Las Vegas and Los Angeles

Part 4... the end on the USA! Adam wrote this one... so it'll be long and probably include lots of B***ching:

From the peaceful settings of Zion nation park we headed 4hrs west, to the city of sin!. Now I have wanted to visit Vegas for ages, not because of a addiction to gambling, the love of alcohol or seeing way to much CSI but due to a discovery channel feature I watched about 5 years ago about all the little secrets (eg. I made a bet with Rohan that he would never see a clock on a gaming floor..) and the logistics of running a city in the desert (so if you didn’t already know that I’m quite sad, I think I just cleared it up for you). Anyhoo after we arrived we went for some Italian in a cool little restaurant, where you ordered portions for the table (so they were huge!), and the table came with its own effigy of the pope in the centre…. Then we were picked up by a ‘party bus’ which gave us a tour, took us to the Vegas sign and the light show in downtown (the road out side the golden nugget is now under the largest TV screen in the world, which shows a different music video every night (we had the pleasure of ‘we are the champions’ by Queen, At first pictures of the band and the union jack were shown, then as the song reached its climax, a US flag took over the screen as pictures of American doctors, police, fire crews and ‘free, strong and all American citizens’ flew round to cheers from the crowd. Then it was back to the strip for drinks.

The next morning we got up early to hit the strip, Tess had decided to go to every casino (not the crappy ones) and get a dollar chip, and in the really big ones spent a dollar on a random game (which for the most part was the wheel of fortune, no skill involved but relatively exciting). We started at the Luxor (shaped like a giant pyramid) and worked our way down the 3 miles to the Stratosphere. Now most the casinos were amazing (sorry Excalibur and treasure island, you were naff) but the 3 that take the price were the Belllagio, the Palazzo and the Venetian (the Mirage, New York New York, Planet Hollywood, Mgm Grand, Caesars Palace were also pretty amazing). We spent some time in the Bellagio and had lunch there, the place exuded wealth and class, now we went for a buffet lunch and expected for our $20 dollars not that much……it was amazing, the best meal we had in months. There was steak, sushi, soup amazing salads, fish, Chinese, Indian, tapas, hand made pizza, a carvery and the deserts…..ohhh the deserts.

Anyhoo, then off to the Venetian with its canals and gondolas, I knew about the one outside, but the canal, opera and shopping street on the 2nd floor….again just amazing, you cant believe that under all this there was a casino, and no leaks!. In the Venetian we made the most money (for a $1 bet we left with $50…..what high rollers we have become!!) It was also here that after losing $10 on Casino war, Rohan looked like he had just been kicked in the nuts, we watched the guy next to us play $500 and lose it in under 20secs, then play $1000 and double it. That’s the way to do it!.

In the Palazzo we went looking for a bar, and whilst asking for directions Tess got us $30 dollars worth of free drinks (you have never seen us look soooooo happy!!). The bar was incredible, dark, sleek and stylish (like in the movies) with us sitting in 4 week old unwashed camping gear… the wash basins had the water come from the ceiling down into large stone vases! And the free drinks again, wow. A sage mojito, and a white grape crushed something or other. Anyhoo after several casinos we reached the rides at the Stratosphere, we did the tall drop and the rotating arm over the strip, both gave wicked views of the strip. Then we headed back up to cool bits before heading back to bed.

Fright night

For the last day of the trek I insisted that we all went to fright night at universal studios, because it is possibly the coolest thing on earth. Now I believe that most people especially tess thought it wasn’t going to be that bad, I mean it doesn’t take to much to scare me. So when the chain saw wielding actor chased tess down the corridor and she attempted to literally climb into my skin and out the other side, without a care for Sophie who lay on the ground in a state of fear I knew that I had chosen a good way to end the trip!

Although all the haunted houses and rides (different to the orlando ones!, the mummy is totally different!!!) were amazing, my favourite moments came when after carefully checking the exit Tess and Amanda left the one haunted house to be chased by an actor scrapping a metal bin on the ground for about 100m. Then at the end all the actors gathered at the exit, as a siren went off at midnight they all stopped there chain saws and stood for pictures, we decided the night must be over. So we went for some pics, then about 2min later another siren went off and instantly amongst all the crowds of photo taking people they started their chainsaws and chased people. Seeing the look of terror in people eyes as they realised the zombie clown who they had just been having their photo with was now chasing them out the park was pure glee!