Week 1

I thought I would add to this blog more frequently but you don’t have as much time on the road as you think you normally would so much to see.

Matt’s and my trip has been going well to date; we managed to get business class flights so the travel time has been very comfortable. The flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles was on one of Qantas’ new Airbus A380’s. It was a surreal experience, up front is a self service bar and lounge, which in Matty’s words, you could be in any bar anywhere in the world, but we were somewhere over the pacific between Australia and USA.

We touched down in LA 0730 Sunday morning (25-04-2010) after that we jumped in a hire car and headed east to Las Vegas. We have decided to keep the accommodation costs as cheap as possible, on Jarrod’s suggestions we stayed at the Motel 6 Las Vegas, which I can only describe as stereotypical American that film-makers portray so for us to get an idea of what the US looks and feels like, the swimming pool with the fat ladies and men baking, the parked Harleys, neon flashing sign, and a tattooed guy beating on the car door, screaming at his girl to get out of the car.

I’m sure Vegas is a place of hope, and place of despair, with all of its glitz, neon and bright lights, I couldn’t help noticing the punters walking the streets, some moronically drunk, others expressionless, wandering, apathetically, to somewhere, whilst over head an endless flow of helicopters transports the high-rollers to their roulette, craps and black-jack tables. The place is an odd juxtaposition between urbanity and the surrounding desert, a city of gaudy concrete structures, neon lights, landlocked in the harsh Nevadan desert.

The night took us to MGM Grande and Luxor Casinos. The roulette table kept us entertained for the duration of the night and into early hours of the morning. Time becomes static once in the embrace of the charm of the roulette wheel and the temptresses bearing gifts of a constant flow of free liquor of choice, all cleverly designed to empty one’s wallet. It was overall a unique American experience, to end the night, or to start a new day, cashing your chips in, and walking out into a Nevadan sunrise.

Matt and I said farewell to Vegas and headed back west for LA, on the way back we stopped in for a look at a small airfield called Jean Field, located in the Nevadan desert, located next to it a detention centre, casino, and a courthouse, all in the middle of nowhere.