Let me say up front, that I’m just not a Las Vegas kind of person.  I don’t think that will come as a surprise to anyone!  I’ve always trashed it as being very artificial, and the fact that it’s the first place that most Australians want to visit in the US has always annoyed me, because it’s the least typical place in the US.  But here’s my confession… I had never actually been there, just knew it by reputation.  So in the spirit of keeping an open mind on this trip, I decided to check out the city that I’ve been trashing all this time.

And the verdict is… although it’s still not my kind of place, I didn’t hate it.  And I did kind of understand the appeal.  I will eat a moderate amount of crow on this one! [Wikipedia: “Eating crow is an American colloquial idiom, meaning humiliation by admitting wrongness or having been proven wrong after taking a strong position.“]  But it’s still a weird and artificial place, and in no way representative of the rest of the US, so I wasn’t completely wrong either.

I decided that the only way to really appreciate Las Vegas was probably to stay in a hotel near the strip, and after camping on 4wd tracks in the desert for several days, the idea of unlimited showers at my disposal was also rather appealing.  So I booked a motel just a block off the strip for a reasonable price, and started out early in the morning to walk around the place.  There were all the big and gaudy landmarks that you associate with Las Vegas, but somehow not quite as ridiculous when you see them all together.  They kind of compete and drown each other out a bit, like the MGM lion.

I checked out a few casinos, including the Bellagio, the Monte Carlo, and the iconic New York, New York, and they were pretty typical of casinos everywhere.

I looked into some of the shops there as well, and yep, there were a lot of big flashy names that really tend to annoy me rather than impress me (have I mentioned that I’m not a shopper and paying to wear a label makes no sense to me?!).

Strangely, it was while I was at the shops getting a coffee at Starbucks that I had the first of several odd encounters.  I had this conversation with a moderately good looking man who walked up to me, wearing gold chains and sporting too many teeth:

Creepy Man: You look like a walker.
Me: I am, I have the boots for it. [I’m wearing jeans, a t shirt, and hiking boots.]
Creepy: You have the body too.
Me: Um.  I like to keep in shape.
Creepy: Your body is a temple [Looking me up and down.]

Luckily my coffee came at that point and I could nod and walk away before I started laughing too hard.  I only bring this up because, as a rather average looking middle-aged woman, I was rather surprised to find myself in similar conversations no less than three times during the day.  I still haven’t figured this out — is this normal behavior for Las Vegas?  Wow, not subtle are they?!

But I continued exploring, mostly avoiding places like the Coke and Hershey’s shops, looking at a few souvenirs, but not interested in buying anything.  Still, some of it was unique and even pretty, and people were having fun with it — check out the guy posing in front of this figure, and ask yourself if you wouldn’t do the same thing!

At lunch time I tried out the famous Shake Shack, and although my chocolate shake was actually pretty good, the hamburger was awful, soggy and tasteless.  Oh well.

I ended up walking around a bit more in the New York, New York Casino, just to check it out, and also because I wanted to get a ticket to the show playing there, the adults-only Cirque du Soleil show Zumanity.

The center held the usual slot machines and gaming tables that you find in all casinos, and there were a number of restaurants, cafes, shops, and other forms of entertainment in artificial ‘streets’ as well.  And hey, there were cup holders in the bathroom stalls so you don’t have to wonder what to do with your drink.

I wanted to see a show while I was in Las Vegas, and since this is ‘sin city’ after all, I wanted it to be a bit risqué and in keeping with the tone of the place, but without being trashy or crude.  So I decided to see Zumanity, which had a great reputation and is often called sexy but tasteful.  So I was back to the New York, New York in the evening, in plenty of time to start with a Guinness at the Irish pub there.  As a side note, the Guinness wasn’t bad either, not bitter as it can be when drawn incorrectly.

Without going into too many details, the show was excellent.  Colorful, daring, fun, sexy, funny.  And when a scantily-clad muscle-bound man with a red mohawk, doing a sort of trapeze act swinging from chains from the ceiling to the sound of hard rock music, swung up to my seat in the first row of the balcony, pointed at me, and then blew me a kiss before launching off again…. well, I didn’t need much more convincing, it was a good show! 😉  Pictures were only allowed at the finale, so this is the only one I have, but the show has been running for years, so there are plenty online.

When the show was over, I definitely walked away smiling, and when I was handed a voucher for three free shots at Coyote Ugly, the evening warmed up in other ways too.  I ended up back at my hotel a bit later than I expected, but… that’s Vegas baby!  Yeah, it’s not so bad…