Las Vegas – The city of plastic

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Date: 03/11/2012 to 05/11/2012

Saímos do Zion National Park, em Utah, not give 03 November, Rumo to Las Vegas. It was a sunny and warm Saturday, day we drove to the well-known Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada not, just to spend the weekend there and go to the Grand Canyon. After a few hours of travel, already in the afternoon, started spotting, amid the desert dust, silhouettes of large hotels and casinos in the city, that arose from the ground like spears in contrast to the emptiness of the desert.

We arrived. We had already booked a hotel at a good price in the main avenue of the hotels / casinos in Vegas, was either Paris Las Vegas. We had made a reservation two days in advance via the website priceline.com, very good to find hotel rooms at discounted prices! As soon as we arrived in the region have seen a large replica of the Eiffel Tower that we have in front of its entrance, what has already showed us the sumptuousness (or attempted) we would see.

We went to check in at the hotel and worked her high walls and richly detailed drew attention, with the large and golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. But something was not consistent, made no sense, and a strange feeling came without knowing what it meant. It was the beginning of a realization that became clear to us every moment we spent in Las Vegas and on which we will talk more over this post.

Well worth making a note: I hotéis great and famous Las Vegas, Como or Bellagio, Mirage and Paris itself, and others, They have casinos within the hotel building itself; then, Hotels and casinos are practically one and the same. After we checked-in, on the way to the elevator – that would take us to the room – pass through the casino hotel and observe the architecture and the people who attended. The theme of the hotel and casino is Paris, obviously, As the name implies. The gaming machines are surrounded by shops and restaurants that replicate the Parisian architecture, all this under a ceiling painted like the sky a beautiful sunny day, actually trying to replicate something like a neighborhood in Paris. It is not hard to see the similarity of the place with a theme park for children and conclude that all this is but a soulless theme park for adults.

As we said, We arrived on a sunny Saturday afternoon and we were surprised to find many paralyzed people in front of the gazillion slots the casino has, betting, apparently out of control, Your Money. Detail, casinos are completely closed, no windows, and smoking is allowed within the same! So you can already imagine the environment. We suspect that customers actually lose track of time, bet back bet, after all the replica sky painted on the ceiling can, Fate of, deceive the minds hypnotized.

Well, we went up to our room, let our junk, we changed clothes and went out to dinner and a stroll in the region. It was Saturday night and the streets were filled, also by pleasant temperature around 20 degrees that night that was. Las Vegas, again, showed a curious city: Prostitution is an act prohibited in city, but every corner are always several people offering gifts cards phones prostitutes. And do not stop there. As if that was not enough, also find themselves traversing the avenues TRUCKS with giant billboards announcing escorts. Another curiosity is that in the area of ​​hotels and casinos, You can consume alcohol in the street, action completely prohibited in the rest of the United States.

Na avenida Strip, which was also our Hotel Paris, are the major Las Vegas hotels. Walking down the street you can get access to these deals casinos, restaurants and even shopping malls that exist inside. Some buildings are, by the way, connected to each other, which transforms the region almost a mega complex "entertainment". Between aspas peas, how we perceive, Las Vegas this is a city plastic, built to take every penny of tourists willing to visit her. The much advertised "entertainment" of Las Vegas comes down to gambling, beverages, parties, prostitution and buildings and restaurants that mimic other places in the world like Greece, Rome, Paris (nosso hotel), and others. Clearer, There are also some good things in the region, of which we will talk soon. After the return by casinos, we stopped for dinner and celebrate the birthday of Gabriel, for while we dined entered the day 4 November and already enjoyed to celebrate! Leaving the restaurant, we took a walk around the area and observe the behavior of people. It is strange, but somehow one can realize that money talks very loudly in this place. Nas ballads, women scrubs for men in exchange for a drink. Men and women squander fortunes through clothing, purchases and attitudes. It is expected that you go there and spend, no matter what. Something did not seem right. We returned to the hotel to sleep, already a little tired of this climate.

But, As we said earlier, There are positives in the city, only one should know to take advantage of them without falling into the traps that are put to the tourists' hopes. The restaurants all-you-can-eat (all you can eat, a literal translation), present in hotels, offer an incredible variety of food at a very fair price; after all, the logic is to make the customer spend their money in casinos, not on the food. Therewith, Prune-buffet not find from typical Latin foods, to fare Arabic and oriental. We found that there was a pass of 24 consumption in a number of restaurants of this genre, for a single price of 50 U.S. dollar. With that lunch, dine, ate breakfast the next morning and had lunch again with a voucher only, a beautiful economy! Inclusive, waiting for a table at one of these restaurants, found the Clébão and his girlfriend, Paula, both friend André, what a coincidence! And do not stop there: found they were, tonight, the same spectacle of Cirque du Soleil that we would! With that mark we find the time of the show and then go out for a drink and chat.

Certainly one of the highlights of Las Vegas was the Cirque du Soleil, we saw on Saturday night. The circus has several shows in town, that are presented mostly in venues located in hotels. It was difficult to choose one (all look very good, but the prices are a little salty – average range of 70 to 120 per espetáculo) and after much thought we decided to go Love, show that was entirely built around Beatles songs. The theater where the show is presented is circular and relatively small, which provides all viewers, Seat independently, a feeling of really being part of participating. The choreography, Images shown stunts and fit perfectly to the incredible selection of songs from the Beatles made for the show. Running near perfection. All this, added weight to the music of one of the most important and influential rock bands of humanity, causes the experience unique! The viewer goes around 2 hours immersed in another universe, traveling with him and is shown with the lyrics. An unforgettable experience!

The next day, Monday 05 November, as we were leaving for a trip to Grand Canyon 6 hours, then lunch (still leveraging our spend 24h in restaurants :D), Cater and set off towards our next destination, leaving behind Las Vegas, the city-perdition. However, barely knew a few days later we would be back to this picturesque place. Well, that's another story to post, wait!

Want to see more photos of Las Vegas? Visit our Flickr here!