Weird and Wonderful

Sunday 13th July

After exploring a small portion of the Las Vegas strip the night before and getting back rather late (or early depending on which way you look at it) meant that our day would start slightly later. About 9:30am we headed to the food court just across the casino from our hotel (but in the same building).

Rooms in our hotel are set away from the main casino area which covers a huge area downstairs. Full of poker, blackjack, roulette and craps tables and hundreds upon hundreds of slot machines where you can bet anything from 1 cent to over $100k!

Later in the day we  found a nice bar in the grounds of the Luxor hotel & casino in which to watch the world cup final between Germany and Argentina. Had a budweiser and relaxed to watch Germany triumph 1-0 in Extra time.

We planned then to head back into Excalibur to get a quick bite to eat as we had missed lunch. Our adjacent casino/hotels Luxor and Mandalay Bay had moving walkways and interconnecting corridors which effectively joined them together. It was when walking through one of these heading back from Luxor that we were approached by 2 men who claimed to be rappers. They stopped us and tried to get us to take some CDs that they claimed they had made, signed them for us and wanted us to give them a donation for them, to which we refused. We walked on as they muttered obscenities at us.

After checking our pockets to make sure we both still had our wallets and other valuables we made it to what we thought would be the the safe haven of the food court we were then approached by a woman (obviously had psychiatric issues) who had been loitering around by the seating area. I was watching closely as Jacob was consulting his map of the strip. All of a sudden she stepped forward and took the map from his grasp,  muttered something before putting the map down. I think she had been causing other people grief as well because security surrounded her. We didn't stay long enough to finish our drinks or to find out what happened next, we were gone.

Thanfully none of us were harmed and we were able to head back late out and enjoy the fantastic sights of the strip later that evening after a delicious meal in an Italian restaurant.

The strip at night is awe inspiring. We headed through New York New York which is a mini replica of the city itself with a mockup of the statue of liberty, empire state building, brooklyn Bridge and a roller coaster that runs inside and outside the building.

From there we headed to MGM Grand which was also huge, the impressive rainforest cafe inside was quite quirky to with a life size albeit fake alligator that opened it's jaws and moved around few times each minute, great for the kids. MGM and most other casinos host theatres and arenas that hold shows every night. I think Shania Twain was supposed to be playing in the Mirage when we were there.

It was still hot waking the strip, even late at night. The strip was packed with people though, mainly tourists but also Street entertainers,  people selling 'water, water, ice cold water', countless people trying to hand out rap CDs (as we had encountered and knew to ignore) and even more seedy men handing out cards with pictures of naked women with fictitious names who will apparently turn up to your hotel room within 20minutes and 'fulfill your needs'.

The architecture of each building is purely stunning, each one with an apparent theme whether it be the Parisian style of 'Paris' which has its own half size replica of the eifel tower or the purely stunning Venitian which has mock michaelangelo paintings in the ceiling in the lobby area and a 2nd floor which has clouds and blue sky painted on the ceiling with restaurants and shops either side of a river that offers gondola rides to the paying public... All of this in the second floor and in the same building as a hotel and casino!

We continued walking the rest of the strip down as far as treasure island and Mirage where we saw a volcano erupt!

This place really is the only place in the world where you can visit Paris, New York, Venice and Monte Carlo but never have to leave dry land. It is just a shame it is packed full of weirdos! Can't say I ever felt truly safe walking the strip and the various bridges you have to use to cross sides. Ironically the casinos feel the safest places because they are heavily guarded by security.

After making an emergency stop to grab a big gulp (99cents for a huge cup of soft drink) we headed back to the hotel. By now the blisters on my feel were hurting so bad after walking what seemed miles.

Tomorrow I'm going to hit the slots for the true Vegas experience.