North America Trip Parts 10, 11 & 12: And Out Come The Wolves.

"Gareth, I'll be severely disappointed if you go to America and don't spend more than two days in Vegas". These were the words of my friend and previous Vegas visitor Kasey when I was running over a draft itinerary of the planned sojourn through the USA. Kasey had fond memories of Vegas, she married her husband and one of my oldest friends Nifty while in Las Vegas for the International Tattoo Convention there a few years ago, she met celebrities she admired, partied on the strip and just generally had a ball. Most people do, it's Sin City, America's playground where anything goes and what happens there usually stays there. It's a place of bright lights, loud noises and even louder personalities, where it's nothing to be walking the strip early in the morning and finding people with giant margaritas in their hands, still kicking on from the night before. It's a brash in your face type of city. But was it my type of city?
We arrived in Las Vegas early Wednesday night following a flight from Cleveland that was overbooked. Entering the terminal slot machines and ads for machine gun firing ranges greeted us. Vegas is built on slots, they are everywhere. They are in the casinos in great numbers of course, but also throughout the airport, in service stations, supermarkets, you name it. I wouldnt have been surprised if there had've been one in the toilet (not sure I'd want to win that 'jackpot' though). It's a city built on gambling and for the purpose of gambling. As a local girl named Arielle (one of the few naturally pretty girls I met in Vegas) said to me as she noted my astonishment "We survive off them, if we don't have the slots, we don't have jobs." Arielle's job was selling custom poker chips inside the Planet Hollywood hotel/casino and it was a rarity to actually meet a Vegas local. She gave me some clarity on the proliferation of the machines because let's face it, without them, Las Vegas would just be a big city placed randomly in the middle of the desert.
Em and I checked into our hotel, the Flamingo hotel/casino, the casino partly built by gangster Bugsy Seigal and named the Flamingo after his nickname for his girlfriend ( he called her flamingo because of her long legs apparently). It's one of the oldest resorts on the strip, houses a wildlife habitat in the courtyard featuring actual flamingos and numerous shops and bars. Even on the gaudy Las Vegas strip, the Flamingo stands out for its outrageous gaudiness. It's decorated in a neon pink from top to bottom and apparently the exterior is meant to be a homage to Miami and South Beach. Think Miami Vice style 80's and you get a good idea of the Flamingo. Em and I were also shocked to find that smoking was freely allowed inside buildings in Las Vegas, unlike Australia and our other stops in the US & Canada. Em was still feeling the tail end of her illness, so she went straight to bed while I strolled the casino and found a little bar where I could watch the Dall

as Mavericks take on the LA Clippers.
Neither Em nor myself rose that early the next day, it's Vegas you can get up and go to bed when ever you want and everything will still be running the exact same way. We decided to head out and explore the strip, starting of course at the Flamingo and heading south. We looked through most of the hotel/casinos on the way, Paris, the MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood, Excalibur, New York New York etc. and had our first taste of the infamous Vegas flickers. The flickers are a group who normally assemble on the corner of most blocks on the strip and try and give passers by promo cards for strip joints or prostitutes. They gain your attention by flicking the cards in their fingers to make a clicking sound and put their hands in as close to your personal space as they can. And they didn't care that I was walking around with Em, who for all they knew may have been my partner, they just were trying to make a living and most guys and a few girls had these touts harassing them on every street corner. It remained a constant annoyance but it was something you do knd of get used to.
We continued our journey back up the north end of the strip, stopping at Ceasers Palace and The Venetion. Em also booked in some shows to see at various Casinos, including a ventriloquist named Terru Fator (Em assured me he was amazing and i missed a great show) the Cirque De Solei Beatles tribute Show 'Love' and Holly Madison's Peep Show (I'd never heard of Holly Madison btw, I told Kim that Em was seeing 'some stripper named Holly Madison or something' Kim immediately replied with 'Oh I love her!' When I quizzed some more on who she was I found out she was famous for being engaged to Hugh Heffner or something. Really? That's all it takes to be famous? I really need to write about the cult of celebrity and how stupid it all is...). I preferred to just wander the strip, stop in at sports bars and catch whatever NBA or NHL game was screening.
It was on this first night that I encountered my first real taste of the seediness that underpins Las Vegas. I was heading back to the hotel room that night when I was stopped by a beautiful Asian girl with a pretty cute Midwestern US accent. She was quite chatty and as I went to leave she followed me to the elevator. It was then she told me what she did for a living, yep, I got hit on by a hooker (cue Steel Panther singing 'Asian Hooker'). I explained that sorry, I don't do that kind of stuff and anyway my friend was upstairs asleep, she shrugged and said 'there's always the bathroom' followed by 'we can just hang out if you'd feel better, I have party starters' Once again my small town neivity shone through, 'what's a party starter?' I asked. She looked at me like she wasn't sure if I was serious. 'You know, some coke...' Even nieve little old me knew that she wasn't talking soft drink. 'Look' I said, 'I apologise but I'm not really comfortable with this whole situation and I'm not interested thanks.' It was an awkward situation to say the least, because as those who know me know I am very anti drug and also not the type of person who'd do anything with a prostitute. She looked disappointed and probably wondered how she honed in on the one guy in Vegas NOT looking for a drug fueled night with a prostitute, but im sure if she had've looked in my wallet she would really have gotten depressed. I wonder what three Canadian dollars would've gotten me?
After I safely made it back to the hotel room (on my own I might add) I thought more about this girl. She could've done anything with her life, she was attractive sand well spoken, why did she become a person who trades sex for cash? What were here life's goals, hopes and dreams? What did she think she'd become when she was a child and if she could go back and meet her schoolyard self, what would she say? I didn't run into her again, but finding out why her life led her to this would've been an interesting story. I drifted off to sleep thinking about just how crazy my first full Las Vegas day had been and wondering what madness Friday and Saturday nights would offer...



TO BE CONTINUED...