I’ve been to Las Vegas for the first time: man, this place is punching above its’ weight. The casinos on the Strip are gigantic buildings and enterprises, providing gambling, lodging, dining, shows, shopping malls, and every other entertainment you can think of. As a disclaimer, I’m not a gambler, so for me it was entertainment enough to see the roulette players, black jack punters, sports bettors and the lowest of them all, the slot machine operators. The only games that make some kind of sense in my opinion are Poker, and to a certain extent sports betting with a fair bookie. In these games you don’t play against the house, so if you know what you’re doing (at least better than the other players) the odds are in your favor.
Everyone has heard stories about cheap hotel rooms, cheap food, free drinks, cheap flights, but unless you’re willing to give it all away in the casinos, you’ll not get to experience this luxury. It’s actually rather the opposite, prices are quite high and not justified by the quality of service. I went to a pricey steak house, but except for the food quality the service was ridiculous. First the waiter made me wait for the table, only to impatiently point out that the table was now ready when the barkeeper had not even finished preparing my drink. The table was set up for 6 people, which the waiter noted after some due delay so he took the additional plates and cutlery and made a small pile on the other side of the table. No joke! But not to worry, he removed the pile only 15 minutes later, just in time before the steak arrived. Apparently it was more important to pour another glass of ice water, cause that’s what you do when the guest takes a seat, regardless of whether he already has a glass of ice water or not. The adults were apparently in the kitchen the whole time, as they knew what they were doing there and produced a very nicely done steak and sides.
The original downtown around Fremont Street, which was the center of Vegas before Bugsy Siegel came and built the Flamingo on the Strip, is rather a sad affair, with slot machine casinos and lots of beggars asking for money to make ends meet. There’s also the Mob museum, a fun, but not very informative museum on the history of Vegas and organized crime in America (No, this term does not include casinos in general), and a Zip line across the pedestrian area. Lame!
The casino behemoths on the Strip are all following their own theme, and it is fun to walk along a corridor under an artificial sky from the Trevi fountain to a Roman atrium, or from the Eiffel tower to the Ile de la Cite. You can see the whole world in one day, if you ignore that it’s all fake. Like in Hollywood it’s all for show, the nice marble facades built out of plaster, the decoration just painted on top of flat surfaces. I for one prefer originals and authenticity.
konrad's world trip 