for places outside of the hotels) and there’s not much else to do except see shows. We saw Cirque De Sole Mystere, and I was going to see David Copperfield but strangely ran out of time.

What I didn’t like about Vegas was the amount of slot machines. They’re everywhere. If I never see another slot machine in my life, I’ll be happy. Vegas actually has slot machines in the airport and in the gas stations, so really slot machines the first thing you see when you get off the plane.

The Old Vegas

We hired a car and took a drive to Freemont Street which was the original Las Vegas strip. Freemont street is a bit of a dive. It’s flat, dirty, old and very run down. We didn’t want to stop the car as we drove through because it looked so awful. I’ve read travel reviews on the net from people who love to hang out in bars on this street [and not gamble], who actually prefer Freemont Street to the strip. I guess if you had a destination and knew your way around it could be a very interesting experience.

Between Freemont Street and The Stip are all of those little wedding chapels that have become a Vegas icon and well known all around the world. Sadly most of the chapels looked old and run down. I have no idea why people would want to get married in this dry barren dessert in a run down chapel on a busy road. I guess it’s the novelty of getting hooked up in Vegas. They’ve also now banned 12am-8am weddings to stop drunk people from making matrimony mistakes. I wonder how much business these chapels are getting now.

Unfortunately our trip was made difficult from the intense heat. We were not at all prepared for the average 40C every day. And it was a very dry heat that sucks all the moisture out of your body. Most days there was a hot dry breeze blowing which felt almost unbearable, even for a little tropical Aussie girl like me. Still, many brave tourists ignored the searing heat and spent their days outside either sun baking or walking up and down The Strip. And most of them without hats. Personally, I think it’s madness, or maybe I’m just a weakling.

During our stay my travel buddy and I drove to Hoover Dam and both agreed that it was easily above 40C. You really get reminded that this is the desert. It’s hot, dry and barren. We don’t understand why people live here, yes the mountains are beautiful but everywhere else is brown and dirty and barren, it’s the desert!

Hoover Dam, HOT but beautiful

So when the sun was out in Vegas I spent most of my time inside air conditioned areas, like hotels or malls. I found the Las Vegas shopping outlet which was just okay, and we took a trip to one of more expensive shopping malls that’s attached to the Caesers Palace hotel. It had a strong Rome theme, complete with elaborate fountains and a cealing that’s painted like the sky. A fountain at one end of the mall every hour or so turns into a historic Rome scene, with animated statues, smoke, audio and massive fireballs. Only in vegas.

For me, the better part of Vegas is the national parks that surrounds the city and strip area. Because it was so hot we didn’t get to as many national parks as we would have liked, including the Grand Canyon (I’ll definitely be back for that). But we did take a couple of trips to Red Rock Canyon which I loved.

Red Rock Canyon is beautiful

Red Rock Canyon is beautiful. I can only imagine that it’s just a tiny glimpse as to what the Grand Canyon is actually like. The rocks are beautiful and massive. The Red Rock area is surprisingly close to the Vegas strip yet serenely quiet (and significantly cooler). The sun didn’t go down while we were in Vegas until 8pm, so we went at 6pm and enjoyed the scenic drive that passes 19 check points along the way where you can park and look at the views. There are a few small hikes at most of the checkpoints, and even ancient Indian artwork, and an old Indian agave oven.

I can so easily see why places like Sedona are so spiritual. There’s something about the serenity of the desert that makes it so amazing. It almost feels like the energy from being at the beach.

Next stop Chicago for few days, then back to living in Toronto.

Fran