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We missed our bus to Vegas and had to get a later one, oops! Too busy shopping and watching muscle women on Venice beach! As our taxi drove up to the hotel, we felt like small children again as a magical Rapunzel-style castle towered above us and we drove inside it. Walking inside, we found the 100m reception desk and were bombarded by the noise and flashing lights of the absolutely massive collection of gaming machines located next to us. To get to our room, you had to walk around the edge of the gaming floor, and although it was 2am, there were around 300 people still there playing.The next day, following a full inspection, we found the hotel had over a 1000 bedrooms, 4 swimming pools, about 2000 gambling machines, a 24 hr food court with high street brand names, an all you can eat buffet for meals, a collection of county -fair style games on a separate floor…..ie massive and you never had to leave! Walking down the Vegas strip, we found more casinos each with its own unique styling and massive in size. Caesar's Palace sprawled over the size of a small city (slight exaggeration) and had all the expensive named shops inside, so naturally we had to visit Tiffany's jewellery shop. The New York skyline of NYNY Casino looked great and one casino has lions inside-cruel. Some first day luck saw us win around $15 dollars on day 1. Day 2 went a bit poorly, and day 3 ended at 3am with 4 successive wins. We also learnt to play roulette with bets being placed on a computer screen that helpfully explained all the rules. Overall we probably lost around $40, however, it gave us 3 days of entertainment, which was excellent value. Vegas was also cheap accommodation at excellent quality.Although Vegas had hint of tackiness, it was cool tackiness, not seedy in any way, and felt extremely friendly, much more so than Hollywood and was so much better than we expected. We have perused a few of the wedding chapels, which seem nice, and are making plans for a return……. (nb Ian wrote that bit- Lins xx)The only down side is the obsession with Americans for tipping. Our Vegas tour guide says that if a receptionist upgrades you, you should tip them $20, er….its cheaper to pay the extra at time of booking, and the baggage storage boys who carry your bags less than 5m into the storage room seem to expect tips. My tip is get a better job! 200 bags an hour at $1 a bag, maybe its not such a bad job! Las Vegas surprisingly has made it into one of our top seven destinations to go in the world!
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