First show tonight. Forgot how far things are to walk in Las Vegas, fortunately our hotel is pretty much in the middle of the strip. Tomorrow nights show is right at the south end of the Strip, so we will bus there. Found out that the Smith Centre (which is where the Broadway shows come to town and where we are seeing the matinee of American Idiot tomorrow) is way out by the outlet mall about an hours bus ride.
BIG - is one word to describe Las Vegas. Starting with the new Terminal layout at the airport, opened on June 25th last year. You arrive on your plan then take a train to pick up your luggage. Then you walk for what feels like miles in any direction. Not a problem if you have bags with wheels and handles, but sadly our bikes are shoulder strap or handle carried, same with our 'bags - that fold up small for shipping to final destination. So, a luggage trolley was required (2 really needed, but at a humungous $5US a pop - with only a 25c refund on return, the skill of dragging a bag worked well!). But going to need two trolleys on Sunday, we now have an extra bag of shopping.
The airport addition is 1.9 million square feet. So much for the recession. Someone is obviously planning on increases in passenger numbers and visitors!
BIG is the same when you get to the Strip. It is easy to forget how big the gambling floors are, how big the edifices are. One big change since we were here 6 years ago are four new casinos next to the Bellagio where we are staying. Tackiness personified. Well actually LV itself is tackiness personified.
One of the main things we are noticing is the cult of the celebrity chef. There are michelin starred restaurants everwhere (Joel Robuchon has two in the MGM Grand, one has 1 michelin star - degustation menu is $145 a head plus wine, and next door is the 3 michelin star restaurant - $435 a head for a degustation menu - plus wine.) There are celebrity chef restaurants everywhere. We can now see why Masterchef shows and becoming a 'chef' is such a tantalising career option.
But on the other hand, there is the truly terrible american food that Greg reminded us about last week. In a 24 hour period we went from a slice of pepperoni pizza (with only four bits of pepperoni, and quite a bit went in the bin as it was inedible) to a divine melt in the mouth spanish meal, back to a horrid turkey, tomato and lettuce sandwich on stale bread. Time to be more circumspect with the meal planning!!!
Shopping went well at the outlet mall, have done enough of it over the years, we know which stores will be worth going into for us and which not. But, this mall was different, there were a lot of things at retail price, it is obviously such a huge target for tourists to LV. Peter noted that there were very few americans at that mall. Lots of Eastern Europeans, asians, french, and a handful of aussies and probably a few kiwis that we didnt' bump into. Still, managed to come away with the 10 pairs of shoes required!!!
The gambling not going too well. Started off with a hiss and a roar, with Peter being up about $12 (we are so daring, we put in $1 and then late last night put in a whole $5!). But today the machines ate all our winnings. So today obviously not a good luck day. It is fascinating watching people putting in $200 and it vanishing in a matter of minutes. The cool machines are too costly for us - 40 cents a bet - maybe if we get daring late tonight...
The chocolate fountain in the Bellagio - at 27 feet high, the tallest in the world. Three different types of chocolate. 2 years of planning and design to build and supported by miles of stainless steel pipes.
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