Viva Las Vegas!

As the bus rolled into the Gambling Capital of the World we were mightily relieved to have finally made it, albeit severely delayed. Our travelling companion from China had also made it through and had kindly offered his brothers services to give us a lift to the LVH, our hotel for our stop in Las Vegas. As Steven drove us all through The Strip late in the evening we marvelled at the neon lightshow that was filling our eyes at every metre along Las Vegas Boulevard. It was not long before we were checking into the Las Vegas Hotel (LVH, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton) and grabbing a quick shower before hitting the casino in the LVH.

The LVH in Las Vegas

We had heard fantastic stories of the casinos in Las Vegas where you could order a drink on the house and simply tip the waitress a dollar for her time. However, it seemed to be harder than we thought as the waitresses just weren’t coming near us to offer the “free” drinks we were desperate for. So after about 20 minutes of skulking around the slot machines, the black-jack tables and the Miss America contestants we decided that we weren’t going to get lucky and we should go out onto the strip and buy an honest beer and be done with it, maybe the free beer thing was a myth. We wandered the streets and it felt just like the movies that we had seen back in good ol’ England. It had been a long day so we were only going to be out for a short while, so we headed into a couple of casinos to try our luck one more time with the free beer, but finally bit the bullet and got 2 bottles of beer for $5 in Slots ‘o’ Fun. Not such a bad start, although we were hoping for more Big Ass Beers, but it seemed like Vegas was a bit more classy than that. Did I just use Vegas and Classy in the same sentence??

Vegas baby!!!

The next day was a day to find some sandwich supplies for James and some (more) cereal bars for me, and also to have a better stab at getting the free beers we had dreamed about. The morning wander for a coffee turned out to be rather more moist than we had anticipated. After finding many, many tat stores selling all manner of tat that you can think of, we managed to find Starbucks for a coffee and when we stepped back outside the heavens had opened and we were to get drenched on our hike back to the hotel. This was crazy, it seemed like the rain clouds had been following us for the last 6 locations, even to places that hadn’t seen rain for weeks, such as Vegas and Alabama. But thankfully it brightened up enough for us to make it to a store and get the much-needed sandwich supplies, some aptly-named crisps and some more washing powder, for we needed to do a laundry load but not for $5 a t-shirt that the LVH was quoting! On our return we started on the hand-wash, something that we were getting rather good at by now, and set about planning our next moves – to-Salt-Lake or to-not-Salt-Lake, how to get to the Grand Canyon, how to get to Yosemite, etc, etc. And then it was time to hit The Strip again, this time to have a proper stab at everything Las Vegas had to offer.

One of our first stops was at Circus Circus, the hotel that we nearly stayed at through advice from people we had met on our travels but had decided against it due to the all-too-crazy atmosphere that seemed to surround it, and we got a pizza to share with a glass of water each. Our money was to be destined for greater things than food. Wandering down Las Vegas BLVD we came across the pirate ship that indicated we were at the Treasure Island (TI) casino. So we stuck our heads in and played a 1c slot machine, more just to get a feel for the place than to try and win some money. Within minutes a waitress approached us asking if we would like a drink. After checking that said drink would be complimentary (I did not want to get stung for a beer that I assumed would be free) we ordered two beers and sat back to eagerly await our bounty. After a short wait the waitress returned and we both gave her a $1 tip, clinked our bottles and supped away whilst playing through our dollar in the slot machine. We knew we had got it now, and headed through to the next casino safe in the knowledge that we had cracked the system and would be able to order “free” beers wherever we went. Whilst playing the slot machine in TI I had managed to get my credit back up to $1 and went to cashout from the machine. Now, if you have never been to Vegas, the machines print out a voucher for you to use in one of the other achiness in that casino. So I tucked my $1 voucher into my back pocket, being careful not to crease it. I did not realise at the time that you cannot use these vouchers in the other casinos, but I held onto it nonetheless in the knowledge that we would be passing the TI on the way back home, so I could quickly pop in and try to double it up if possible. It turns out that I would not get the opportunity to complete this transaction. We had moved on to some of the other casinos along The Strip and as we turned to head back home I went to my back pocket to check I still had my $1 voucher (and possible passport to riches) but found only a receipt for some Cheeto’s I had purchased in Nashville. Some cheeky little get had half-inched it from my back pocket! It’s not the value of the loss that angers me, it’s the principal of the matter. Actually, it IS the value too! That could have got me another bottle of Heineken (other continental beers are available).

And all for the price of one US dollar

Our final stop that night was Caesars Palace - a magnificent arrangement of buildings that seemed too big to comprehend. Faux-Italian statues and fountains lined the outskirts of the casino and the theme continued within. Having cracked the code of the drink ordering system we were merrily supping away at our beers and playing the occasional slot machine, but never more than 1c a go. I had been tempted to try my hand at black-jack but thought it best to leave it til the next night, at the Bellagio or Luxor, and try to find somewhere that offered minimum bets of less than $10 a hand. I had set a leaving time of about midnight, for I had booked myself on a bus tour to the Grand Canyon the next morning, so we cashed our vouchers, finished our drinks and started the long walk back to the LVH. Along the way we would dodge many idiots such as frat-boys and Wall-Street-wannabes, packs of young girls on the look-out for a sugar-daddy and any number of people clicking baseball-style cards advertising women for the night. Still, we made it back safe and sound, but my heart sank when I set my alarm for the following morning and it stated that I had only 4 hours to go before it would be blaring at me to get up.