Although we were sad to say goodbye to LA, we were extremely
excited about our trip to Vegas! We
packed our "boat" and hit the road to Sin City.
A bit of history...
Las Vegas started as a stopover on the pioneer trails to the west, and
became a popular railroad town in the early 20th century. It was a
staging point for mines in the surrounding area, that shipped goods to the rest of the country.
With the proliferation of the railroads, Las Vegas became less
important, but the completion of the nearby Hoover Dam
in 1935 resulted in growth in the number of residents and increased
tourism. The legalization of gambling in 1931
led to the advent of the casino hotels for which Las Vegas is famous.
Major development occurred in the 1940s, "due almost entirely" to the
influx of scientists and staff from the Manhattan Project, an atomic bomb research project of WWII. American mob bosses such as Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky managed or funded most of the original large casinos. (The Flamingo Hotel is the original hotel owned by Bugsy Siegel).
The Drive
The landscape along the way was very interesting. As you
drive from the built up city and skyscrapers of LA, you suddenly find yourself
surrounded by nothing but rocks, desert and tumbleweeds.
Calico: Ghost Town. Population:5 (dead and alive)
Along the way we stopped in the town of Calico. This former
mining town is now a “ghost town” geared towards tourists. I imagine this is what Colorado Springs (in "Dr Quinn") is like.
It was an extremely windy day, so walking around the town
was very unpleasant, but we persevered.
It was so freaking windy!
Liesl chillin' on the porch
Desperate for beer
Do you like my outfit?
Kind of freaky...
Liesl in ye ol' jail cell
Hmm... after reading that sign, not sure if I'm allowed in here...
We also stopped at Big Boy and the World’s Tallest
Thermometer.
Driving through more desert, we finally spotted Las Vegas on
the horizon!
VIVA!!
More desert
Vegas baby!
Start spreading the news...
Mandalay Bay baby!
We drove through a bit of Vegas, before arriving at The Mirage – which would be home for the next three nights.
The Mirage Bar - not that that's the first place we went or anything...
There is also a volcano outside the hotel, which erupts
every 30 min in the evening.
After our stay at The Mirage, we transferred to Caesar’s Palace for 3 nights.
Caesar’s is an AMAZING hotel. It’s huge – we got lost the
first day we were there. Not only are there 4 separate residential towers, there’s
also a full shopping mall with hundreds of shops (The Forum) as well as the Colosseum
– which is home to the Elton John / Celine Dion acts.
View from our hotel room of the pool
Liesl at lunch
This is all IN our hotel!!
Our favourite bar - The Seahorse
Drinks!
How cool is that ceiling
The lobby
View from our window at night
The fountains in front of the hotel
Entrance to Caesars
THE Escalators from "Rain Man" and "The Hangover"
The hotel pool
Our hotel room had a mirror above the bed. Weird!!
Las Vegas is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever
visited. If you’re looking for a WOW factor for a holiday, I would highly
recommend Vegas. I think I walked around the first 3 days with my mouth wide
open, in disbelief at what I was seeing. It’s breathtakingly awesome. The strip
is abuzz with people 24/7. THIS is the city that never sleeps! Anything goes in
Vegas. You can drink, smoke, sing, dance
WHEREVER you want. There’s nothing you can’t do, anywhere, anytime. I fully
understand why they call it Sin City. It’s very easy to lose yourself in this
town, it’s like Disneyworld on Crack (which is whack)…
I’ll let the pics speak for themselves.
Bellagio
Paris
Entrance to Paris
Gay Paris
Lobby of Paris
Paris Casino
Planet Hollywood and Holly Madison's "Peep Show"
Planet Hollywood
Planet Hollywood - home of the Pussycat Dolls
View of New York New York
Las Vegas Blvd
The New York New York - it has a rollercoaster which goes THRU the hotel!
Excalibur and New York New York
Inside MGM Grand
MGM Grand Lobby
Treasure Island and the Pirate ship which is part of the Pirate show every night
The Strip's Walk of Fame - outside the Flamingo
Inside the Wynn - clearly we were under-dressed...
The Buffet at the Wynn. THE most expensive buffet ever! I think I ate my weight in food that night!
New York New York
Inside the Tropicana
Inside the Luxor
Luxor
The Luxor
A Gondola Runs Through It - inside the Venetian -
The Bellagio
The Atrium in the Bellagio
The lobby of the Bellagio
Las Vegas by Night is unbelievable. The lights are beautiful
and blindingly bright. One of the most exciting experiences ever.
Excalibur
New York New York (and the rollercoaster)
Excalibur
MGM Grand
The Strip
The Strip
The Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York
Paris
The Strip and the Flamingo on the right
Isn't it pretty? Donny and Marie Osmond were performing here
The Mirage
Caesars Palace entrance at night
The Venetian
The Venetian
The Venetian
The fountain area at the Bellagio
Caesar's main entrance
The Stratoshpere
We went to a couple of Vegas shows.
Jubilee at Ballys – this is a Vegas variety review type show
– complete with sequins, disco balls and high-kicking showgirls!
It was an amazing show. The sequins and glitter was absolutely blinding. The set was superb - with at least 6 or 7 different set changes - which included an re-enactment of the sinking of the Titanic! Great Broadway show-tunes and fine tap dancing. A really big budget production with loads of sparkle and energy. We thoroughly enjoyed it!
On our last night, Liesl treated me to Cirque du Soleil’s
“O”. This was one of the most jaw-dropping shows I’ve ever seen. It is an
aquatic show, so the stage (in the Bellagio) had to be built specifically for
this show. The “stage” is a tank, which has the capability of changing from a water
tank to an actual show stage in the blink of an eye. At times you’re not sure
if the performers will be falling to their deaths onto the stage, or disappear
into the depths of the water.
The Stage - we had excellent seats - 6 rows from the front. The stage is actually MUCH bigger than this picture makes it look. Very impressive!
Obviously we were not allowed to take photos during the show, so here's some pics from the website.
Here's a snippet:
We took a trip out to the Hoover dam and a bit of Arizona, which was an amazing
drive and sight. I'll post these photos separately.
Las Vegas was AWESOME and AMAZING! From the hotels to bars
to restaurants, to shopping to just all round fucking fantastic!
Of course, all good things must come to an end… so we
checked out of our hotel at 04h30am to get to the airport for our 07h00am
flight!
Unfortunately, the car rental agent had the mentality of a deck chair,
so it took him about 30min to check our car back in. THEN the bus driver
responsible for transporting us to the terminal was around when Jesus was a
boy, so he drove at the pace of snail crawling across velcro, and we got stuck in traffic. Which
meant that we reached the check-in 10 min after they had closed! So we missed
our flight.
Thanks for ripping us off American Airlines.
Luckily, we managed to get on a later flight that day, but
it meant that we had to stay at the airport for 6 hours! That was NOT an
option, seen as we had only had 2 hours sleep…
So, we got a cab back to Caesar’s, checked back in, slept
until 11h00, checked out again and went to the airport to catch our flight.
Which we did make this time around, so we were now on our way to Miami.
