I awoke on Friday morning trying to piece my previous day together. It had been an interesting day and evening to say the least, I still had two more nights of Vegas craziness to look forward to. Em and I traded stories of our previous night, she had been to see a ventriloquist comedian, I got propositioned by a drug peddling hooker, so we had both had very Vegas experiences. Tonight was going to be the night I tried out my mediocre Texas Hold Em skills on the tables, Em was going to watch a girl who used to sleep with leathery old Hugh Heffner strip in a show called 'Holly Madison's Peepshow.' once again, we were both planning very different yet very quintessential Vegas experiences. One persons night turned out they way the had planned, the others didn't so much...
We started the day later than usual and headed to Madame Tussuads at The Venetion Hotel & Casino. It's fair to say that Madame Tussuads was my favourite Las Vegas experience, first of all it was not very busy, so we had plenty of time to wander the exhibits. The wax figures are almost creepy in their life likeness, all made to scale of the actual people they were portraying (some of the sculptures were so lifelike that a person who saw the picture of myself and Sarah Michelle Gellar asked who the pretty blond girl was and if she was my girlfriend. She was quite embarrassed when I explained that it was a wax model of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Madame Tussuads is Designed for people to have fun, with plenty of interactive displays (such as shooting hoops with Shaquille O'neal, sinking a putt with Tiger Woods, hitting the dance floor with Beyoncé, joint the Rat Pack on stage and many more) and loads of room to allow people to take photos. My favourite sculptures? Sitting at the presidents desk in the Oval Office with President Obama was quite cool, Halle Berry, Daniel Craig and Criss Angel had very lifelike sculptures and the Spiderman one was quite cool as well. I completely geeked out for the Scarecrow from Batman Begins however.
From The Venetian we headed down to Stratusphere at the top of the north end of the strip. The north end is much older and less glamorous than the south end of the strip. In fact from Circus Circus down to Stratusphere is kind of ghetto. Upon my return back to Australia people who had been to Vegas were shocked that we walked up and down that particular part of the strip. But walk we did, stopping in souvenir shops playing Mexican hip hop with security guards sitting up on high chairs like a tennis umpire, keeping a very close eye on anyone who wandered into the shop. We made into Stratusphere unscathed and headed to the viewing area on the 108th floor. The vista view of the Las Vegas area was spectacular, showing just what a desolate, yet beautiful area the Mojave desert is, it looked like a roadrunner cartoon come to life and the contrast between the glitzy man made showiness of Las Vegas and the rugged untouched nature of the desert was striking. If I'm in Nevada again, I'm heading out of the city and exploring the countryside. For people who are more of a thrill seeker than I, you can bungee off the top of Stratusphere in addition to a couple of rides called Big Shot, X Treme and Insanity.
Friday night and while Em headed off to watch Holly Madison, I went to the MGM to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves visit LA to take on the Clippers on one of the movie sized screens that were in the sports area of the casino. Of course, as I wrote earlier, my original plan was to play a few hands of Hold Em at the Flamingo, but that was thwarted when they refused to accept my Australian drivers license as a valid form of ID and insisted that it was my passport or nothing. Was I disappointed that I didn't get to play? Sure, but I was more flattered that they asked me for ID as I've been well over the legal gambling age of 21 for years. That certainly boosted my self esteem a bit!
I wandered around the strip some more after the game, chatting to one of the rappers who was up for a chat every time his new Australian friend went past. And on this night, I went two for two in being offered cocaine again. I'm anti drug, but I will say this about the pushers, they asked and if you said no thank you, they politely said no problem and looked for their next mark, no hassling you to buy and if they heard you were straight edge they were actually pretty respectful about the whole thing. After that however, I decided I'd call it a night, my feet were killing me after all the walking around the strip and I was about Vegas'd out for the day. I headed to bed that night wondering what Saturday on the strip would be like.
Saturday in Vegas was unlike anything I'd seen the previous two nights, it was like the population doubled overnight. It was wall to wall bucks parties, hens nights, birthdays, you name it. I was once again a real novelty to the groups on the hens nights, I had a few approach me as part of their bucket list of items and it usually ended with me answer multiple questions about Australia and hearing about my cute accent. I ended up in a few photos and even had one bride to be sign her name on the heart that is tattooed on my right arm (And Staci, if you read this, I hope you had a great wedding day). I also chatted to a girl from Belgium who was holidaying in Las Vegas with her Dad, who was probably the only 25 year old there with one of her parents. The Australian accent is a magnet to Americans who hear it and aren't from parts of America that Australians often visit. Between my accent and tattoo's I had plenty of people want to chat with me. Oh and what's a night in Vegas without being offered cocaine? Yep, three nights, three offers. That's Las Vegas.
We were leaving Vegas the next morning, on our way to Los Angeles and I was thinking about my impression of the city. I had been really keen to experience Las Vegas, but after a day or two, I wanted to leave and head back to Cleveland or New York. Las Vegas is a place that is mostly show and little substance. It's like seeing a girl at three in the morning at a club, all made up, then waking up in the morning and seeing what they really look like. It's a pretty charmless, sleazy city, but a place you still have to see to believe.
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