Viva!!

Sometimes, you just know you over planned something - and as we came in to land at Las Vegas airport, and I could actually see where my hotel was, it occurred to me that renting a car from the airport on day one might not have been totally necessary. Landing I quickly collect my luggage, and queue to get the car, and then drive the short distance to my hotel, the Imperial Palace.

I have my GPS and the map and I know where it is - only when it tells me we are there I can’t actually see it, and drive on past. There is no time to stop in this traffic so I turn into the next hotel and then have to go round the back of the main strip, with my GPS giving me crazy instructions every 30 seconds. Eventually I find my way into the Hotel car park, and find a vary rare thing in my experience so far of travelling in the US, a genuinely unhelpful person! Now, I can’t be unique in not having stayed at this hotel before, but maybe I am unique in asking for help in finding where to park my car - in any case I’m huffed at and told I can’t park there (when I’m stopping - not parking - to ask him where I can park). So I drive on and try to sort it out for myself. Only later do I realise that most people get their cars valet parked - the signage for this was obscured by a tall vehicle when I drove in - but I somehow managed to park it myself.

Then off to find the front desk to check in - one might think that this would be simple too - but at the Imperial Palace it seems nothing is simple! There are endless corridors and lifts that only go to certain floors - all very confusing for someone arriving for the first time. However, I check in, too early to get into the room, but I can do the paperwork, and leave the bags at the desk. Then it’s out into the Nevada sunshine for first impressions of this famous town.



And it is BUSY! Bustling with people in the bright sunshine - I walk along past these amazing hotels with fountains and waterfalls and pirate ships - even knowing what to expect I was still being the gawping tourist! I walk for what seems like ages, and then come to a more “normal” strip of shops and restaurants, so I stop for a late lunch in a really nice Tapas place, and just enjoy the atmosphere - and the food!



By the time I’ve walked some more it’s late afternoon when I get back to the hotel, so book in, find my room, which is excellent with a balcony at the back of the building (quieter) and views out over the desert. It’s probably a combination of travel, an early start, the change in temperature and altitude, but I’m really tired, so lie down for a short sleep. When I wake it’s 2am and my stomach is growling for food! And then it suddenly strikes me - this town is supposed to be open 24/7 - there must be places to go eat, even at this time of the morning.

So I go out of my room, instinctively being as quite as I can coz it’s early morning - but when I get to the ground floor and out through the casino I see that indeed it is still buzzing with people at the machines and the tables. Not thinking what might be in my hotel, I head out onto the strip, and mingle with the crowd. You know, in most places I know, a crowd of people at 2 am would be mainly drunks, but here, though there is certainly noise and high spirits, they all seem to be really well behaved! There are places open to eat, but most are of the fast food type, and so my meal is a subway! I wander for a bit then head back to the hotel, and succumb to playing a few slots, and walk around inside to see what there is - and this includes a “teahouse” that is open all night, which would have been better than the subway - ah well!

Before I came here I’d been to one casino in another state, and I’d needed to fill in an application form, show my passport, and then I was issued with a player’s card. I was not allowed into the casino without showing my card, and I also had to use it on the machines. It recorded what I spent, and warned me if I was spending too much. Here the attitude was very different - yea, I could get a player’s card if I wanted, and if I felt like it I could register some details about me. So I did, and have the cards to prove it!

An interesting thing my hotel did was to have tables set aside during the day where you could learn to gamble - you’re given chips to bet with and a croupier shows you what to do, So I sat in with the blackjack lesson, and even with “play” money I lost, so I tried roulette too - a real gamblers game with no skill involved at all. It was at the blackjack table I learned the expression about playing to the eye in the sky - they have cameras watching every move everyone makes, and so you play to the camera. This was interesting, but I don’t think I’d want to play “for real” - not enough of the gambler in me to be interested in doing that.

Although you can spend a load of money here - and I did! - it’s also amazing how much free stuff there is. On one occasion I set out to visit Circus Circus - this is a longish walk from where I am, and one can get a monorail ride there, but I decide to walk in any case. Most of this walk is fun, and I go past the place I had Tapas in the first day I was here, and now it doesn’t seem so far away! Going past this the sidewalk goes alongside a building site, and the wind makes the dust fly - this is not the best place to be walking! But then I get to the Circus Circus entrance, and make my way into the casino, and up to the show area. Here they have real circus acts - for free - every half hour a different act. I stay and watch 3 acts, and in the time between go out and spend some money, so maybe the term “free” is open to interpretation!



At night the strip is alive with lights and the people, and it’s worth just walking and being. Undoubtedly the highlight for me was the water fountains at the Bellagio - not just a simple (or even complicated) fountain, but a fountain show choreographed to music and - well - quite amazing with shifting patterns of lights against the dark background. This too is different each “show” - I stopped and watched one show, then walked on around the lake, and I’d gone only half way round when the next one started. And the hotels are worth seeing and taking in - I was really taken with Paris, and its Eiffel Tower!
It is what it is, and Las Vegas has some great stuff, and some nice people, but also some rude and officious ones. And the amazing thing was - it was EXACTLY like it looks in the movies!

The High Life

I’m in Albuquerque, New Mexico and today is a day out - I get to take a trip up to the Sandia Mountains that are just outside of the city. A group of us from the hotel are going, and we assemble in the early morning to get the tour bus. Albuquerque is on a plateau, and it looks from the city as if the mountains just come straight up out of the plain. As we get closing it seems that they really do - it’s very flat, and then suddenly there are the mountain peaks. The area around the base of the mountain are Native American lands, and, we’re told, they also have the areas best casinos, which will arrange to come and pick you up from the hotel if we are interested.



The tour bus drops us at the Sandia Peak Tramway - the world’s longest passenger aerial tramway. All I can say from the bottom is that it looks long and steep and really impressive. Albuquerque is itself about 6,500 feet above sea level, and the tram - a cabin holding around 50 people suspended on a tiny wire - take 15 minutes to take us up another almost 4000 feet.



We get our tickets and board the “flight”, and that is not a bad description of the trip, as we sour up over the peaks and boulders that make up the face of the mountain. Down where we have been it’s the start of another warm and sunny day, but up here we’re told to expect cold. I’ve got a sweat shirt to put on, but some - who have done this trip before - have the foresight to bring blankets and coats, and real walking shoes. And others, who maybe have not read the information about the trip too well, are travelling in just their summer clothes and sandals.



A number of us take off in different directions - the other side of the peaks are the winter ski slopes, but a few of us take to walking into the hills. The first sign we see tells us that bears and other wild animals inhabit this area, and we’re warned not to approach them - don’t worry! If I see a bear the last thing I’m going to do is go up and try to shake its hand! We walk uphill and soon form into 3 groups - the leading pack who have done this before and/or are incredibly fit, and well prepared for walking. I’m not in that group! Then there are some reasonable walkers who are a bit less sure of their footing/less well prepared - you’ll find me in that group. And then finally a trailing group bringing up the rear.



And there is snow!! Even this late in the year there is snow in between the trees, and then as we go further up, we are walking over snow tracks. After a while we come to a clearing, and the more adventurous go right up to the edge of the cliff face.



I am getting over my fear of heights, but I won’t go that close to the edge, just close enough to see that it IS a cliff and a long way down. And I get someone to take my picture, to prove I did it!



The views from here are truly stunning, and some of the group decide to stay here and relax, whist others (me included) decide to carry on up, and maybe try get to a small cabin that is perched on a peak way in the distance. So again we set off, and again I’m in the second group, and we soon lose sight of the leaders. As we go up and further into the trees, the snow on the ground becomes thicker, and before long, snow is all we can see. At this point it becomes important to watch one’s footing - I walk a bit off the beaten track, and suddenly the snow cover gives way, and my left leg is thigh deep in snow. I try to get out, which causes my right leg to follow suit, and I’m soon covered in snow. But I get out and back onto the path, feeling sheepish for my stupidity. This happens a number of times, both to me and to my companions, and we are not even sure we’re on the right path anymore, so we take a group decision to turn back - we have after all, had a long and strenuous walk.



Climbing up a snow covered path is one thing, it’s actually much more difficult to climb down one! All goes well, until we come to a particularly muddy piece of the trail - I now know better than to go off the track to the snow, or I will certainly fall in. So I stick to the path, slip, and end up sliding a good way down the slope - but by now, I’ve got over being embarrassed, and it’s actually very funny! On our way back we meet the leading group, and we’re soon all back at the cliff face, where we sit for a while talking about our adventures, before heading back to the Tram.



We meet up with the non-walkers, and, it being well past lunch time, talk about what to do for food. There are two options - there is a restaurant up here at the top of the peak, and one at the bottom of the tramway. One of our party was talking to some locals last night, and was told that the place at the bottom has a wider menu, so after some discussion we all get into the tram for the trip down the mountain again. And one assume that this was to be the end of our adventures - but not so!



We get off the tram at the bottom to discover that the restaurant there is not open today! And out tour bus is not due back to collect us for another couple of hours. And our tram tickets only entitle us to one round trip! What to do?



A couple of our better negotiators go and talk to the people who operate the tram, and eventually persuade them, as a gesture of goodwill - and as they are not too busy - to give us free tickets to ride up and back once more, so we can go eat in the restaurant at the top. So we get another trip up over the peaks - how cool is that! Lunch is fine and then a scramble to get back down and onto the tour bus, and back to the hotel.

A physical and spiritual adventure indeed!