Vegas Baby!

We drove from the Grand Canyon directly down to Vegas. We weren’t planning on doing so – we were expecting to stop for the night in Kingman or somewhere south of Lake Mead, but everyone is lame there and didn’t give us free accommodation. Who do they think they are? Fortunately such stubbornness didn’t apply to Las Vegas, where a search of the “CouchSurf Emergency” lists yielded several replies in a very short time. We decided thus to push on to Vegas doubletime, stopping only to admire the Hoover Dam’s nocturnal majesty, confuse the security guarding it by repeatedly re-entering the security checkpoint. The view of Vegas coming over the hill was, erm, bright.

Our first night we spent in the sparkling mansion of globetrottering barman Brad. He and his roommate live in this huge new build that was scary empty. Emptier after we left, as we relieved him of some beers. Having worked in the Casinos, he gave us some pointers about how to get free booze that we would eagerly try but distinctly fail to apply.

The next morning we relocated to an even swisher accommodation, the Luxor (a.k.a. Pyramid-Shaped) hotel at the South end of the Strip. We wandered up the Strip a little way and marveled at this temple of visual stimulation. Huge hotels, bright colors, opulent interiors, expensive shops and cheap hookers (that last one is also fast – they can be at your hotel in 20 minutes or less. I’ll have to see if West Lafayette is in there delivery area. Kim just inexplicably punched me).

The hotel is pretty swish. You actually live in the walls. Not duh – the walls are slanted so your window and all the elevators are tilted at about 40 degrees inward. Reassuring to be sleeping above the huge interior void of the building where all the fun shit is. I always wondered how the Luxor was laid out, the reason I wanted to stay there in particular. Actually, that’s 50% of the reason I wanted to go to Vegas (the other 50% is due to stuff I couldn’t do last time I was here as a 11 year old).

So Couchsurfing has some perks. I mean, apart from the free accommodation, food, beer and guidance. One of the guys who replied to our plea couldn’t host us but offered to take us – and our first night’s host Brad – to a show, free. He met us in the Tropicana Hotel just before a showing of Recycled Percussion. He kindly got us all tickets (some sort of locals/insider deal he has going on). And then… left. He and his girlfriend came all the way to the strip to meet us -  a bunch of tardy strangers – just to get us in to a show he’d already seen for free. Good Couchsurf review for him! The show was pretty good, it was very similar in style to the Blue Man Group if you ever saw that (if you didn’t, it’s a blend of percussion, visual effects and environmental sustainability)

After that we jumped on an overpriced bus that slowly ambled – no, wait, “ambled” is too fast, maybe more “plodded” – its way to the top of the Strip.  And by “top” I mean also the “top” – at the Northern end is the Stratosphere Tower, the tallest building in town. They were charging something like $15 a head to go up to the top which we scoffed at. Instead, as the cheapskates we are, we opted to pay for overpriced beer – but a free elevator ride to the bar on the 107th floor. However, 107 stories up just wasn’t doing it for us; we decided to sneak, via the fire escape, up to the 108th, which was plenty high up. The views from the bar and the top – replete with occasional falling  person – were awesome. The beer wasn’t bad either

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur – or so Kim would like you to think. In fact, it involved a long and someone foot-paining walk back to the main Strip, a 56oz football (yes, a football. American-style) of strong booze, a losing rate of $20/minute on the blackjack tables (fortunately only played for 30 seconds) and, well, lots of walking among all the bright lights.

There were other things also, but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas (or can be leaked out of me if you buy me enough beers).

Sidenote from Kim-He’s got nothing to leak! NOTHING! From what I can remember, I was a perfectly decent young lady :)

Footnote to Sidenote from Alexander: Veeerrry decent young lady ;)

Vital Statistics: 3200mi on the odo, The Terror Alert Level is “Elevated” and Mrs-Karnatz-Concern-O-Meter is now set to “High” due to that last photo. Dead Animal Count was 2 for the 22nd May. Free Porn Offer Count caused an integer overflow. Driving Record for Kim on the 23rd was “Ok, but cursing at the phantom lanes in Vegas”.