The Sin City
Las Vegas is a sin city and everything is 24X7. Right from the time you land at the airport all you can see is sleaze and money.
First the money. Stretch limos all over the place. Casinos are filled with people. And there are more casinos than you can count. The ground floor of every hotel is a casino with zillions of slot machines, black jack tables and others. (And all of this is occupied with people – with tons of dollars.) Infact, even the airport lounge has a series of slot machines for people who want to give it a last shot before they leave the city. I tried that too…albeit just a dollar – and it vanished in a jiffy.
And the sleaze. Every cab has this directory of erotic shows, stripclubs, massage parlors, you name it – placed right in front of you as you sit in. In the hotel that I was staying, there was this show called ‘Zumanity’ – guess it was some sort of an erotic show. Now every nook and corner of the hotel advertised that; to the extent that my room access card had the poster of it on one face! All along the streets there are huge hoardings of seductive women with contact number – for their show, mind you! Streets have porn magazine sort of vending machines. ‘Sleazy’ pictures are littered all over the place – to the point of embarrassment. And there seems to be a tussle amongst the women folks that come down to the city on whoz the sleaziest (in how they are dressed)!
I went to the casino with my immediate boss, another senior colleague at work, my CEO (who happened to be in town) and his wife on the first night. Second day, his wife invited the two of us (another colleague at work – senior) for dinner and some gambling at the hotel she was staying. While we were gambling $10-$30, they gambled $100-$1000; to the extent that they really had no clue whether they were up or down. I like Joe – he has one attitude, unlike anyone I have seen, and has a style about everything that he does. They told us several stories of him courting her. Joe would call Andra on Friday afternoon and ask out for Friday eve; and she was like… what does he think, I can’t have plans!! And in case she refused once or felt she wasn’t as excited talking to him, he wouldn’t call again!! All the time hoping she would call (same was the case with her). Now there is a guy who has some characteristics like me ;-). We agreed that WOMEN should call :-). She turned him down a zillion times… (and this on an off thing lasted for quite some time) – somehow good guys suffer for no fault of theirs. Anyways, more on their story later – it is damn interesting. Joe’s wife is a very lively person. She called us over the next evening, even tho Joe had gone back, for dinner and some more gambling. The dinner was cool. We had a candy as dessert (ok chuck it). Thereafter, there was gambling, and I lost more than all I would have won in my last five lifetimes. Joe and Andra were kind enough to finance my gambling – clearly, I would not have been in a position to survive my remaining days in the US, if I were to lose this money of my own. But believe me, it hurts as much, if not more, to lose when someone else has put a stake on you. DAMN!!! :-(
Oh yes, I went to Vegas to attend the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show. It was huge – and some of the technology – out of the world! Spent lots of time there, attended a couple of panel discussions as well which had whoz who of the industry. That was neat.
Back to Vegas, in summary: Vegas is a must see – atleast once in a lifetime – it is unlike anything you may have seen before!
First the money. Stretch limos all over the place. Casinos are filled with people. And there are more casinos than you can count. The ground floor of every hotel is a casino with zillions of slot machines, black jack tables and others. (And all of this is occupied with people – with tons of dollars.) Infact, even the airport lounge has a series of slot machines for people who want to give it a last shot before they leave the city. I tried that too…albeit just a dollar – and it vanished in a jiffy.
And the sleaze. Every cab has this directory of erotic shows, stripclubs, massage parlors, you name it – placed right in front of you as you sit in. In the hotel that I was staying, there was this show called ‘Zumanity’ – guess it was some sort of an erotic show. Now every nook and corner of the hotel advertised that; to the extent that my room access card had the poster of it on one face! All along the streets there are huge hoardings of seductive women with contact number – for their show, mind you! Streets have porn magazine sort of vending machines. ‘Sleazy’ pictures are littered all over the place – to the point of embarrassment. And there seems to be a tussle amongst the women folks that come down to the city on whoz the sleaziest (in how they are dressed)!
I went to the casino with my immediate boss, another senior colleague at work, my CEO (who happened to be in town) and his wife on the first night. Second day, his wife invited the two of us (another colleague at work – senior) for dinner and some gambling at the hotel she was staying. While we were gambling $10-$30, they gambled $100-$1000; to the extent that they really had no clue whether they were up or down. I like Joe – he has one attitude, unlike anyone I have seen, and has a style about everything that he does. They told us several stories of him courting her. Joe would call Andra on Friday afternoon and ask out for Friday eve; and she was like… what does he think, I can’t have plans!! And in case she refused once or felt she wasn’t as excited talking to him, he wouldn’t call again!! All the time hoping she would call (same was the case with her). Now there is a guy who has some characteristics like me ;-). We agreed that WOMEN should call :-). She turned him down a zillion times… (and this on an off thing lasted for quite some time) – somehow good guys suffer for no fault of theirs. Anyways, more on their story later – it is damn interesting. Joe’s wife is a very lively person. She called us over the next evening, even tho Joe had gone back, for dinner and some more gambling. The dinner was cool. We had a candy as dessert (ok chuck it). Thereafter, there was gambling, and I lost more than all I would have won in my last five lifetimes. Joe and Andra were kind enough to finance my gambling – clearly, I would not have been in a position to survive my remaining days in the US, if I were to lose this money of my own. But believe me, it hurts as much, if not more, to lose when someone else has put a stake on you. DAMN!!! :-(
Oh yes, I went to Vegas to attend the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show. It was huge – and some of the technology – out of the world! Spent lots of time there, attended a couple of panel discussions as well which had whoz who of the industry. That was neat.
Back to Vegas, in summary: Vegas is a must see – atleast once in a lifetime – it is unlike anything you may have seen before!
posted by Animesh Kumar at Sunday, January 08, 2006
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