Leaving Las Vegas
On my way home from Phoenix, I had a 4-hour layover in Lost Wages. Since I had time to spare, I took a $6 shuttle from the airport to the strip, which you could literally walk to if it weren't on the other side of the runway: I took these shots from the terminal waiting for my flight back out:
Walking around Las Vegas is like being in some kind of crazy malarial dream. Everything is familiar, yet somehow intensified, woozy and wrong. Pyramids. Roman temples. A condensed, Disneyfied New York skyline. A roller coaster right downtown. Everything all jumbled harum-scarum together. Kind of like a cheap stripper: all enthusiasm and no grace.
I wandered into the MGM Grand. The lobby appears to be the size of downtown Ottawa. I look to my left, and there are two girls in leather bikinis dancing on a bar to Prince's Let's Go Crazy. I look to my right, and there's an indoor lion safari area, with real lions sleeping everywhere and fat Midwestern tourists taking pictures of them. The din from the slot machines is constant and deafening. It's not even noon.
I had Singapore noodles at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel. I was looking for someplace a little swankier, thinking I'd treat myself for my last vacation meal. But all the better places seem to only open for dinner.
I could have wandered around longer, but I started feeling really anxious and physically uncomfortable, and eager to get back to a more recognizable dimension. I think an hour and a half is about my Las Vegas limit. I certainly won't be dropping any cash there on holiday, but it was fun to hang out for a bit. Thank you, thank you very much.
Comments
I can't stand Vegas. I think an hour and a half is time enough to spend, proven by how you pegged it perfectly. Although when I go I'm usually stuck there with friends for at least 24 hours. Blech.
A friend of mine was on a tight order by his wife of how much spending money he had for the weekend. He walked to the airport with his last $20 in his pocket because he needed to take a cab home when he hit Phoenix.
and the shows are good. overpriced and too short. but good.
Very odd.
What stuck me as odd at the time was how the whole town seemed to be just dumped into the middle of nowhere, for no reason.
All these idiot buildings, and then just empty landscape.
Bart: Hey, I bought it from a guy on your reservation.
Manager: That's Crazy Talk.
Bart: No, it's true.
Manager: No, I know, that's my brother, Crazy Talk. We're
all a little worried about him.
You people are so annoying. So quick to criticize Las Vegas because you think it's only the Strip and see it how it's portrayed on TV!
Las Vegas is not fake. It was put on the map for a reason. Mormons settled in Las Vegas. It was a mining and railroad town. There is a lot of history here, and I know, because I have lived here for 25 years!
People actually live off the Strip, in the suburbs, have children to go to school and work everyday common jobs.
I hate when visitors, whether here by choice or not, judge Las Vegas just by what they see along the 3 mile Strip. If you want to make the most of your stay in Las Vegas, try getting some culture by visiting museums, vintage downtown stores, Red Rock National Park and the Hoover Dam.
I was merely sharing my personal impessions of the Strip. So were most of the other commenters. Feel free to post about the hidden treasures of Las Vegas on your own blog. Perhaps if the Las Vegas Tourism Association did a better job of promoting and supporting the non-Strip and gambling-related parts of the city, and made them easier to get to and find, more people would know about them.
And, I was merely sharing my thoughts, as I thought a blog was an open forum. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority does promote off-Strip sites, but the reality is, most people do come here for the wild 24 hour lifestyle. If that is not what you want when you are in Vegas, you can ask locals, a concierge or research on the internet all of the other wonderful things there are to do here.
I'm a local. I don't like when people criticize my home, and I'm sure you would feel the same if your hometown was always judged incorrectly.
Nice way of getting people to hear your point of view by starting with personal attacks. If you had left out the first sentence you'd do a better job of promoting Vegas. Just a tip for the next time you are trying to change perceptions and get people to listen to what you have to say.