Chapter 3 – Las Vegas NEON city
With both LA and Vegas, we have left our accommodation in the hands of God, completely hopeful that the hostels we had researched and found were able to and had accommodation for us. Upon arrival to Las Vegas, we discovered that the bus terminal was only about 2 miles from our accommodation and there was a bus system near by that we could catch taking us down. 2 problems with this information, firstly the bus was $3 each one way or $7 for a day pass or $15 for a 3 day pass and secondly we could only buy the smaller passes on the bus and we couldn’t find a machine that discharged the 3 day passes so guess what happened, we hiked the 2 miles with our back packs in blistering heat with minimal water and a vague sense of direction. YAY!! So if that was the start to this journey, we were concerned already but we found the hostel after only 40min walking making pretty good time but near exhaustion. Being so close it meant that the hostel was actually in the slightly dodgier side of Vegas – not like it made much difference when you got down to all the impressive hotels anyway (I will explain soon).
Sin City hostel, doesn’t that just sound like the ideal place to come and stay in Vegas, well it was for us. Strangely enough though, the real Sin city was happening about 2-5 miles further down the road where the big casinos were. Anyway, we had found our home for the time being and were happy to have our back packs off and start our adventure of this uniquely bright and loud place. Sitting and relaxing was not on our agenda for the day so spending a short visit in our room, we quickly set off down the road on our first adventure towards this Neon palace. Heading south down the Strip, we made our way through part of the old down town which has been let to run down while all the new creations are continuing further south where all the awesome hotels are. The casino’s and hotels which we walked into and explored during our visit to the Strip were – all of them. Just joking, we walked into the Stratosphere where the most spectacular rides are found about 20 meters above the ground. Unfortunately we didn’t go on any of these rides as a result of the $34 each they would’ve cost us.
Next on our list was Circus Circus where they have an indoor circus show which we were able to catch two of the extraordinary acts. Before I continue I think it is important to share that apart from the marvels I am mentioning about each of these hotels/casino’s, they had nothing else but big people, loud clanking noises, smells like you have never smelt and put our stomachs in knots knowing that people were wasting their lives for a little chance at glory. From the Circus we arrived at the Mirage where the spectacular evening volcano show happens and we were lucky enough to catch the show. This was one of the highlights for us as the shows were free and made the light shows of all the casinos magnificent. Another 2 highlights for us were the other free shows we could marvel over outside the other 2 extraordinary hotels known as the Bellagio and Treasure Island. The world famous fountains of the Bellagio are well known and definitely worth the long trip we had taken to see them. Absolutely amazing, the fountain show is a spectacular sight and we got to witness the spectacle about 5 times which could’ve been so much more had we just sat around and waited for it. Having to pull ourselves away from the show was tough but it allowed us to go on and witness the pirate show held at Treasure Island. Not as awe inspiring as the fountains but another type of show which was impressive and had a ship sink in only 3m depth of water. The only other major attraction or highlight from Vegas came closer to our hostel on Freemont street where they have an evening light show on the ceiling of the outdoor area. We overheard that it is one of the worlds only ceiling neon show displays and we thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment. Apart from these amazing shows, most of the casinos were all identical and fairly disappointing apart from their designs and lights at night.
Anyway, enough of the cry me a river speech, whining about being in Vegas shouldn’t happen so I will continue to elaborate on the joyous moments from this adventure. Probably the main reason for Ang and I wanting to visit Vegas was purely to witness and wander down the strip during the evening taking in the awe inspiring sight of the city lit up. I have to admit that at night Vegas turns into this splendid place where dreams could come true and I can see why so many people will come to try their luck in the casinos. We made our way up and down the strip during the day and night only once in our 2 night 3 day stay. The reason for this can be summed up simply, traffic on the strip is like Rosebank during peek traffic with 5 accidents and a truck over turned and emergency vehicles racing around and like being in a sauna and and and… one trip from top to bottom took us 2 hours by bus yet it was easy to sit in air conditioning than sweating and hiking the 2 hours it would’ve taken anyway. Other magical sights on the southern strip were the hotels/casinos of New York, Pink Flamingo, Pyramid, MGM and the Venetian. New York was fascinating with the skyline and wild rollercoaster rides, the Venetian was beautiful with a luve (hope I spelt it right) ride which took you inside the casino and shopping area on the typical Venetian boats and Pink Flamingo was a highlight as we swam in their pool one afternoon when it was near 87F.
To finish off this adventure I will explain why we didn’t really enjoy Vegas and why we believe that it could be known as Sin City. I suppose the first clue is the fact that at every corner is a casino full of people gambling their life savings or worse their credit away on the possibility of winning. Inside the casinos, smoking was legal and so a cloud of smoke over powered your nostrils and prevented us from exploring most of the casino floors. Around every corner seemed to lurk time share agents who targeted Ang and I as suckers and kept pestering us with free tickets and tours and trips and shows if we viewed their new hotels and sat for presentations and basically wasted our day with their nonsense. The worst part was that they didn’t even know where SA is? Stupid!! Lastly, and probably the main reason we found Vegas dodgy was that near every hotel/casino were these Mexican guys who were distributing calling cards of naked women who you could phone up and they would arrive at your door for some action – if you know what I mean. Sorry to those sensitive viewers. Forgive me please!! Vegas was a magical time but we were glad to leave on possibly the longest stint of our trip, the drive via greyhound to Houston Texas.
With both LA and Vegas, we have left our accommodation in the hands of God, completely hopeful that the hostels we had researched and found were able to and had accommodation for us. Upon arrival to Las Vegas, we discovered that the bus terminal was only about 2 miles from our accommodation and there was a bus system near by that we could catch taking us down. 2 problems with this information, firstly the bus was $3 each one way or $7 for a day pass or $15 for a 3 day pass and secondly we could only buy the smaller passes on the bus and we couldn’t find a machine that discharged the 3 day passes so guess what happened, we hiked the 2 miles with our back packs in blistering heat with minimal water and a vague sense of direction. YAY!! So if that was the start to this journey, we were concerned already but we found the hostel after only 40min walking making pretty good time but near exhaustion. Being so close it meant that the hostel was actually in the slightly dodgier side of Vegas – not like it made much difference when you got down to all the impressive hotels anyway (I will explain soon).
Sin City hostel, doesn’t that just sound like the ideal place to come and stay in Vegas, well it was for us. Strangely enough though, the real Sin city was happening about 2-5 miles further down the road where the big casinos were. Anyway, we had found our home for the time being and were happy to have our back packs off and start our adventure of this uniquely bright and loud place. Sitting and relaxing was not on our agenda for the day so spending a short visit in our room, we quickly set off down the road on our first adventure towards this Neon palace. Heading south down the Strip, we made our way through part of the old down town which has been let to run down while all the new creations are continuing further south where all the awesome hotels are. The casino’s and hotels which we walked into and explored during our visit to the Strip were – all of them. Just joking, we walked into the Stratosphere where the most spectacular rides are found about 20 meters above the ground. Unfortunately we didn’t go on any of these rides as a result of the $34 each they would’ve cost us.
Next on our list was Circus Circus where they have an indoor circus show which we were able to catch two of the extraordinary acts. Before I continue I think it is important to share that apart from the marvels I am mentioning about each of these hotels/casino’s, they had nothing else but big people, loud clanking noises, smells like you have never smelt and put our stomachs in knots knowing that people were wasting their lives for a little chance at glory. From the Circus we arrived at the Mirage where the spectacular evening volcano show happens and we were lucky enough to catch the show. This was one of the highlights for us as the shows were free and made the light shows of all the casinos magnificent. Another 2 highlights for us were the other free shows we could marvel over outside the other 2 extraordinary hotels known as the Bellagio and Treasure Island. The world famous fountains of the Bellagio are well known and definitely worth the long trip we had taken to see them. Absolutely amazing, the fountain show is a spectacular sight and we got to witness the spectacle about 5 times which could’ve been so much more had we just sat around and waited for it. Having to pull ourselves away from the show was tough but it allowed us to go on and witness the pirate show held at Treasure Island. Not as awe inspiring as the fountains but another type of show which was impressive and had a ship sink in only 3m depth of water. The only other major attraction or highlight from Vegas came closer to our hostel on Freemont street where they have an evening light show on the ceiling of the outdoor area. We overheard that it is one of the worlds only ceiling neon show displays and we thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment. Apart from these amazing shows, most of the casinos were all identical and fairly disappointing apart from their designs and lights at night.
Anyway, enough of the cry me a river speech, whining about being in Vegas shouldn’t happen so I will continue to elaborate on the joyous moments from this adventure. Probably the main reason for Ang and I wanting to visit Vegas was purely to witness and wander down the strip during the evening taking in the awe inspiring sight of the city lit up. I have to admit that at night Vegas turns into this splendid place where dreams could come true and I can see why so many people will come to try their luck in the casinos. We made our way up and down the strip during the day and night only once in our 2 night 3 day stay. The reason for this can be summed up simply, traffic on the strip is like Rosebank during peek traffic with 5 accidents and a truck over turned and emergency vehicles racing around and like being in a sauna and and and… one trip from top to bottom took us 2 hours by bus yet it was easy to sit in air conditioning than sweating and hiking the 2 hours it would’ve taken anyway. Other magical sights on the southern strip were the hotels/casinos of New York, Pink Flamingo, Pyramid, MGM and the Venetian. New York was fascinating with the skyline and wild rollercoaster rides, the Venetian was beautiful with a luve (hope I spelt it right) ride which took you inside the casino and shopping area on the typical Venetian boats and Pink Flamingo was a highlight as we swam in their pool one afternoon when it was near 87F.
To finish off this adventure I will explain why we didn’t really enjoy Vegas and why we believe that it could be known as Sin City. I suppose the first clue is the fact that at every corner is a casino full of people gambling their life savings or worse their credit away on the possibility of winning. Inside the casinos, smoking was legal and so a cloud of smoke over powered your nostrils and prevented us from exploring most of the casino floors. Around every corner seemed to lurk time share agents who targeted Ang and I as suckers and kept pestering us with free tickets and tours and trips and shows if we viewed their new hotels and sat for presentations and basically wasted our day with their nonsense. The worst part was that they didn’t even know where SA is? Stupid!! Lastly, and probably the main reason we found Vegas dodgy was that near every hotel/casino were these Mexican guys who were distributing calling cards of naked women who you could phone up and they would arrive at your door for some action – if you know what I mean. Sorry to those sensitive viewers. Forgive me please!! Vegas was a magical time but we were glad to leave on possibly the longest stint of our trip, the drive via greyhound to Houston Texas.
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