Arrivin' Las Vegas

Sat 5th

Another day has past but with the crossing of the International Date Line it is still Saturday. In fact I arrive in LA 4 hours before I leave HK according to the calendar and the clock.

The flight in fact takes about 12 hours, during which I had 2 meals, watched 2 films and tried to get some sleep. The latter was only moderately successful.

My original stop overtime in LAX was 6 hours but I change the flight out to an earlier one, despite the agents misgivings about making the connection. I actually had plenty of time to spare, with the Hong Kong flight getting in ahead of schedule. I have mentioned before that having a domestic first class ticket doesn't get you into the airline lounge as I found out on earlier trips flying Continental. As I gained entry this time to the American Airlines lounge by flashing my Qantas card, a couple of Brits were learning the same thing.

Unlike the ones in Australia, not everything is free. You can get beer, house wine and softdrinks plus some pretzels etc but food, and other drinks cost extra, as does internet connection. Still it was more comfortable than my previous sojourns.

The flight only takes 43 minutes, so you spend almost as much time taxi-ing as you do in the air. I had a window seat and after I short nap woke up to see the edge of the rockies and then the city itself. It is so flat and not green except for the golf courses, sport fields and some parks. Not a lot of backyard lawns in sight.

I took the shuttle to the hotel so more waiting before it left and a couple of drop-offs at other hotels before we got to mine. It was only $6. Howevr I got on the wrong shuttle originally (right destination, wrong company) and had to get off get my bags unloaded and then find the right one.

The room is fine, not a good as Mission Hills of course but a few stars shorter and somewhat cheaper. One of the reasons I chose this particular hotel was they were supposed to have a fridge in the room. Apparently the old rooms did but not the new ones, where I am. I have a view of the airport and hills.

I went out about 7-30. The hotel restaurants seemed a bit pricey so I headed for the strip. I have inadvertently chosen a well located place with MGM grand opposite in one direction, Excalibur the other and New York-New York diagonally opposite.  I took some night shots of the area - there certainly is a lot of Neon about. I finished up in NY-NY which is where Zumanity is playing and picked up my ticket for tomorrow night. I then had some chicken, shrimp and chips for dinner. Interesting they were crinkle cut but the crinkles ran along the chips instead of across it. I then wandered around that part of the strip, picked up some drinks brochures etc and then headed for my room.

I got to bed about 10:30 and woke up briefly a few times until 3am and have been awake ever since. I have done some googling and know how to get a bus to a Laundromat, where the Car rental place is and how long it will take me to drive to Casablanca resort on Tuesday. I still haven't decide which, if any, grand canyon tours to take or what other shows to see.