Where you should only find mountains and scorpions, there's giant fountains spraying water several stories into the air.
Where there should be cactuses, slot machines.
We've imported some of the world's most famous monuments, just to have them in one spot.
The marketing "what happens in Vegas" calls to people's terrible intentions. Everyone wants to live out The Hangover or Bachelor Party. Do a little coke and party with Mike Tyson.
People come here to destroy themselves, whether from the city never sleeping, or the amount of booze around every corner. You can't take 10 steps without seeing some bleary eyed husk of a human, pressing a button on a virtual slot machine, smoking their 8th cigarette and sipping on a whiskey coke to stay awake.
This city is meant to hit every synapse in your brain that makes you want to keep going. Keep putting money in the machine. Have another beer. Go eat your 6th steak of the week.
And in some weird way, I love this abomination... but not in the way most people do.
Best way I can describe the Vegas I saw, is Star Wars.
You know how every planet in Star Wars sort of has a theme. Here's your ice planet, your dessert planet, here's the big city planet, etc. Well this is like the casino planet. When you're there, you forget the rest of the world exists. The bright flashing lights, loud sounds, and humanity should trigger your anxiety, but it doesn't. Instead your brain takes it all in and you wander around with a smile on your face.
This place was built by Mobsters. It's still run by criminals. And it's built to temporarily turn you into another person.
You pay a tax for this adult playground. Everywhere. I thought to myself, wow, the flight and hotel actually weren't that bad.
You walk 10 feet through the casino, get a $13 beer, walk another 10 feet, throw $5 in the slot machine, you get hungry, time to eat a $17 sandwich. Dinner comes and expect the bill to land somewhere in the $100-150 a person range.
We were in Las Vegas for 3 nights and 4 days and spent almost as much as we did when we were in Hawaii for 10 days.
We went to Vegas to see Lady Gaga's last night doing her jazz piano big band show. Was fantastic. She sang a couple of her songs on the piano but mostly stayed with Vegas classics like Sinatra and Newton. At one point she dedicated "Fly Me To the Moon" to her friend Tony Bennet who passed away a few years ago. He used to do this show with her.
About two-thirds of the way through she put her microphone down and just sang to the room. Incredible how she commanded everyone to scoot forward on their seat, wanting to take in every breath. Not a single dry face in the room.
Other than that, had one of the best meals of my life at the NoMad Library in the MGM Park.
Went to one of the coolest dive bars I've ever been to in Atomic Liquors.
Of course hit up several Anthony Bourdain recommendations in eat. (and Atomic Liquors which had a Bourdain shrine).
And bounced around a few breweries where we were directed to a local's dive bar that was horror themed and in fact, did rule.
All in all, would go back. But like a lot of people have said, your brain is sort of drained on that forth day. I don't know that anyone needs to be in Vegas for more than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment