Las Vegas!

Well, here I am in fabulous Las Vegas - there is a sign saying it is fabulous, just to let me know in case I wasn't sure.

Everything here is GIGANTIC! If the world ends and the aliens land and dig up Las Vegas, I think they will start theorising that there was some giant race living here... It just doesn't seem to be built on a human scale.

Anyway - the handy thing is that you really don't need to waste all that time and effort going anywhere else in the world, because everything is here! Yesterday I went on a gondola ride through the canals of Venice and ate dinner in a delightful Italian "outdoor" restaurant in "St Mark's square" - all in the Venetian casino - where Venice is indoors - with a painted blue sky. None of that inconvenient weather or flooding - or pigeons. My memory may be faulty, but I think St Marks was a little different - bigger and more buildings in Venice in Italy - but it is so much more convenient here.

Today we travelled to the Luxor and saw the sphinx - not the old one with the broken nose, but a nice, new, brightly painted one - and the great pyramid - made of glass and containing a hotel and casino rathter than the traditional tomb.

Unfortunately, Kathy seems to have picked up a bit of a tummy bug that has kept her confined to the hotel room for a lot of the day. Kate and I have been walking our feet (well, my feet anyway) off, though. the casinos are so huge, that walking from one to the next is a significant treck - in the 30 Plus heat, especially.

We tried out the Monorail today - it is great, really frequent and easy - as long as you are staying somewhere with a monorail stationand your destination. Unfortunately, Treasure Island, where we are staying, is not on the monorail. So we have to travel down to Harrah's to catch it.

We also tried "The Deuce" (American pronunciation being "The Dooce"). This is a very reasonably priced alternative to the Monorail that goes all along the strip for $2 one way. It has to travel so slowly though - because of the traffic and the number of stops...

It took us about 2 hours to travel via monorail, pedestrian bridges and various shuttle trams from the Luxor to our hotel. A trip from the outlet mall past the end of the strip to our hotel took around about an hour on the Deuce. So there is a lot of travelling time in Las Vegas.

On day three, Trina and I went for a flight over the Grand Canyon. The advertised time is 3 hours from hotel to hotel - as opposed to 11 hours for a tour on a bus. The bus picking us up from the hotel was late, and then our flight on the little plane was delayed - and we did have a nervous moment when we got on the plane and the back of one of the seats came off when the passenger put the headset on... but it was spectacular and just about the right amount of Grand Canyon for me.

I risked a whole $8 in the "slot machines" - but was never ahead at any point. That was enough gambling for me.

For me, there are only so many shops full of over the top things - chandeliers bigger than a room of my house, gigantic statues, jewellery watches and designer clothes - that I want to see. Althoug, I must say, FAO Schwarz was a highlight! What a selection of Hogwarts and Star Wars merchandise!

So - I think that was enough Las Vegas for me. I can't really understand how it is worthwhile for Las Vegas to exist - and they are busy building a new and bigger casino and hotel facility in the middle of the strip. I guess there must be a lot of people willing to bet more than $8.