Hostage Situation in Vegas
Las Vegas, 6th November 2001
 Vegas Baby, YEAH! After a slow start trying to catch up with our
sleep, and then checking our e-mail we set out to explore the
streets & attractions of Las Vegas. Actually, by the time we'd woken
up, reported the broken things in the room, chatted with the staff
and got our butts into gear, it was midday. We hadn't eaten a proper
meal since yesterday lunch time, so we were absolutely famished. At
first we tried to find one of the famous 'all-you-can-eat' buffets,
but after 15 minutes of our stomachs protesting, we decided to
settle on good old reliable McDonalds. We saw one in the distance
and rushed in its direction. 20 minutes later we were still
walking...it looked much closer than it was...maybe it's a
mirage...no, after another long, long walk we eventually reached the
golden arches. We rushed in and surveyed the menus quickly, obeying
the calls of our stomach. However, we were all so hungry, that we
ate too much food and ended up feeling stuffed! With our stomach's
bloated, we decided to recover by lying down on the grass in the sun
for a while. Ahhh, lovely, the temperature must be around the high
80s or 90s, perfect to start on our tans.
Once we were able (and willing) to walk again, we hiked back to the
main part of Vegas to do some exploring. The main road, which is
miles long, is called 'The Strip'. All of the main casinos, hotels
and attractions are along this road, and we spent all afternoon &
evening walking down it. We also discovered at least a dozen
McDonalds considerably closer than the one we hiked out to.
 We spent most of the afternoon walking around the Stratosphere, a
huge telecom-style tower with casinos, shops, restaurants and a
hotel inside it & attached to it. Some of the gift shops are great,
real tack that can't be found anywhere. You could buy some really
cheesy gifts here. In the end, though, we couldn't go to the top of
the tower because they wanted a ridiculous entrance fee.
When we left the Stratosphere, it was getting dark, the perfect time
to explore Vegas. When the sun's away, the gamblers come out to
play. Vegas really is amazing, even without gambling (we couldn't
gamble, because we were under 21, which was probably a good thing).
The bright lights of Vegas are really amazing. The packed streets,
the buzzing casinos, the sheer variety of sights. Every 100m is
completely different. Firs there's the MGM style, then the Nascar
section, then you do a world tour passing through New York, Rome,
Monte Carlo and Egypt. And all in one street. The Vegas experience
is quite unique. In this small corner of the country you have one of
nature's greatest wonders, the Grand Canyon, is right next to one of
the greatest man-made wonders, Las Vegas!
Eventually we reached the huge light stream emanating from the
pyramid near the end of the strip, we decided to head back to our
hotel. Rather than take the long walk back, we found a convenient
bus and hopped on.
 Back in downtown Vegas, we started the short walk from the bus stop.
It was late, and as we approached our hotel, we noticed that quite a
lot of people were out & about. Street teenagers were hanging around
in small groups, and other people seemed to be loitering. As we
cautiously passed three teenagers, they warned us not to go down the
road because there was a bomb scare, anthrax alert or something. We
nodded disbelievingly and continued to the hotel, cautiously. We
soon come to a TV crew, straining to film something from the end of
a road, while some police block the way. Nat, being her usual
forward self, walks straight up to the film crew and asks what's
happening. He turns to her and nochantly says: "It's another hostage
situation. A guy has had an argument with his girlfriend, things got
violent, the police came, and he's now using her as a hostage,
holding a gun to her head. Happened last week too". Right. Our hotel
is on the next corner. We tried to have a quick look, then hurried
back to the hotel when the police were clearly getting a bit
irritated by our presence.
 Back at the hotel, we had our first clothes wash of the gap year to
do, as it was my first clothes wash full stop, it could have been
quite a challenge. Luckily, between us we had enough knowledge to
work out how to get it all done.
After the washing was done, I phoned ahead to book our accommodation
in Bakersfield tomorrow night, then we decided to call it a night.
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