Vegas - with time to kill

The start of another road trip to the USA. But this story should start with a "prequel". Unlike previous holidays with my mate Thibault, I didn't fly out with him. Rather the plan was that I would join him in Las Vegas. So while I would be going steerage to Vegas, he was flying out first class to San Jose (courtesy of a vast collection of air miles) with his girlfriend. Needless to say he was looking forward to the experience. There isn't space for the number of Whats App messages I got from him both in the first class lounge at Heathrow and then from the flight. Suffice to say that his wide grin appears in all of them, and below is a representative sample. Along with stories of the service, the food and the drink, of which he seems to have indulged fully. As one would. Jealous? Me? Of course! Who wouldn't be?

I forwarded this to a female friend of mine to show her what first class looks like (since neither of us are likely to experience it). She said if a handsome young lawyer like him was guaranteed with the booking she would cash in her pension. I thought that amusing. But I suppose seriously staff are not likely to come across youngsters in first class, apart from incredibly spoilt ones who inherited from parents their sense of entitlement. So I guess the staff might have enjoyed the variety of a young professional couple just looking incredibly happy.

Anyway, there was a further purpose behind all this. While I was still packing in London, Thibault and Clarissa were going to Yosemite (where I had been before), to do some serious hiking up mountainous tracks. At the end of which Thibault intended to propose (presumably reckoning that Clarissa would be too exhausted to decline).

So propose he did. In a spot which frankly few males will ever be able to match. Come on, as a proposal photo, you have to admit this would take some beating. Unsurprisingly she said yes. (I had warned Thibault as to the importance of this months before. Refusal would have put a bit of a downer on the rest of the holiday, which even my cheery disposition might not have lifted!)

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I had a pleasant enough flight over in economy. Only downer was on arrival at Las Vegas. Much of our flight joined the queue for the automatic passport machines, only for this official at the airport to announce that, even though we had not been given landing cards on the flight, we did actually need to complete one. Cue abandonment of queue replaced by a free for all scrum at the back of the hall to grab cards and fill them in with the usual rubbish - passport number, flight details and denials that we were bringing in livestock, drugs or weapons of mass destruction (why would we when you can buy them in any American store?).

And having duly scribbled all this out and clutching our pointless forms, another official apologised but said we only needed these if we hadn't been to the USA recently, so the whole exercise had been a waste of time for almost everyone. And by the time I had reached the automatic machines, the queues for those without the right passports had cleared entirely, so the fast queue was marginally the slow queue. Essentially Vegas airport is set up as if they don't expect to deal with many foreign flights. Obviously, who goes to Vegas? Never heard of the place..

There is a shuttle bus arrangement from the airport to all the downtown hotels. But again this is very hard to find in the cavernous airport, and frankly unless you knew there was one you would never discover it. As if you were not meant to. I had to ask for directions from staff. Twice.

But when you actually get it, its cheap and efficient. And you get taken to your actual hotel, not just to some destination in town.

We were staying at a place Thibault found just off the Strip, the Tuscany Suites and Casino. Although not one of the "name" hotels, this was a lot nicer than the Mirage where we stayed last time we were here. Rooms hugely better, and indeed huge full stop. See below 

 Below is the frontage. Room rates were staggeringly cheap, although somewhat offset by the compulsory resort fee which is a ridiculous cheat by Vegas hotels since you have no choice but to pay it, and there are no resort facilities that you can use without paying extra apart from the pool, which in this hotel was far too small for the number of guests (but more of that later).

Now when I said "we" were staying at this place, I was arriving first, mid-afternoon on the Monday. The lovebirds were to join me the following afternoon. So I had time to kill on my own. My original plan was to go to a Vegas show. However, when I looked these up there were lots of alternatives, but just none of them good. There were several cirque de soleil performances, but at much greater cost than to see them in London, several erotic shows which frankly didn't look that erotic, several illusionist shows (one being "naked magicians" so presumably killing two genres with one stone) and some washed up old singers who hadn't been big in decades. I thought of going to see some comedy, but when I looked up the comedians on you tube none brought even a smile to my face, so didn't see why I would spend much more than I would in London to get much less in the way of laughs.

Of course normal visitors would go gambling. But I have a visceral distaste for losing money so that was out. I am not the pool party type (ie I am not in my twenties spending every waking hour sculpting my abs in the gym, which is essentially the entry requirement) and had no one to go drinking weak beer with.

So my plan was to use up the late afternoon wandering into the Strip and taking some photos. The hotel claimed proudly to be only one block away from the Strip, but if that makes you think it is just around the corner, well it is a heck of a corner. About 15 minutes walk, which isn't much. Unless its nearly 40C. And it was.

But this is a place that is well worth wandering around. Obviously it is a temple of excess, a fantasy world. But who doesn't like a bit of fantasy? There follows my Vegas album:

The Paris Hotel is particularly impressive. Its very like Paris in miniature, if Paris was totally without taste...

...and  if Paris had a beer park under the Eiffel Tower. Why didn't the French think of that?

The Bellagio is enormous with a large lake in front of it. Which is a tourist attraction in its own right as at regular times they set off fountains with a musical accompaniment

 Here come the waterworks...

 Caesar's Palace may have classicists turning in graves, but could be a lot worse. I quite like it

Back at the hotel, I wanted to find the main bar which was to be fair quite pleasant and sold me a very adequate burger to finish off my evening, and let me take my jet-lagged body to bed. Obviously to get from one to the other one had to traverse the casino. Naturally this does not have the glamour of a Bond Movie. In reality its  just a big hall of slot machines. A cheap seaside amusement arcade, but on a massive scale.

My strategy for the next day was to settle in by the pool until Thibault and Clarissa arrived, since I had pretty much exhausted all I wanted to do in Vegas in an afternoon.

Now the hotel pool is lovely first thing in the morning, before anyone else is up, including the Nevada sun. From these photos you may think it idyllic. But that is because it is devoid of guests.

The problem is that by late morning it is full, mostly of kids. And the sun is scorching and there is little shade. One corner of the pool does have shade - see below. But you have to pay extra for that corner, which evidently almost no one does, so it only serves to increase the overcrowding around the rest of the pool.

Clarissa and Thibault duly arrived late afternoon, and as Clarissa had not seen Vegas before the obvious thing to do was have another explore of the Strip.

 As I mentioned, I had not bothered to book a show, but the one thing I had booked was a restaurant. Thibault and I had been disappointed with the food last time we were in Vegas. And I felt the need to do something to celebrate his engagement, and just to thank him for taking me on yet another US road trip. After all, not many guys would take their mate on a holiday in which they were planning to propose. So I took no chances and booked Raku, which claimed to be one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. I suggested we went for the full taster menu, and see what we got.

Tofu starter was a little disappointing. As tofu always is, even when crafted like this.

Oysters spectacularly presented.

Sashimi was absolutely scrumptious

These grilled mushrooms (yes you needed to be told didn't you?) were just about the best thing on the menu. Delightful

 Both the kebab dishes, lamb and beef, were the best kebabs you can ever taste

Followed by fish. Delicious.

An excellent meal, in the tradition of wonderful sushi I have had with Thibault on past holidays. But, as we said on leaving, we had only just got away without still feeling hungry. A little more would not have gone amiss, although what we had was ever so good.

Not expecting such good food hereon in. That was our only city. Big scenery to look forward to, not big cities on this trip.