Sky Dive Suit
I returned to San Francisco barely two years after visiting the
place as a backpacker, but this time as tourist with loads of
money (relatively). I met with various friends who had come from
Hong Kong and England, myself having flown in from Germany. And it
was kind of creepy, because not much had changed in the place and
it felt like I had only been there two days ago.
I won't detail all the sites we visited as this is mainly a repeat
of what I have written elsewhere. It was nice to stay in a hotel
and be able to afford restaurants and stuff instead of the place I
was at last time. The main thing this time was that me and two
friends (Matt and Rog) did a skydive. I had never done this before
and the experience was truly awesome.
We hired a car for the day to get to the airfield, which turned
out to comprise of not much more than two port-a-cabins and tiny
runway. After they had given us the briefing (including the Point
Break spiel about who's going to take which parachute) I headed
off to the plane, being first to jump. The plane was a tiny affair
with one seat (for the pilot) and something resembling a door and
I needed a lot of faith in my aeronautics degree to think this
thing could fly. It took a good half hour to reach the jump height
and with little further ado I was falling towards earth at what
seemed like a million miles an hour. The feeling is simply
incredible, something I have never experienced before and shall
never forget.
After San Francisco, we headed on to Las Vegas driving through
Yosemite National Park (very beautiful) and stopping off in a
little town, staying in a hotel called Mountain View Lodge (or
similar). We arrived at night, so quite why it was called this was
unclear at the time. The next morning I went to the window, drew
the curtains and wow, their they were, fantastic mountains right
in front of us. So fantastic in fact, that I forgot to take a
photo! After a nice big breakfast in the nearby diner, we
continued our journey to Las Vegas.
Sky Dive Landing
We drove through Death Valley, one of the driest and hottest
places on earth. So hot in fact that they advise you to turn off
you air conditioning, so your car doesn't overheat. Only problem
with this beeing, that you tend to quickly overheat yourself like
this. But the name really is well chosen, for we didn't see many
signs of life in Death Valley, apart from a few man made oases.
The rest of the drive to Las Vegas was a pretty dull affair, the
scenery beeing mainly mile after mile of desert.
The border between California and Arizona is noticeable only in
the quality of the road. The road on the Californian side is OK,
but as you cross into Arizona, so the road becomes brand new. I am
told that Arizona does not have any taxes to speak of, but
finances itself entirely through gambling - and the financing must
be good judging by the state of their highways.
Yosemite
The final drive into Las Vegas is quite impressive, as you start
seeing this huge sprawling city in the middle of the desert -
quite why the first settlers chose to live here is a mystery to
me, unless they were on the run...
Arriving in Las Vegas, we drove down The Strip and pulled into our
hotel (Circus Circus). This is a huge affair (as are most Hotels
in Las Vegas) full of casinos and one armed bandits and even
included its own indoor fun park complete with Rollercoaster!
After checking in we headed straight for the casinos and I was
soon trying my luck at a Black Jack table.
Death Valley
The great thing about the casinos is that they are completely
unpretentious (unlike in Europe) and have no dress code. As long
as you're gambling they don't care - and even the drinks come
free, although this is of course part of the ploy to keep you at
the table and ensure you're so drunk you keep on loosing! Anyway,
never really having gambled before, I 'suffered' from a severe
bout of beginners luck. Basically I couldn't stop winning and was
up about $100 by the end of the evening. Great I thought. For the
next 2 days the gambling continued and I finally understood the
meaning of luck. Whilst on the first night I couldn't loose even
if I tried, the remaining two days saw me squirm in agony as
everthing I did invariably ended up with me loosing money!
Needless to say I was down by about $300 by the end of my stay in
Las Vegas.
Road To Nowhere
Las Vegas is of course also famous for the Strip, the mile long
road along which all the big casinos are built. Each one of them
is modelled on a different theme, enabling you to tour the world
in about a day. Quite impressive they are too and there is plenty
of entertainment, apart from gambling, to keep you occupied for a
few days. However this all just a big and flash facade to the
raison d'etre of Las Vegas - GAMBLING.
Las Vegas
After Las Vegas we flew onto Los Angeles for a few days, a place I
had already visited whilst backpacking, didn't particularly like
then and still didn't particularly like this time - despite having
some proper money and renting a car. We stayed in a flash hotel in
Beverly Hills, which was nice as such, but I don't think I will
ever be able to get to grips with the angelino way of life.