Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 16

We woke up at the non-Latino time of 6:15am because we had a super early flight from Las Vegas to Dallas. Because the Luxor was right next door to the airport - we thought we would take our chances with a taxi instead of catching the hotel shuttle for $6USD each. We were right - the taxi only cost us about $10 plus a small tip (you would have had to pay a tip with the shuttle as well...).

We checked into our AA flight (our first for this trip) and we managed to get ourselves an exit row at the front of the plane. As AA didn't have a lounge at Las Vegas airport - we had to wait out with the sluts and slots out in the gate. We had our second shameful Starbucks experience for the trip - where I got a couple of pastries/muffin thingies and a grande latte (which is pretty much a flat white back in Australia) and even though we were paying airport prices for Starbucks - it was actually cheaper than having Starbucks at the Luxor Hotel. Ant had the same (although he had a hot chocolate instead).

I had Ant take my picture on the "Wheel of Fortune" slot machine outside our gate. There were so many dodgy slot machines in Las Vegas - from the "Alien" slot machine, to "Star Wars" to "Star Trek" to "Indiana Jones" to "the Village People" to "the Pussy Cat Dolls" - there seemed like there was some dodgy slot machine tie in to anything in pop culture.

Our flight to Dallas was pretty terrible - AA style... We were sitting opposite a AA stewardess who was standing in the corner with her arms folder - looking bemused by all of the customers walking onto the flight. She was sort of sending out the body language signals of "...OHhhh gawd - not customers...! I hate those guys!". Even Southwest, which was a budget airline, had friendlier staff than AA. And at least Southwest welcomed customers onto the flight.

During the flight, the stewardess was giving out "I'm going to commit suicide" body language signals. She never made eye-contact with either of us. In between contemplating suicide and not looking at us - she would be on her phone texting people or something... Klassy with a K.

We had to sit on the tarmac for about 40 mins at Dallas because of the really fu## off strong winds at the airport.

When we finally got off that plane with the suicidal stewardesses, we had to go get our bags (because we were leaving in a different terminal with Mexicana (best. airline. name. ever.) in what looked like a prison cell. It was really bizarre (in AA fashion) that out of the blue at the luggage carousel - there was about 200 plastic bag bin thingys that came down the chute - which left absolutely no room for bags to be on the carousel. Ant and I were a fortunate because our bags were one of the first out... Thank god for this because due to the no room for bags on the carousel - there were some bags coming out which were getting stuck on the conveyor belt. Ant and I left before there were going to be any bag explosions.

We had to wait for a couple of minutes before the Airport Terminal shuttle bus appeared - but when it did - Ant asked the driver "Is this bus going to terminal four?" (in fairly loud clear engrish). The driver said "whuh?". Ant then got a bit red-headed and started to scream "terminal four terminal four!!!". When the bus driver finally understood Ant - he asked "what language where you speaking?". Ant replied "English!! English!" (it was like Ant's was having a attitude explosion..).

We finally arrived at Terminal Four (Ant had cooled down somewhat). We checked in at the Mexicana check in where we ended up with more exit-rows - although this time - we weren't booked siting together (despite us being on the same ticket).

We had to wait an hour or two at Dallas for our flight to Mexico City. I had some fatty sandwiches at some fast food place (gawd I'm missing light and lean food). I loved some of the T-shirts at the airport (cough) - such as "Don't Mess WIth Texas". I was thinking thank god I only have to spend a couple of hours here... cause I didn't want Texas to mess with me...

Our flight to Mexico was pretty uneventful and decent - we actually got a meal (albeit a fatty one) which was way more than any american airline. Although the inflight entertainment was a bit lame - an episode of "Small(penis)ville" en Espanol?!

We arrived at Mexico City at about 7:30 at night - but all time clocks are all out of whack (California was different to Las Vegas which is different to Mexico). Mexico had the whole crazy "push a button and find out if you get strip searched at customs" like heaps of latin american countries have - but both Ant and I lucked out and got "Green=Go" lights.

We had booked a hotel in the Zona Rosa district (eg: red light district) and were contemplating catching the Metro to there - but according to LP - you weren't supposed to take luggage on the metro. So we instead bought a taxi voucher (all the taxis from the airport are regulated and are all the same price). Zona Rosa was in "Zone 4" so it cost about 140 pesos (which equates to about $14AUD as $1AUD = 10 Mexican Pesos). We were a bit freaked out by the taxi (having those Southern American flashbacks of feeling like we are getting kidnapped/rapped/murdered) when the taxi driver was driving a bit erratic and was pulling into petrol stations and stuff. At one point of time - he stopped the cab at a petrol station and checked the outside of the cab. Ant thought that one of the tires could have been flat - but after a minute - he got back in and we were on our way to town.

It ended up being a rather short-ish trip to our hotel - "Eurostars Reforma" - which allegedly was a "five star" hotel according to its sign. We checked in - a bell boy took our bags to the room - which was a very modern and well equipped large hotel room with a big king sized bed, flat screen TV (with DVD player - yes!), a very swanky (if a little impractical) bathroom and a largish living area (for hotel standards). I think we were starting to move up from being "back packers" to "flash packers" this trip. I hadn't seen any pubic hairs in the bed this trip...

We went outside and walked to a nearby shopping mall called Reforma 222 (probably because that was its address on Reforma Ave - which is a major road in Mexico City). The mall seemed rather squeakishly brandspanking new - with a big cinema on the top floor as well as a food court. We decided to have dinner at.... Subway (the shame). We sort of started to pick up that not many people here speak in English as we had to negotiate (in spanglish) in order for the staff to make our subs.

We headed back outside and walked out in the Zona Rosa district. It sort of felt a little "poorer version of Kings Cross" with prostitutes and pimps soliciting their wares on the street. We were both taken back a little when we saw a mexican couple (male) hold hands, embrace and kiss (in the french variety) out in public... However we soon discovered that this area was gay-ground zero with a litany of gay bars, shops and sex-shops everywhere. We had a quick look at a "Rainbow Connection" shop - which was filled of lots of cheap crappy gay rainbow coloured crap (and 8 pesos gay DVDs which didn't look entirely legit). Until next time...