I just returned from a weekend trip to Las Vegas which was my first trip back there since, well, last century - something like 1997 as best I can figure. Last time I had a lot of fun, this time it was mostly ho-hum. Could have been last time I was with a big group who were partying - this time my gal was busy with a convention and I was marooned in a hotel that offered little more than gambling, gambling and more gambling. Could also be that last time I won around $1,000 playing roulette and this time the machines, well they just sucked and sucked at the dollars in my wallet. Well more fool me. It was mildly entertaining I guess - but I suppose if they could just told me ahead of time how much I'd lose (or win) I could have stayed up in the room with a good book.
Perhaps the worst part was arriving - it really put a downer on the event from the start. You would think that Vegas with almost all its entertainment and accomodations arrange conveniently along the strip could manage a decent transportation system. You'd have thought that at the airport you could just jump on a train of some sort and be whisked at high speed towards the money pit. Oh no. Instead we spent 45 minutes waiting for baggage in what must be one of the worlds biggest baggage halls, and then 15 minutes wandering round like lost sheep trying to find our hotel shuttle - they don't have one after 10pm - and then a shuttle of any sort - they don't go to our hotel because its in the wrong direction.
So then we go look for a taxi find the worlds longest taxi line. It must be 50 yards long, perhaps even closer to 100. But wait, there's more... it goes to then end, and back and to the end and back, and... you get it. Standing out in the heat (even though its 11pm) we shuffle back and forth like some rats trapped in a maze designed by Escher. After a total of seven times we finally get to stand by our numbered post and wait. All this took an hour. A entire hour waiting for a taxi, seriously we could have walked half way there in that time and if you add in how long it took to get our bags and find the taxi line we actually spent 2 1/2 hours getting to the hotel after landing - the entire flight from Oakland only took an hour and a half!
So, you know me, I like to rant and rave but seriously, Vegas is one f**ked up place when it comes to getting around. I really can't imagine any European city managing to be so transportationally dysfunctional.
So we end up on the strip the next night (a $30 taxi ride each way from the South Coast Hotel) and have a fantastic meal at Bouchon which also takes us a half hour to locate in the hotel. You actually have to enter the hotel from the strip, walk out into the garage and take an elevator from there. But after the meal wandering along the strip I just couldn't help but wander at the inefficiency of dragging tens of thousands of people there every day from all over the country, or even the world just to shove them into a big air conditioned warehouse full of slot machines. No wonder the US is against internet gambling - we could all just sit our lazy asses on the couch and lose our money.
Sure you don't have all the shows to go watch on your couch but you know what, once apon a time people toured - in fact I think they still do. Where's the efficiency of dragging you entire audience to one fixed, hot and over air conditioned location vs. taking the entertainer to the people?
Personally I think Vegas really exists because Americans don't have enough leisure time. They just want to get the feeling of going away and have everything they want in one place - as one taxi driver put it - the "three gees" (gamble, get drunk, get laid). Above all it should all be doable in one weekend, or at most one week. I mean why bother fly to Europe to see Venice, Paris and great fountains when you can just go to the desert and do it there? (Okay I admit, the Belagio fountains are pretty dammed amazing)