Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 13

After the Bellagio - we headed next door to Caesar's Place - which had a bit of a Disneyland-esque mish-mash view of ancient Rome. The statues looked Ancient Greek and so too does the lettering and font of the Casino. Caesar's seemed to have some "big names" playing at it - including Elton John (there was an Elton John gift shop and Elton themed slot machines), the Pussycat Dolls (there was a PCD gift shop, PCD slot machines (emphasis on the slot) and PCD cafe/bar complete with poles), and Bette Middler and Cher (with their own gift shop but no slot machines?!). This place (or should that be palace) was pretty big. There was a big sports room with a big f##k-off TV and monitors for sports gambling - and an "Ebay" slot machine (not sure if Ebay should be associating itself with gambling?).

Next door was the Forum (I did another sound of music twirl as there were a couple of scenes from Shotgirls shot here) - a indoor shopping centre (no natural light in any of the casinos whatsoever) which had a tacky painted on ceiling with clouds and stuff where they simulate it being nighttime or daytime (anytime). I had Ant took my picture in front of the Versace store (pronounced Ver-sace in Showgirls) and there was this weird but tacky spiral escalator - which sorts of traps you in the centre and forces you to walk around the complex. There was this tacky fountain in the middle of the forum, complete with fog, which there were hoards of tourists hanging around. They all appeared to be waiting for a show (they put on free shows all over town in Vegas) - but we didn't see any sign of a show starting. One of the busiest stores there was the Apple Store - where we both logged on the internet (for free) and Ant updated his facebook status.

We headed outside (needed some natural light) and walked past "Treasure Island" - which has a pirate ship which circles the front of the casino (tack). The side of the strip on which we were walking seemed to be the "classy side" in that it was "classier" than the other side of the strip - which felt a bit run down. There was a few old casinos (see Hurrahs which had the "best 10pm shows in Vegas" with some unknown comedian, or Flamingos (with the Osmonds playing - hold me back), or Casino Royale (which looked old and crusty) but we crossed over to the "Venetian" which was a Venice-themed hotel - complete with indoor gondolas and signing gondola people (don't remember that in the real Venice!?!).

We had lunch at some Mexican fast food place in the Venetian. I ordered a taco salad because I thought it would be "relatively" light and lean - but in true US fashion - it was the size of about two Australian mains... You could get souvenir margarita glasses and klassy margarita slushes (you saw heaps of people walking around town with them).

Opps - I forgot to mention that this was Xmas Day. Ant and I were sick of spending Xmas in Catholic countries (see Chile) so we thought one place that would still be open (and happening) would be Vegas. I liked some of the Xmas touches in Vegas - my favourite was a tout along the strip who was singing "Tis the season to do strip clubs. Tra-a-la-a-la. La-la-la-la". More to come...