The Strip

Las Vegas

Dec 2007

Yes, The Strip is where all the life of Las Vegas is. Las Vegas,as far as I know, is one of the brightest cities in the world. Going from Madison, which is a really small and rather lowly lighted city, to this flashy, glowing city with N number of hoardings and banners and Video screens, it was really a dramatic change of atmosphere..This was when we were entering the city...The Stratosphere is the tallest structure and is visible from afar..and infact, when driving to Vegas, one can make out a halo of light above this city, thanks to The Strip.

The Strip is lined with a Casino Hotels after the other. I doubt if there is any hotel without a casino. It is illegal to gamble anywhere in the US except in Nevada. Well, its kind of compensated for that...you will find slot machines everywhere..click..clunk..click..clunk...it would be a nightmare to spend a night stuck at the airport..seems there are slot machines there too. So the basic idea is, these casino hotels invest an enormous amount in show business..all the movies, especially the movie 'The Casino' comes to my mind..and the way gambling works, there is a probability that you will get more than what you gamble, but its really a minor fraction. The cost of the stay in these hotels is quite reasonable, they get most of their money through the slot machines and other gambling desks.We got a huge room(huge by our standards) consisting of two large double beds for just 70$ a day. The interesting things one can see is the extent to which these hotels would go to make people walk through their hotels..they construct bridge walkways that allow you to cross the street, but by climbing the bridge(you have escalators even for that) and walking on it, you are walking through the hotel..and the hoardings and electronic displays are everywhere..why..they are on with life even during the day..I just wonder at the amount of power this city uses for show business and gambling when millions starve and die of hunger everyday. The disparity is appalling and it actually infuriated me in a way. But to be more practical, the world doesnt just work that way, and the world hasnt become that small yet to bridge such things.

But nevertheless, the show business is at its best here and each of the hotels has a theme..it displays the art and looks of the places in a given country and tries to give an as authentic feel of that corner of the world as possible...there is 'Paris', 'Caeser's Palace', 'Bellagio', 'Sahara','MGM', 'New York New York','Circus','The Venetian' etc...each name speaks for itself and the list is as long as the Strip. We could visit 'The Venetian'...it was past midnight..and as we stepped into a certain portion, it looked a bright day at Venice, what with the river as the roads, the gondolas, the palace, and the sky..that was some technological marvel of optics and materials. There was a false sky and it was a perfect imitation, unless you looked carefully to make out the grids on the dome that can tell you where the lights are. Perfect feeling of the day, I forgot for a moment that the time was indeed past midnight. Wow! I think these are to be seen and admired, no matter what and I can't help but appreciate the efforts put in by the hotel investors to attract people to their hotels to play. That was one of the main attractions that we saw, and the night had just started for most people..no way could we feel that it would ever sleep...its almost a dead city during the day, but it just suddenly springs to life during the night. But time was not on our side, and soon we had to start back to LA, and drop me on the way to Ontario..to catch my flight back to Phx..Given a chance, I think I would definitely like to go back to Vegas and see around all the hotels more, and it would be more like a pseudo-world tour...and of course, learn to gamble a little..;)..