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Los Angeles (California) to Las Vegas (Nevada)...a.k.a. Lost Wages

Sunday, 14th May 2006

We were very happy to say goodbye to the Orbit Hotel and its bed mites!

Karen in our room at the Orbit Hotel
Karen in our room at the Orbit Hotel

We got to Long Beach Airport in Los Angeles with plenty of time to spare. We caught Jet Blue flight 194 to Las Vegas. It was probably the shortest flight Karen and I have ever had, about 50 minutes (I had to hurry up on the toilet to make sure I wasn't still sitting there when we landed!). The flight was also quite bumpy, with the updrafts from the desert rocking the plane. The Nevada desert is impressive in its desolation. It's amazing that there is a city in the middle of this barren area.

JetBlue rocks, SouthWest sux

Karen and I are both in agreement that JetBlue is waaaaaaaaaaay superior to SouthWest, and Karen is busy trying to reorganise our flights so that we fly JetBlue to New York, rather than SouthWest....In line with their other shoddy service, SouthWest refuse to allow you to refund your tickets - so we're stuck with flying with them back to New York.

Tropicana

We got to the Tropicana just before 4pm, arriving at a long snaking queue to the check-in desk. Karen stood in the queue while I changed our pounds (left over from our St Helena trip where there was nothing to spend them on!)...got the best rate so far, they changed the pounds for dollars at a rate of $1.80 per pound - this compares to the rate of $1.77 we got in San Antonio (and had to pay a $5 fine), and the rate of $1.67 quoted at LAX. Lesson learned - never change forex at LAX, they rip you off. Unfortuanately they could not provide a rate to exchange the Norweigian Kroner (left over from the 2002 vacation in Norway with Adolf and Greg). Then Karen went to the toilet whilst I waited in the queue...did I mention that it was a loooong queue. Many of the people in the queue were helping themselves to drinks, including one young lady who had a massive cocktail glass and upon finishing it exclaimed, "I'm already soooo drunk".

Eventually we checked in, they gave us a smokers room on the first floor with no view - a phone call to reception rectified this, and we now have a non-smoking room on the 18th floor with a spectacular view of the Tropicana's swimming pool, the MGM, the Eifel tower & Mandalay Bay.

I've only been in Las Vegas for about an hour, but already I can sense an energy about this town. I think we're going to enjoy our stay here.

Gambling

Karen and I decided to go and join the Tropicana Winners' Club (since it's free). Along with the free membership they gave us each a free deck of cards and about 8 vouchers. One of the vouchers allows you to bet $10 at Roulette on say, odds or evens, and win $15 instead of the usual $10 win. We each had a flutter and we each won! .... This gambling is easy, perhaps we should give up our day jobs and come gamble full-time at Las Vegas.

Laundry

Having satisfied your gambling urges what is one to do...laundry of course! We caught a bus to the laundromatte, which is run by a couple of oriental gentlemen and has interesting signs up, like "Control your children". I ordered a couple of pizzas, which we munched on while waiting for our laundry.

Wondering Vegas

Having satisfied our hunger pangs and having clean laundry, what's one to do ... explore Vegas of course! Karen was tired, but she was game to do some exploring. We went first to the MGM where we saw 3 lions playing with two people, then headed off to New York New York - I joined their club (you get freebies like this), then we went to Excalibur....by this time Karen was dead tired so we headed to our hotel suite.

Where you from?

During this vacation many people have been confused about our accents and where we are from. Hats off to the Avis bus driver at LAX, who got it right - South Africa of course. The guesses include Australia, New Zealand, Wales (!) & Denmark (must be my blue eyes).

Las Vegas's Casino

These photos weren't all taken on the same day, but I decided to keep the photos of each hotel together.

Ballys
Mirage
Bellagio
Monte Carlo
Caesars Palace
New York New York
Casino Royale
O Shea's
Circus Circus
Paris
Excalibur
Riviera
Flamingo
Slots A Fun
Frontier
Stratosphere
Harrahs
Treasure Island
Luxor
Tropicana
Mandalay Bay
Venetian
MGM Grand
Wynn

Click here to see some pictures of the strip.