Las Vegas and Arizona

A couple of my mates from Australia decided to visit the States. Sadly they couldn't make it to Minnesota to visit us, so last Tuesday I flew to Las Vegas to hang out with them for a couple of days. We spent our first day exploring the Strip, entering as many hotels/casinos as we could find.

It's a very weird place. On the one hand, the buildings are huge and impressive - a testament to the ingenuity and intelligence of humans. But on the other hand these buildings are filled with people engaged in various forms of gambling which are a testament to the immense stupidity of humans. There are so many great shows playing at Las Vegas (e.g. Penn & Teller, David Copperfield, Chris Angel, etc.) but people choose to spend their money on gambling. My Aussie friends have a theory that gambling is a way of flaunting your immense wealth. I think they may be right.

As the day turned into night, the seedier side of Vegas came out. People standing in the street offering flyers for hookers, giant mobile billboards advertising 'Girls Direct to You in 20 Minutes', advertisements for 'Zumanity: the sensual side of Circ De Soleil' and shows described as 'Elegantly seductive; classically topless'. 'Classically topless'? What does that even mean? The female body is heavily exploited in Vegas. Sin City seems like a appropriate nickname.

There were two redeeming feature of Las Vegas at night. The first was the Bellagio fountain show. This is well worth seeing. It plays every 15 min from 7 PM til midnight. The fountain 'dances' in time with various pieces of music. The show we watched was to 'One' from A Chorus Line. This video gives you some idea of what it was like. The second was the collection of theme park rides on top of our hotel!

Our second day was spent visiting the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. The Hoover Dam is one colossal structure and is even more impressive when you consider it was constructed in the 1920's. Many men lost their lives in the construction of this dam.

The part of the Grand Canyon we visited is on a Native American reservation. And they make plenty of money out of it. Nevertheless, it was an awe-inspiring site. One of the great marvels of God's creation.

My flight home left that night. At 12:10 AM. I thought I might be able to get some sleep. I was wrong. Spirit Airlines have somehow acquired a plane on which it is absolutely impossible to get comfortable. I will not be flying with them again. I don't care how cheap their flights are.