Viva Las Vegas

Vegas, what a place! If you haven't been it's well worth the long flight from Europe (around 10 hours if you go direct), but book a good package trip well in advance as this will save you loads of 'dosh'. Viva Las Vegas, 'Sin City' an adults playground, so don't take the kids! I was there on business, a 2 day Sales meeting with the rest of the sales team, management, etc, stuck in meetings rooms for 12 hours per day with a 10 min break here and there, so could have been anywhere. Followed by the CITA (Wireless Telecoms event) in one of the big conference centers, but still managed to see some of Vegas throughout my 4 days. This was my first trip to Vegas and I was lucky enough to see Elvis, yes the King is still alive and he is there with his guitar and never seems to age, must be the weather! Talking about the weather, it is very variable this time of year, as we had a glorious sunny warm sunbathing day on Monday and people (folk if you are American) were around the pool. Then Tuesday was windy, very windy indeed, as the desert seemed to be blowing all over the place and it was cold and dull, although 12 hours in a meeting room without a window I was unaware. Then Wednesday sunny and windy and Thursday, back to normal and a beautiful day. These pictures were all taken on Thursday as I had a few hours to kill before the 16:05 Virgin Atlantic flight back to the UK. So what do you want to know about Vegas, well here is my take on it, you may agree, or think otherwise, but here goes..... My first impression was this is a giant Disney Land for Adults, with roller coasters, Casinos, night clubs, girls and more girls, not forgetting the ladies of the night, shows, yes Elton John was on this week, helicopter riders, food, loads of restaurants, basically entertainment for all, if you like that sort of thing. I stayed at the MGM Grand, probably at the nicer end of the 'Strip' as it was easy to walk from there to the other big hotels, yet I walked the full length which takes around an hour if you stay on the outside of the hotels and don't get too distracted on the way. Vegas has exploded in size since the 60's from around 2,000 inhabitants to over 2 million now and still growing. Apparently it is one the fastest growing cities in the world. Hotel are being built everywhere, and there seems no shortage of people coming from all over the world to be Americanized for a week or so. When I arrived in the foyer of the MGM Grand hotel I was amazed by it's grandeur and the colossal size. I really needed directions to find my room, then to find our meeting room, well this took me around a 15-20 minute walk within the hotel to get there and that's knowing the way. It may have been quicker to get a taxi from the front of the building to the conference suite entrance at the back. Each hotel was on a similar size as this one, some even bigger, with shopping malls, Starbucks, cinemas, restaurants, etc and all with huge casinos. The noise of these slot machines, the dimmed lights, the smoke (no smoking ban in Vegas) and the guests plugged into the machines was a strange sight. Then table upon table of different types of gaming, not to forget the waitresses with the short skirts and big earrings enticing you to play and if that was not enough the ladies of the night propositioning you to join them for another sort of gambling, but you would be sure to loose money on this one, so keep everything in you pocket! We had dinner with the team on Monday evening, around 20 of us in total were there and then around 11pm we were free, let loose on Vegas and to explore, but not to be too late as we had an 8am start on Tuesday and I was already suffering big time from jet lag, so did not plan a late night. So a short walk through Aladdin, past New York, New York then back into the MGM for a drink. During the drink a suggestion was to go to a show, well it was in the hotel, so it wasn’t far to get to bed afterwards. Well not too far as this was the front of the hotel. So we went into see ‘La Femme’ a very tasteful show. The show was, ‘A celebration of the artistry of the nude’ and was very good. Nothing too naughty, nothing obscene and was a show directed from ‘Crazy Horse in Paris’, so was very nice, a little like the Moulin Rouge. Anyway the next morning was hard work, all day in the meeting room from 8am and only 10 mins break at lunchtime, finishing around 7pm. I livened up the meeting at the end with some funny stories and my own mobile phone demo video, which woke everyone up again. So at last we were now free, it was 7pm and we were free to indulge ourselves in Vegas, but the tiredness was slowly creeping in, so we all went for a drink to celebrate the end of the sales meeting. We did not have to travel far as within the hotel was loads of bars and restaurants. Everyone seemed to be ordering Margarita’s, so I followed suit, but these did not seem to be any ordinary measure but large and after a couple of these you did not know where you were. I made an excuse I had to drop my laptop off before I forgot where I put it so I could escape the next round (yes I’m a light weight!). On my return we made our way to New York, New York, then off to a restaurant for food and drink. After one 'shot' of snaps my head was spinning and decided that’s enough for me and I would stick to regular coke (coca cola, not the other stuff!) as the measures where crazy. Charles our Chinese colleague was well away and I would not like to see him in the morning. After the meal we wandered through the hotels, checking them out, saw the bright lights outside and ended up in another bar, and a small group stayed until 4am, I didn’t, I was so pooped I went to bed, but no one believed me. They thought I found some girls and went off with them, but honestly I didn’t, I was tired, drunk and just wanted my bed. That night was a killer, the worst I have had for many many years, I was as sick as a dog, which I’m sure was not the alcohol as 3 drinks could not do that to you. I must have been up and down throwing up at least 10 times during the night; I was sweating, shivering and dying on the bathroom floor. This was not good and never seemed to end all night and I knew I had to check out in the morning by 11am and it was around 9am before I actually got some sleep. As the hotels were all fully booked, we had to move hotel for the last night and this could not have come at a worse moment, I just wanted to stay in bed all day. So around 11am I called the front desk and managed to get an extension until 1pm, so stayed in bed, sweating and shivering. Then had to pull myself out of bed and move to the other hotel across town. This was an epic task and I amaze myself I managed to make it. Anyway, to cut a long story short I arrived at the hotel but could not check in until 4pm, so decided to go to the CTIA and see what all that was about, which is of course the Wireless Conference 2006 for the Americans. As I put already put my suit on I was dressed for the occasion, so mingled in and had a look around. This is nothing like the 3GSM in Barcelona, which I think is far better and not full of Americans which makes it easier to handle, but let’s not go there! So that afternoon I went back to bed, slept from 6:30pm until 5am then I got up, had breakfast (first thing in 24 hours), did some emails and then went into the city to spend a few hours taking these pictures before we had to catch the plane home in the afternoon. This was in fact the best time of day, nice relaxing, no drinking, (apart from water), and beautiful weather. Time to explore the Strip by day and in the fresh air and sunshine. Did I like Vegas, well it’s worth visiting, and if you have more time (not like me) then go to the Nevada desert, see the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, and drive up to the mountains and other towns. Enjoy the shows, have a little flutter with money you can afford to loose and don’t overdo it! Verdict; go and see for yourself…..Oh, before I forget you probably notice the hotels have diferent themes such as New York, Paris, Venice, etc