The Nokia Guide: 5TH stop Vegas Part 1: Punk Rock Bowling, MS Jen, The Vegas Flue and everything in between!

I’m going to say it up front: my expectations were high, very high to be honest when it came to Vegas and again I have never ever been there before. How was this Vegas I’ve been hearing so much about? My idea of what Vegas is had been mostly shaped by what I’ve heard, TV and movies. I’ve heard and seen images of glitz, glamour, amazing lights, incredible shows, giant casino hotels, parties and wild stories of people gambling their salaries and pension money to pennies. From what I’ve seen and experienced Vegas does live up to its reputation, but there a few catches here and there. This post is about my experience in Vegas. Did it live up to my expectations?

A bit of Vegas, Punk Rock Bowling and Ms Jen

The famous “Vegas image” can in my opinion only and truly be found in the near proximity of what is called the Strip. By now most people would probably know what the Strip is, but just in case you don’t it’s basically a part of the Las Vegas Boulevard where the biggest and flashiest Casino resorts are located, including the Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York, MGM Grand and the Mandalay Bay. I stayed at the Luxor which is this huge shiny black Pyramid-shaped hotel complete with a replica of the sphinx and a white spotlight at the top. This spotlight also just happens to be the brightest beam on earth, visible from several kilometers away. The Strip is a relatively small area, that’s why I heard that it seems measures are being taken to open up this concentration near the Strip and spread the action to other places in Vegas, as the Strip had taken the thunder out of the Las Vegas down town area. My guess is that as the area around the strip is developed it will spread out, with either the Strip staying the big dog or that some other new area takes over.

When you first get out of your airplane and step into the airport you are greeted with, guess what: slot machines and very excited people playing those slot machine!!! No mistakes about where you’ve just landed, this must be Vegas. Amazed and a bit puzzled I go to the baggage claim and try to get a cab to get to my hotel. Quick thing, right? Wrong. When I got out there, there was this huge Disney World theme-park- type- line waiting to get a cab!!! After I did manage to get a ride the cab driver was nice enough to warn me about the dry air in Las Vegas. As you know Vegas is located in the Mojave Desert and as a result it has a very arid desert climate. The humidity is extremely low: I’ve heard numbers in the 6-10%, big difference to the 80 to 90% humidity found back. The cab driver warned me and advised me to use water with added salt to keep the nasal passages moisturized. I didn’t think much and thought that it wouldn’t be necessary, but as I would find out later on it would affect a big chunk of my trip.

After getting settled in I headed off to meet someone who I was looking forward to meet, fellow Urbanista Diarist Ms Jen. You see, Ms Jen just happened to be in Vegas for the 10^th annual Punk Rock Bowling held in Vegas and she was kind enough to invite me to join her and her friends for this event. Ms. Jen is this energetic, upbeat and just fun person to hang out with and the funny thing is that her qualities start to affect you in some way in or another, as I doubt anyone would have a dull moment with her or feel down when hanging out with Jen. When I arrived at the hotel where the bowling tournament was held I asked this lady if she knew where the tournament was held to which she promptly said: “Downstairs dear, but those Punk Rock bowlers are here today, so..” While she was saying this she made a face like trying to tell me, don’t go there, so I actually hesitated for a moment. When I arrived there were people bowling dressed like Vikings, to vampire girls, while others had a huge pink Mohawks and I guess for others the leather dresses or outfits worked for them. It might have seemed like everyone was doing their own thing when it came to the dress code, except there was this one thing that everyone had in common: everyone was dressed in black. The crowd turned out to be fun, easy going and more than willing to help me with my shots. The tournament proved to be a great place to capture some interesting urban shots. Sadly the bowling alley was in the basement of my hotel so the N82 couldn’t get a GPS signal so it also couldn’t geotag the images. As a result a lot of these images up were not uploaded on the Urbanista site. As I pointed out here, this not the best way of dealing with a lack of GPS-signal so Nokia should quickly fix this.

After all of this Ms Jen, her friends and I headed out for dinner and to my surprise they chose Billy Bob’s, the same restaurant that we went to in Texas, only more downsized. After this I was so full and tired that going to bed was the only logical thing to do in my mind. The next morning I was HUNGRY, so I tried one of those famous buffet breakfasts. I obviously went for the one my hotel had as it was the closest and let me tell you this was the biggest buffet breakfast I have ever been to. The variety, the important choices that had to be made: should I stuff my stomach with this or that before I would get full?? When I first got my empty plate I had to stop for a few seconds as seeing all this food was a bit intimidating to say the least. The moment I paused to like see what table I would approach first, a lady looked and if I had to guess what she was thinking I probably she probably thought: Amateur!!! Afterwards I walked around the Strip, which most of it is done via bridges or monorails that connects these hotels. They are like giant theme parks that just happen to have rooms and casinos: all are entirely accessible to the public, except for the guestroom areas. As always lot’s of casinos, shops, restaurants and most importantly the Vegas shows. One thing I noticed though is that these themed hotels look amazing from afar but getting closer reveals the lack of detail found in theme parks like Universal Studios and Disney theme parks. Did Vegas live up to my expectation? Well it’s a fun place to, with great shows, but it’s not as amazing as I thought it would be. I would describe it as a downsized Orlando with less kids, but with more slot machines. During my walk I did notice that the air was extremely dry and especially would feel the difference because back home I’m accustomed to a much higher humidity, as a result it started bothering my throat. By the time I got back in my room I was really sick, it seemed like I had gotten sick with the infamous Vegas flu: sore throat, stuffy nose, headache and the feeling of being extra cold all in one neat little package, so instead of going out that night to see the lights I was forced to stay indoors otherwise it would have gotten a lot worse. Currently I’m a lot better, but still feeling the effects of the Vegas flu. So if you’ve plans to go to Vegas remember I warned you about the Vegas Flu!