Las Vegas

In March of this year I went to Las Vegas for a week. I’m not really supposed to talk about why, only that my flights and accommodation were paid for, so why not?

Here are some pictures I took during my time there.

My hotel room at the Bellagio. It wasn’t cutting edge or anything, just a serviceable room. No views to speak of. I was careful not to touch the minibar or snacks because apparently hotels nowadays like to put them on pressure sensors, and charge the room as soon as something is lifted off the sensor! Yikes!

Before travelling I heard that Las Vegas’ tap water is famously shit (being in a desert doesn’t help much I imagine). Incredibly, I had to bring my own kettle for boiling water because hiring one from the hotel would’ve set me back USD$40.

The Bellagio at night, minus the famous fountains. I caught a couple of fountain shows, they were a bit overrated IMO.

Vegas is filled with tacky things like this.

Decided to get In n Out on my first day there, as that was the only meal on the schedule that wasn’t catered. On the way there, unexpectedly came across a Ferris wheel. That’s when it first hit me - everything is just so goddamn BIG in Vegas, you just run into these enormous things.

By the way, the burger was nice: the lettuce was nice and crisp, it had just the right amount of sauce, and the patty wasn’t dry flavourless cardboard. Sadly it gave me a stomach ache, probably due to cross contamination with allergens. You win some, you lose some.

Protip: hotels like the Bellagio like to fleece visitors by imposing a “resort fee”, which ostensibly goes towards getting you admission to amenities such as these. Due to my packed schedule I didn’t get an opportunity to utilise any such resort amenities, not that I would have.

On Wednesday I went on an excursion to the Red Rock Canyon. The bus driver got lost several times on the way there so there wasn’t enough time to actually walk into the canyon. The landscape was stunning though. (Also, there are toilets there but they’re just a building stuck on top of a hole in the ground.)

Just in case there weren’t enough opportunities to piss away money in Vegas, there’s also a high-end shopping centre there!

I also got to tick visiting New York off my bucket list.

There are luxe hotels on the Strip, and then there are the outrageously themed ones… From the little I saw of it, Excalibur is definitely one of the latter.

Same goes for the Luxor. I imagine there’s more light inside one of the actual Egyptian tombs.

I trekked out with a friend to the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, and on the way found a Harley Davidson dealership that dwarfed even the largest car dealerships I’ve seen back home.

There was a huge long line of people at the sign waiting to take pictures, so I didn’t stick around long enough to get a good picture.

On my last day, I headed out to the Fremont Street Experience by myself to check it out and buy souvenirs. Fremont St was the original heart of Vegas, before the gambling institutions enroached on the desert. The street is overwhelming enough during daytime, I can’t imagine how much of a headache it would be at night.

In a nutshell

Vegas is one of those places you visit once and then never want to visit again: dry, tacky and soul-destroying are the first few words that pop into my head when I think of it.

My advice for future travellers? Make a list of things you want to see. Get through the list as quickly as you possibly can. Drink lots of water.