Leaving Las Vegas. And Never Returning.
December 13th, 2008by andy 
So, I’d never been to America before. Now I’ve recently been to Las Vegas, and I think I can safely say that I still haven’t been to America.
Never before have I visited somewhere so devoid of the human spirit. I should have known when I saw the slot machines in the airport that this was going to be a strange place.
It seemed impossible to escape the din of the slots – and when I did it was only replaced by awful piped music on permanent repeat. My escape from the casino only took me into what seemed to be one big shopping centre, that you can never escape from.
One day I went looking for somewhere I could buy a sandwich. I tried to find my way out of the shopping centre onto the strip and walked for two hours without finding a single shop where I could just buy a sandwich. I just wanted a sandwich – nothing crazy, but there were none to be found.
I’m not a big fan of gambling which didn’t help the experience I don’t think – there was nothing else to do. In case you didn’t know Vegas was built in the desert in the middle of nowhere – so there is no real community – in fact the community is the casinos. Not something you can describe as natural.
You only need to read the dozens of comments on this page to see that all is not well with Vegas, and it’s hardly surprising.
As one of the posters says:
“It’s a desolate shit hole filled with servants, whores and con-men. It’s a place so devoid of decency that even the animal shelter is a scam.”
I would recommend never visiting there in your life, unless you have a great love for gambling. Without the gambling the place is just a bunch of hotels.
And no ordinary hotels. The hotels of Vegas really try to keep you inside their expansive casino areas. And they never miss a chance to push gambling at you. In our hotel the lift button for the ground floor (which of course was a huge casino) said ‘Casino’ not ‘Ground’. Just in case you were in any doubt about where the casino might be. Sit down at the bar and there’s a video poker machine where you would normally keep your drink.
It could send you mad, it nearly did me.
An American friend had given me some advice before I went to Vegas. He said: “As soon as you get to Vegas, just haul ass out of Vegas”. And he was right. I had to stay there for a week though.
There is one good thing about Vegas though – it’s surrounded by some absolutely amazing country, which you can visit by helicopter if time is short. Flying over the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam made the whole trip worthwhile.
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Tags: america, travel
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