General stuff1 comment
m posted in Holiday on September 11th, 2005
The mobile’s connected in San Francisco, but it won’t send emails. So those plans for frequent updates are out the window. Might do some updates from Rachel’s phone, which doesn’t seem to have a problem. Well, as far as we know.
Things we’ve done, and brief thoughts/impressions;
Vegas
Bellagio - very nice indeed. Fountains were more impressive than expected. We didn’t bet a great deal while we were there, but I did pretty well on the Blackjack machines. The minimum bets on the tables started at $10 a chip, so we didn’t venture onto them. When we checked out, our account card had about 1100 credits on it, which seems to eqate to a similar number of dollars bet, but that includes bets of winnings. Probably came away even, though Rachel was less lucky.
New York, New York - Rollercoaster was excellent, casino was stupid. Yeah, this really looks like a night-time street scene in dowtown Noo Yoik.
Paris - now that’s how you do the street scenes. Went up the Eiffel Tower, whose guide sounded a bit irritated that they’d only been allowed to build one that was two thirds the height of the original, due to planning regulations. One up for the French.
Fremont Street - hilarious “light show” and accompanying musical mess, while surrounded by beggars, losers and over-enthusiastic American tourists. The bit with the American eagles and the Stars’n’stripes went down very well. Lucky I had an empty coin pot in which to vomit. The cabby on the way back to the Bellagio claimed he was on Question of Sport in 1990, as he was the co-subject of a “What happened next?” question. He may be a dangerous fantacist.
Grand Canyon - the light aeorplane flight to GC airport was a bit too much for Rachel’s stomach, but afforded reasonably good views of a barren landscape. Helicopter into the canyon was fun, but lasted for less than 8 minutes. The boat ride was quite nice, but it was sweltering down there.
San Francisco
Didn’t think much of Alcatraz. It was alright, but not particularly startling, scary or interesting. Oh look, there’s Al Capone’s former cell. Or rather, it’s *rumoured* to have been his cell. So they stuck a picture of him on the bars, so you can see where some bloke reckons he might’ve slept. Great.
Bonkers hotel, with our own resident Dave Gorman. No, we do have Dave Gorman staying here, according to Rachel. I have yet to see the phantom merchant of whimsy, so I can’t verify the claim.
The restaurant next to the hotel was better than expected, and we’ve now eaten at a place in North Beach, which appears to be the Italian bit of town. There was a Maybach outside the restaurant we rejected, so I think that makes us better people than him. We went somewhere cheaper. So it also makes us poorer people than him. We got caught up in the Moon Festival in Chinatown today, which was less explicit than some might imagine. It sounds harsh, but my Western height meant I could see the Chinese Dragon cming down the street before the locals, so leapt (or slowly meandered, if you prefer) into its path. Wasn’t very impressive, but it was notable, nevertheless.
Went to Amoeba Records yesterday, and spent $100 on CDs, during a 3 hour visit. Could’ve spent 2 days in that place, but we wanted to get back for dinner. Calld in at a bar on the way back, which was staffed by a guy with a Welsh girlfriend, who writes for Kerrang. Also, the DJ was a fan of Welsh music, so was keen to chat about that. He played the new Super Furry Animals album in the bar, and claimed to be a friend of Gruff. I hope this isn’t a local euphemism.
Off to the airport hotel tomorrow, ready for the flight to whichever bit of Hawaii we’re going to first. I ought to know these things, perhaps. We’re already sick of the tipping culture they have here. The people seem to be pretty friendly, but they want paymet for their effort. The guidebooks seem to diagree over the expected amounts, so we’re winging it. So far, we haven’t been scowled at - maybe after we’ve left, but that doesn’t seem to be important.
That’s all for now. Might update from Rachel’s phone, if it works. If not, I’ll hang around reception tomorrow to see if I can nick Dave Gorman’s laptop.
