Greetings dear reader.  This post details my travels in Las Vegas.

I arrived quite grumpy, so thought I would wait till the next day to look around.

I got up this morning at around 06:30, which was a bit of a lie in as I was operating loosely on Central Time and Nevada uses Pacific time which is another hour different - the 4th time zone of the trip.

Here's a view from my room in the cold light of day.

Here is the recreation of a Paris Street inside the ground floor of the Hotel.  It features lots of fantastically expensive restraunts with huge ques and signs advertising the price to bypass the que.  Going rate seems to be about $10.

Meanwhile, outside in the real street are vending machines selling dirty magazines.  In the street.  Not under the counter, not off the top shelf, not in a dark alley. On the street outside the hotel on the strip.

This is the entrance to another Casino across the street.  I think it is the Bellagio. 

The outside of the Bellagio - it has an amazing water and light show every night in the pond.  I think they couldn't stretch to fireworks every night so they play large explosion noises through the speaker system in the street till late at night to accompany it at regular intervals.

I walked North up the strip and walked into a couple of Casinos on the way.

Inside of the Cosmopolitan Casino.

KOI is the IATA code for Kirkwall airport. 

Heh.  Lamborghini - OK, pretty special.  However a Porsche Boxster is stretching the dream a bit, and by the time you get to BMW Z4 Convertible and Mini the dream is becoming a bit of a nightmare.

It has since been pointed out to me that it's only Dream Car rentals, not Dream CarS.  No mirepresentation has occurred, please move on, there is nothing to see here.

Vegas has all the landmarks.  Paris, Monte Carlo.

Here is New York, New York from outside the MGM Grand.

I'm not even sure what the castle is supposed to be.

Mandalay Bay.

The Statue of Liberty has a  boat at the bottom.  Afoat in a sea of disappointment and shattered dreams.

Walking back down the strip, I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

And saw some more shiny hotels and casinos.

This Casino was quite friendly.

I've never been to the real Paris.  Or the real New York City.  I've been to Las Vegas however, so now I don't have to go to either.

 

My Hotel gave me a free breakfast coupon, worth up to $9.  This coffee and bagel was exactly $9.  Plus tax, so I had to charge $0.73 to my room.

So the smutty magazines on the strip just about sums the whole place up.  An overt display of decadence, excess, consumption and sin in an environment wholly unsuited.

I am glad I have been, but it's a pretty twisted place.  People take their families on holiday there.  Prostitution is legal in Nevada.

I went there expecting to be pretty disgusted, and I was.  If I went there in the right company expecting to have a good time, I probably would.

It's a complete la-la land in the middle of the desert.