Las Vegas - The Strip

Entertainment event number 3 of 3 was a long walk up and down The Strip. We started walking a little after midnight and, although we'd had an early start and a late night before, we still had plenty of enthusiasm for the project. This was, in some ways, the most important part of the visit. This was the real Las Vegas that I'd heard about and read about and seen in the movies.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to summon up some fear and loathing. The best I could manage was a sort of baffled distaste for the relentless offerings of pictorial "business card" handouts for sex workers. If you're going to advertise prostitution on the main street, then why bother putting little coloured circles over the nipples in the photographs? Sin City might be a little conflicted there.

We strolled past and through some of the big hotel/casinos for a little over two hours. Keeping us company were a couple of thousand ladies of the night and a few thousand more tourists, of whom I estimate 75% were male. The bright lights and the surprising smell of sewage added to the surreality of the landscape.

So did the many monuments and statues that jumble together in a strange, semiotic frenzy. The mini Statue of Liberty outside New York, New York, stared fixedly across the street at the MGM Grand's lion. The lion haughtily ignores her, like a sulking sphinx, puffing out its chest towards Excalibur. In Las Vegas, Liberty looks to the lion and the lion to the sword.

I looked at my watch. It was about this time of night just a few months ago that a Las Vegas resident went postal at New York, New York and started shooting people from an overhead walkway. Nobody died, although several people were injured. Some guests and security staff banded together to tackle and restrain the shooter. The casino never missed a beat. It must have been terrifying, although I suspect that in this litigious age the victims were the biggest winners that the casino has seen for quite some time. The gag clause alone must have been worth a tidy fortune.

Somehow, standing here, it seems perfectly possible that people could just turn back to their preferred poison as if the rules of civilisation had not just been shockingly violated right in front of them. Perhaps the veneer of civilisation has worn thin in this place, with just a couple of coloured circles printed between the human and the animal.

Yet look at the symbols of civilisation invoked all around. Paris: city of the Enlightenment, birthplace of the modern concept of liberty.

Greece: the fertile land to which modern Western Philosophy traces its ancestry. The Trojan Horse, symbol of dangerous pride and the fall of a great civilisation, bows its head just a few casinos away.

Rome, a mighty empire remembered for its decadent collapse as much as for its military conquest and technological superiority.

The Bellagio, of course, is the big pop culture tourist destination. It was made instantly famous by being record breakingly expensive to build, at a cost of $1.6 billion. The casino's reputation for elegance and free fountain displays further inspire the imagination of visitors. Alas, we were too late to see the fountains dance in the giant lake at the front of the building. It you're feeling left out, as I did, you can check out some video here. The sequential Oceans films and the reputation of the high stakes Poker Room, known as "The Office" to many high rollers, also contribute to The Bellagio's status on The Strip. One of the comedians in the show we saw that night suggested another possible attraction. He was talking about prostitutes in Las Vegas and said "They hang out down at the Bellagio, you know, where they have their office."

I enjoyed my visit, and my stroll along The Strip, admiring all the bling, from the ceilings that look like the sky, to the giant moving neon signs. There is no doubt in my mind that Las Vegas is a great place to come for an intense burst of entertainment. Whether you want to gamble, shop, see amazing live shows, peel back the coloured circles on the business cards, or just walk around soaking up the atmosphere, Las Vegas will provide for you. It's a full service town.

Still, after just one long night in the embrace of Las Vegas, I felt strung out and strangely let down. It's the overstimulation comedown, like the crash that follows a caffeine or sugar rush. It's a reminder that the human central nervous system is not designed to handle so many kilowatts. Most people will just go home, hung-over, overtired and overspent. Sometimes a fuse will blow, and someone will start shooting from an overhead walkway.

Las Vegas powers on regardless, like the Luxor spotlight: the brightest beam in the world, extending a single digit to the heavens.