DESERT DISNEYLAND

16-17 May 13: Days 2 & 3 of 43 – Las Vegas NEVADA (State 2).

Today 512km, Total 684km.

Try and imagine a glitzy Luna Park for adults with miniatures of every famous building from around the world all in one 6km strip in the middle of the desert with every naughty whim catered for… well you don’t have to imagine it because it exists and it is called Las Vegas!

Las Vegas started life in the early 1800’s as a gold rush town and in order to attract workers, a couple of clever prospectors decided to form the “Silver State” of Nevada (they did not want to give away the fact that there was lots of gold there) and became the first US state to legalise gambling, booze and brothels – what more could a gold digger need?

Las Vegas is now a thriving city of 553,000 and although it was hit hard by the GFC it quickly bounced back and transformed itself as a “family” city with significant upgrading of hotels, parks and the famous 6km “Las Vegas Boulevard” known as “the strip”. Add new child-attractions like Disney shows alongside the usual cabaret, strip and magic shows and you now have a city that is genuinely “clean”, “glossy” and great to look at and walk through. It is definitely not seedy or down-market. This was the biggest surprise.

Our 3.5 hr drive to Las Vegas from LA was a classic hot desert experience: top down, Bubba’s 60s music blaring and nothing but scrub covered jagged mountains to keep us company. After munching down some Mexican egg burritos in Victorville CA we decided to head straight for the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead some 40 miles before Las Vegas.

Hoover Dam is the only art-deco structure of its kind, built 1931-1936 and rising 729ft (222m) above the Mead Valley floor. Overlooking it is the extraordinary Mike O’Callaghan Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge which is 1896ft (578m) long and rising a palm-sweating 2,000ft (610m) above the Mead Valley floor that’s almost 3 Hoover Dams high. After walking across the top of the dam we drove up to the start of the bridge and walked across it. What a blast. Literally. Blasts of hot air almost swept us off our feet as the bridge is built across two huge cliffs with a wind-tunnel affect between them. The temperature that day reached 104F (40C) and we turned up to our Las Vegas Luxor Hotel as red as cooked lobsters.

The Luxor comprises 2,000 rooms in four towers surrounding a central pyramid that contains the exclusive rooms on its slopes with casino inside the centre cavity. What a complex. The Egyptians would have been green with envy! After checking in at around 4:30pm it was a quick shower and we hit the bars downstairs for a pre-dinner bubbly in accordance with the Golfco Pictures travelling tradition. 

Dinner tonight was a buffet at the Bellagio Casino, a fabulous 3km sunset walk along “the strip” from our Luxor. Las Vegas leads the world in “neon” technology which of course is all digital now and the quality of the screens are equal to those of our living room digital LCD TVs – amazing detail and contrast.

Casino buffets are a “must-do” in Vegas since they are lavish, high quality, good value and allow you to experience the incredibly themed interiors of the strip Casinos. 

Bellagio was no exception. Modelled on rich Tuscan Italian architectural themes, the highlight is the reception boasting a ceiling of coloured glass-blown flowers, a full blooming garden behind reception and a huge 8-acre lake in front (along the strip) with a spectacular fountain show to opera and lights on the hour from dark to midnight. The taxi driver who took us there was stopped by the police for a u-turn on red lights - our first encounter with "the law"!!!

After a lavish, all-you-can-eat seafood and prime-rib feast of $US32/head washed down with three bottles of $US30 American Merlot it was back to the reception area to record our first 4-person dag dance which even attracted some flash photos from waiting tourists. It was also great to walk it all off down a packed strip full of people brandishing “Eiffel Tower” shaped flasks, full of cocktails of every colour.

Friday 17 May was designated “strip” day. I started it off by running the entire 6km length of the strip from Luxor to the Stratosphere, a casino with observation tower and then back to Luxor non-stop. 

It was a great way to familiarise myself with the many casinos along the strip before walking it with Bubba, Thelma and Louise. We all set off at 10am on our daytime “casino crawl” starting with New York, New York followed by MGM Grand, Flamingo, Wynn and finally Stratosphere.

MGM was the biggest in terms of floor area and the most plush and our favourite was Wynn. New York, New York comprised replica miniature Manhattan streets with slots, cafes and restaurants inside the casino. MGM was huge. A full shopping centre complex and several theatres inside keeping all the slots company. 

The MGM highlight was a huge system of pools and waterfalls at the back. Flamingo featured lakes and gardens in the rear with live Chilean Pink Flamingos which Thelma and I had seen in Bolivia and Chile. Wynn was breathtaking. It is a tasteful fusion of the Ritz, Bloomingdales and Rodeo Drive all in a single massive complex. The attention to detail and the use of colour and multiple materials is impressive. Only our photos will do it justice. Stratosphere features an observation deck with theme park rides, 109 stories above the ground at 866ft (264m). 

Stratosphere features the best views of all of Vegas including the strip and is especially impressive at sunset. It is only here that we realised just how isolated Vegas truly is and everyone lives in houses so it is sprawled out over a large area. By this time the hot blue sky sun had worn us down so we decided to take the 15min overhead monorail back to MGM from Stratosphere. An afternoon swim in the Luxor pools immediately behind the pyramid revived us for our evening show and casino crawl! It was weird swimming next to a giant pyramid but we quickly got used to it!

The 70min “Broadway Celebration” inside the New York, New York casino was a blast. We sipped beer and tapped our toes to a medley of over a dozen famous Broadway shows including Cats, Beauty and The Beast, Hairspray, Hello Dolly, Fame, Footloose & West Side Storey. The 6 female and 4 male dancers were great with terrific singing to boot. By this stage we were starving so we caught a cab to the Mirage casino where we enjoyed another non-stop feast of seafood, meats and deserts.

The buffet highlight was a tiramisu made up as a coffee cup made of dark chocolate with coffee soaked sponge and white chocolate mousse inside. To top this off, the Mirage has an erupting model volcano and boasts a full-scale aquarium of tropical fishes behind the check-in counter. Amazing. Our walk home took us via the classic Caesars Palace. Too much for words. White marble statues everywhere. It is a sprawling complex with people everywhere. By the time we got back to Luxor we were ready to trade in our feet for new ones. Vegas had literally run us off our feet!