June 21st, Vegas.

June 21st, Vegas.

I should probably say somethings about Vegas first but the night out is at the end so you may want to skip to that.

The whole thing that everyone thinks as Vegas is a series of Hotels and Casinos either side of 'The Strip', which is just a long road running North/South. Despite the fact that there is only a single road that everyone wants to go up and down there is no decent public transport. There actually are a few buses that run the length of the it but they are so few in number that you have to wait for a few to come and go before you can actually get on one. Also all the roads are jammed full of cars and so it takes ages to get anywhere. I cant believe they havent build a decent tram service that loops up and down the strip.

Suprisingly Vegas doesnt actually look very much like Vegas, even at night time. It seems that perhaps everything is on too large a scale and so you cant see enough of it from ground level to be impressed, only enough of it to be loomed on. We later found out you have to go up high for Vegas to look like you want it to, i.e. glitzy, shiny and flashy.

The casinos themselves seem universally pretty horrible. They are packed *full* of slot machines, easily 90-95% of the floor space is given over to them, which is so boring. I mean wheres the fun in watching people play slots? or in fact playing slots? Hurrumph, not enough card tables or poker games. They are also universally murder to get out of once your in them. The layout usually forces you to take a few left/right turns as you enter to slightly disorient you, then you find all the outside light cues are hidden and your stuck in some bland slot machine filled uniformity, murder.

Well enough and that onto the evening....

I had read a review for a bar called the "Ghost Bar" and it was described as a place for "stylish young trendsetters" where "the beautiful patrons are the focal point". Thinking there could not be a more apt description for the travel worn Josh, Keith and I this sounded like the place to go. It was also in the Palms resort which Josh had heard was cool, so if we didnt get in there we would have other alternatives.

With a good many formative beers inside us and our funky-est Tshirts and party pants outside us we ventured forth. Our pockets bulged with over hundred dollars each, locked and loaded we were ready. (Incidentally we all came home with exactly zero dollars, stiffing the taxi driver for his tip). The intention was to start of with some light gambling on roulette, given we weren't going to gamble for long we thought we'd be best off going for something with obscene odds so we *could* at least finish with a load of money rather than piss around for 20 minutes and be $5 better off. A collective $60 and ~3 minutes later we decided roulette was a mugs game, to summarize, "Odd", "Arse", "Odd", "Arse", "Odd", "Arse", "Hmmm".

Approaching the Ghost bar we tried to look like we were sylishly setting trends, like getting poor very quickly at roulette, this appeared to work some $10 each later we were being bounced into lift and off to the 55th floor.

Exiting the lift a grin quickly appeared on my face. From the overly minimal decor to the excessive use of UV to the stunning views from the 55 story balconies with bars this was a pretty funky place. I could feel the urge to stylishly set trends rising in my gut. Three $7 + tip bottled beers later we were out gawping at the view, after last night this was great! It was Vegas! Woot! Woot! Most of the rest of the evening was spent with Keith and I merrirly chatting away to assorted groups we had accosted whilst Josh went off and did his thing. It was a pleasantly spent moderatly drunken evening in some good surroundings, cool. The end of the evening was spent in a very different manner however.

This started when I noticed Josh chatting away to a middle aged chap and his wife, rather than a group of young ladies, confused I approached to see what the score was. Getting some odd looks from Josh that I completely failed to interepret it quickly became apprant these guys were *total* nutters. The first I had met in our travels so far. Intrigued I engaged in a series of highly reasonably put (from my side) discussions to try and work out what right wing nutters are actually like and what their views are. It turns out they were too insane for me to reasonably convey. The more crazy / unexpected statements were, it is good for people with disabilities to die in the streets, that Britain should have nuked the USA for their involvment with the IRA, that the Statue of Liberty should be sent back to France and that the World Health Organization is a "crazy commy waste of time". When the Wife stated she hated France and that they had obstained from French Fries for two years I enquired as too why, after about 5-6 seconds she said "because they are against everything we believe in", asking for specifics led to the responses "stuff" and "everything", genius. Crazy ignorant sociopaths indeed, but still two out of all the USA is pretty darn good going. Josh later revealed they had both said that the were 'packing heat'. Packing heat! In a club! Nutters!

None the less a good night and with our wallets, brains and bladder suitably crippled we taxi'd off home for a bit of a kip.

Tommorrow Santa Barbara for some OC sweetness!