Weather: sunny & hot
I arose at 7.50, and had a light breakfast and completed packing before leaving at 9.00 for the airport, stopping briefly to take a photo of Mark beside his convertible.
The journey to the airport took about an hour, and we arrived to a state of considerable chaos outside the check-in area at the airport. Eventually Mark managed to manoeuvre into a space near the United check-in door, allowing me to unload before saying my farewells to Mark.
The flight to Las Vegas (aboard a Boeing 737) departed more or less on time, around 1115 and arrived at Las Vegas at 1230. It took a while to get from the arrival gate to the baggage reclaim, conveniently located within a different airport building, though the two are at least linked via a reasonably frequent shuttle train. Having found my case, I made my way to the exit and looked around for some suitable means of getting to my hotel. I soon found a privately-operated shuttle minibus which would take me there for about seven dollars, a reasonable fare in my opinion. The driver had a little difficulty in locating the destination, the Boulder Palms Luxury Suites, it not being a well-known place, merely a cheap place to stay for the night that I had found when searching online.
The suites were located in a smallish motel type building, and proved to be relatively luxuriously fitted out, as the name suggested; I had a bedroom with twin beds and en-suite bathroom, with a living room and cooking facilities next door (not that I planned on making much use of them).
After sorting myself out a little, I requested the complimentary hotel shuttle into town, which took me to the Riviera hotel. This is one of the older hotels and dates back to the era when Liberace appeared there. After a brief look around, I decided the most important thing to do was to get some lunch, which I did after finding a row of fast food places, purchasing a cheesesteak hoagie and a drink from one of them.
Next I decided to head up to the top end of the strip to the Stratosphere Hotel, aptly named for its 350m tower, allegedly the tallest building in the USA west of the Mississippi river. It was a quite a long walk there, and very hot outside, my walk taking me past some of the less exciting features of the Strip (aka Las Vegas Boulevard) including one hotel in the process of being demolished, no doubt to make way for a flashy new one.
Once inside the Stratosphere, I bought a ticket to go up the tower and made my way to the lifts. The ascent proved to be extremely rapid, taking under a minute to travel to what was allegedly the 108th floor, though quite how this was claimed given that all that lay between it and the casino below was one restaurant floor and three hundred metres of concrete pillars containing nothing but lift shafts, I was not sure.
The lift stopped at an enclosed observation deck, offering excellent views across the city and the surrounding area while remaining safely enclosed from the elements. I spent some time looking out, comparing the views with the information boards pointing out prominent landmarks, while being disturbed every few minutes by a thundering noise and the mild shaking of the tower. It was a little while before I realised what this was: thankfully not an earthquake but the sound of a roller coaster going around overhead. The top of the tower is home to both a roller coaster ride and something called ``The Big Shot'', which accelerated fare-paying victims a hundred feet or so higher still then allowed them to fall back down again. These not being things I wished to partake of, I contented myself by heading out onto the open platform on the next floor to take a few photographs, then headed down again for a drink and to write a couple of postcards.
I eventually decided it was time to head down again to the noise and bustle of the casino, but didn't stop there, instead going outside to take the Las Vegas Strip Trolley. This cost $1.50 to travel as far along the strip as one cared to go, stopping at the major hotel casinos on the way. The journey took some considerable time, what with all the stops and the heavy traffic, it now being rush hour. I got off at the Excalibur hotel, a vast 4000 room palace with an Arthurian theme built in the early 1990s and briefly the world's largest hotel. I did not stop long there, but instead went next door to the Luxor, a hotel with an Ancient Egyptian theme which was under construction on my previous visit in 1993. This takes the form of a vast black glass pyramid, guarded by a replica sphinx and obelisk outside, and flanked by two huge ziggurats, also clad in black glass, which had been added later to extend the capacity of the hotel. At night the world's brightest beam of light shines upwards from the top of the pyramid (supposedly this has some Ancient Egyptian significance), the beam being so bright as to be visible on clear nights to aircraft over Los Angeles, some 250 miles away.
I headed inside to the ``Pharoah's Pheast'' buffet, an ``all you can eat'' affair costing some 14 dollars, with a wide variety of foods to choose from. I departed well fed and decided to take a little look round, wandering out to the now near-deserted pool area at the back of the hotel, then heading next door to the Mandalay Bay, a huge golden structure stood upon the site of the Hacienda hotel in which I had stayed in 1993.
This, like all large Strip hotels these days, has a theme, its own being the Orient. Outside was a huge pool area, complete with beach alongside an artificial ``sea'', complete with waves. The overall atmosphere was one of a very up-market establishment, something confirmed when I made enquiries as to the cost of rooms for my return to Las Vegas in some ten days' time.
I headed back to Excalibur, also to enquire about room prices, taking the free ``tram'' service (actually an elevated cable-driven railway) which links the Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur, all three being under common ownership.
It was by now far too late to take the free Boulder Palms shuttle back, and I opted instead for a taxi. This proved somewhat more expensive than I had estimated, it being a long journey back to the Boulder Highway, continually interrupted by red traffic lights. I arrived back at the hotel around 22.30, parted with $19, then returned to my room and soon went to bed.