Just before you reach the South side of the Strip in Las Vegas you will find a Motel that appears to haven been built in the 1950s. Outside there is an elevated pool with a large wall in which there is a glass window. It was through this window that Sharron Stone, playing Ginger in the Martin Scorsese movie “Casino”, was filmed swimming underwater.

Almost certainly you will find sitting by the pool a friendly young man who, when not sitting there, will be attempting to fix something, and his peaceful lifestyle is often disturbed by the need to do so, for very little in the Motel actually works. In the guest rooms the taps never seem to stop dripping noisily, the lavatory continuously flushes itself, and the ancient air conditioning, on the occasions that it does work, is so noisy that often it is more comfortable to endure the stifling humid heat rather than tolerate its unremitting roar.

At least the Motel is inexpensive, which is the reason we are staying there. We are preserving our money for when later we hit the strip. Many of our fellow guests are there for the long haul; they are croupiers, bar staff, general casino employees, and others who make a living, possibly out of negotiated virtue.

But we are not here to linger in the ageing Motel; Las Vegas is calling. After a quick shower, which would have been much quicker had we not had to call in the maintenance man to fix it, we are booted and suited for a night on The Strip.
Seeing the Strip for the first time is an awe inspiring experience. Maybe it is not to everybody’s taste, and it has little defence from the accusation of being gaudy, but its grandeur, it pure audacity, is mind blowing. As we begin to take it all in, dusk is just falling and the lights are flickering on. It is vast, there can be nowhere on the planet quite like it, bet when we walk into our first casino, which by chance is the Bellagio, we feet that we have walked into a Tardis and have been transported to a different time and place.

The night is young, and it will be many hours before we retrace our steps back to the Motel and when we do so dawn will be breaking and our feet will ache, but what an experience we will have enjoyed.