SIN CITY
These are some notes I discovered in my blogger that were ready to go. I'm currently back in England.
LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY IN VEGAS
I've had an easier time getting a long term place to stay in countries where they didn't speak English, google translate had thrown up it's hands in frustration and I didn't speak the local lingo.
Las Vegas is a mutherfucker of a town.
The whole thing is set up for 'drop off your money and get the fuck out'.
I walked for about 10KM (and rode a bus for 2KM) today and went around talking to various locals and such. Apparently, it is impossible to get the same hotel room for more than 28 days. The fifth or sixth human I asked why finally had an answer something about 'residency' - though they seemed a bit unclear about what exactly.
So I'm still thrashing around.
Unlike the literal rest of the world, Vegas fucks with it's price. They'll put it at say $22. A wonderful price. But then you must pay 'taxes' and 'resort fees' which bring it up to $80 per night. I feel like someone should be getting a kicking for that.
I went down Fremont street to the west, toward the older parts of town outside of the 'Fremont street experience' with it's covered street and such. The bones of old, closed motels littered the place. Lots of cages around them like they have been trapped.
They have a couple chains for weekly/monthly rentals which seem to ignore their strange 'residency' rules but you have to go buy your own sheets and towels, pots and pans for those. It's very fucking odd. Even then, for a month you'll be paying something like $1000 and the buildings are run down, depressing and look like good places for drug deals and noise.
If I didn't already buy my plane ticket back to the UK for mid January I'd be trying to get to Portugal or something now.
I'm going to look more into AirBnB. I'd initially dismissed it because it looked expensive at $1200 per month or some shit but now I'm starting to think for this soggy shit sandwich it might be the best I'm going to do.
I have literally shown up in towns where (for example Arabic or Thai were the language), communicated, paid and gotten what I wanted in an hour. Wandered around talking to people for about eight hours today and said "This is fucking hard."
It's looking very much like it will end up becoming an AirBNB thing which does make me a bit nervous simply because I have to commit to living somewhere for 40 days without seeing it.
Because I'm great at self sabotage, I don't have enough money in my Paypal account (Paypal - the condom for your bank account!) to get the room yet. So I am transferring money over which should take a few days. So I need to wait for a few days before I can book a place. Bit nervous simply because I am dealing with two of the biggest holidays in the USA in here and I want to get the place booked and locked down as quickly as possible. Lots of places want to raise their rates for those two days.
Eventually, I bit the bullet and used my bank CC to book in. Though I've had AirBNB set up for a couple years, this is the first time I've actually used it. We'll see how it works.
In a bit of over the top weirdness, the street the place I will be staying at is ON NAPELS DRIVE.
How is that for coincidence?
I'm not taking it as a sign or anything (grow up) but I will say it it is quite fucking odd.
THE HOMELESS IN LV
Whereas California seems to be attempting to take care of their homeless in Las Vegas this does not seem to be the case. The homeless here are much more demanding, invasive, dirty, smelly and crazy. And super pervasive.
Disclaimer: Logan doesn't have answers to this, is only making observations.
RANDOM ENCOUNTERS
Super weird shit here.
First - if you've heard stories that 'the food in Vegas is great' (or even 'good') I have yet to find it. [Near the end of my trip I'm still not impressed.]
Second - they have a weird thing in Vegas where people who sell compression socks are licensed to do so. "We're basically like pharmacists" the lady who went through what must have been a grueling sock fitting program told me. "How much do your over the counter compression socks cost?" I asked. "They start at $17." Great thinks I. Amazon costs $19 with free shipping. If I can buy them here at the end of my 7KM walk, super. After the sock fitting I was told $46.50." [Ended up getting them from Amazon, an eight pack was half the price of what I was quoted. Fuck them.]
See ya!
At night, I go out to eat. I'm thinking salad. Look around, see a Mexican place that sells 'taco salad'. Close enough.
I have to remind the guy I want lettuce on my taco salad because that's how I'm justifying the whole thing. The guy who made me look a bit anorexic looked at me like I was crazy and put on garnish level. I joked around with him and got him to put on some more which he thought was funny.
" 'Merica!"
THANKSGIVING DAY TURKEY
Videos of Carolyn and Michael making the most excellent deep fried turkey. This is the first time I've ever had it.
I helped with a bit of narration.
https://youtu.be/9moR0zsr320
https://youtu.be/hnXC1EQfJPU
https://youtu.be/aC8Rlz3JxL4
OLD STORY (From Egypt)
A buddy asked for my "I was nearly killed by a firing squad once" story. Since I typed it out, figured I'd put it in here as well in case you'd missed it:
It happened when I went from Israel to Egypt. I had the Israeli's 'stamp a different piece of paper' because once your passport gets an Israel stamp in it, it's pretty much worthless. I went in through the Sinai and the Egyptians are super paranoid about 'Egyptian spies'.
I took some small bus that dropped me off in the middle of a town after dark. There was only one light on in the town (no idea where I was but it was a small town) near a well. I was standing there wondering "Ok, what happens now?"
A truckload of Egyptian soldiers did the big squeal pull up and began offloading a bunch of guys out of the back. They formed up into a nice line with their weapons.
I honestly thought I was going to die by firing squad right then and there against the fucking well. My only hope was that one of the ricochets would knock out the light and slightly inconvenience the troops for a couple of minutes.
The officer came out and spoke to me in Arabic. I greeted him in very polite Arabic then broke into the crazy photographer's lines from "Apocalypse Now" movie. "I'm an American!" I said enthusiastically, not knowing if it would make it better or worse.
After a couple minutes of making nice with them - allowing them to closely examine my passport which had not one but two Egyptian entry stamps (I fought for and got the full month one instead of the 'stay in the Sinai you filthy Jew and get out in two weeks one - they really hate the Israels there but like their money apparently), the soldiers and second in command got into the back, I rode shotgun and they took me to the fanciest hotel in town. From there, I got a taxi to one I could afford.
I still have no idea which town that was in.
WHY DON'T YOU POST AS OFTEN?
There are two reasons for this.
First, I am traveling a lot slower. England has become a base for me. I go there, stay for three months and run my game (links below) then go explore some other country or place. Then, I return to England. This means that there is a lot less stuff to report, especially when I am in England.
Second, I've seen and done enough different stuff that I am not running into a lot of new situations to learn how to travel and so on. Although there are still many other countries that I could go to, I've hit most of the ones that I can afford or want to go to.
I'm only posting the stuff I find interesting.
WHAT GAME?
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC2TZucbqPpz9Bx8rz57Wbmg/playlists (If you'd like to watch)
Podcast: anchor.fm/ataw (If you'd like to listen)
These are some notes I discovered in my blogger that were ready to go. I'm currently back in England.
LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY IN VEGAS
I've had an easier time getting a long term place to stay in countries where they didn't speak English, google translate had thrown up it's hands in frustration and I didn't speak the local lingo.
Las Vegas is a mutherfucker of a town.
The whole thing is set up for 'drop off your money and get the fuck out'.
I walked for about 10KM (and rode a bus for 2KM) today and went around talking to various locals and such. Apparently, it is impossible to get the same hotel room for more than 28 days. The fifth or sixth human I asked why finally had an answer something about 'residency' - though they seemed a bit unclear about what exactly.
So I'm still thrashing around.
Unlike the literal rest of the world, Vegas fucks with it's price. They'll put it at say $22. A wonderful price. But then you must pay 'taxes' and 'resort fees' which bring it up to $80 per night. I feel like someone should be getting a kicking for that.
I went down Fremont street to the west, toward the older parts of town outside of the 'Fremont street experience' with it's covered street and such. The bones of old, closed motels littered the place. Lots of cages around them like they have been trapped.
They have a couple chains for weekly/monthly rentals which seem to ignore their strange 'residency' rules but you have to go buy your own sheets and towels, pots and pans for those. It's very fucking odd. Even then, for a month you'll be paying something like $1000 and the buildings are run down, depressing and look like good places for drug deals and noise.
If I didn't already buy my plane ticket back to the UK for mid January I'd be trying to get to Portugal or something now.
I'm going to look more into AirBnB. I'd initially dismissed it because it looked expensive at $1200 per month or some shit but now I'm starting to think for this soggy shit sandwich it might be the best I'm going to do.
I have literally shown up in towns where (for example Arabic or Thai were the language), communicated, paid and gotten what I wanted in an hour. Wandered around talking to people for about eight hours today and said "This is fucking hard."
It's looking very much like it will end up becoming an AirBNB thing which does make me a bit nervous simply because I have to commit to living somewhere for 40 days without seeing it.
Because I'm great at self sabotage, I don't have enough money in my Paypal account (Paypal - the condom for your bank account!) to get the room yet. So I am transferring money over which should take a few days. So I need to wait for a few days before I can book a place. Bit nervous simply because I am dealing with two of the biggest holidays in the USA in here and I want to get the place booked and locked down as quickly as possible. Lots of places want to raise their rates for those two days.
Eventually, I bit the bullet and used my bank CC to book in. Though I've had AirBNB set up for a couple years, this is the first time I've actually used it. We'll see how it works.
In a bit of over the top weirdness, the street the place I will be staying at is ON NAPELS DRIVE.
How is that for coincidence?
I'm not taking it as a sign or anything (grow up) but I will say it it is quite fucking odd.
THE HOMELESS IN LV
Whereas California seems to be attempting to take care of their homeless in Las Vegas this does not seem to be the case. The homeless here are much more demanding, invasive, dirty, smelly and crazy. And super pervasive.
Disclaimer: Logan doesn't have answers to this, is only making observations.
RANDOM ENCOUNTERS
Super weird shit here.
First - if you've heard stories that 'the food in Vegas is great' (or even 'good') I have yet to find it. [Near the end of my trip I'm still not impressed.]
Second - they have a weird thing in Vegas where people who sell compression socks are licensed to do so. "We're basically like pharmacists" the lady who went through what must have been a grueling sock fitting program told me. "How much do your over the counter compression socks cost?" I asked. "They start at $17." Great thinks I. Amazon costs $19 with free shipping. If I can buy them here at the end of my 7KM walk, super. After the sock fitting I was told $46.50." [Ended up getting them from Amazon, an eight pack was half the price of what I was quoted. Fuck them.]
See ya!
At night, I go out to eat. I'm thinking salad. Look around, see a Mexican place that sells 'taco salad'. Close enough.
I have to remind the guy I want lettuce on my taco salad because that's how I'm justifying the whole thing. The guy who made me look a bit anorexic looked at me like I was crazy and put on garnish level. I joked around with him and got him to put on some more which he thought was funny.
" 'Merica!"
THANKSGIVING DAY TURKEY
Videos of Carolyn and Michael making the most excellent deep fried turkey. This is the first time I've ever had it.
I helped with a bit of narration.
https://youtu.be/9moR0zsr320
https://youtu.be/hnXC1EQfJPU
https://youtu.be/aC8Rlz3JxL4
OLD STORY (From Egypt)
A buddy asked for my "I was nearly killed by a firing squad once" story. Since I typed it out, figured I'd put it in here as well in case you'd missed it:
It happened when I went from Israel to Egypt. I had the Israeli's 'stamp a different piece of paper' because once your passport gets an Israel stamp in it, it's pretty much worthless. I went in through the Sinai and the Egyptians are super paranoid about 'Egyptian spies'.
I took some small bus that dropped me off in the middle of a town after dark. There was only one light on in the town (no idea where I was but it was a small town) near a well. I was standing there wondering "Ok, what happens now?"
A truckload of Egyptian soldiers did the big squeal pull up and began offloading a bunch of guys out of the back. They formed up into a nice line with their weapons.
I honestly thought I was going to die by firing squad right then and there against the fucking well. My only hope was that one of the ricochets would knock out the light and slightly inconvenience the troops for a couple of minutes.
The officer came out and spoke to me in Arabic. I greeted him in very polite Arabic then broke into the crazy photographer's lines from "Apocalypse Now" movie. "I'm an American!" I said enthusiastically, not knowing if it would make it better or worse.
After a couple minutes of making nice with them - allowing them to closely examine my passport which had not one but two Egyptian entry stamps (I fought for and got the full month one instead of the 'stay in the Sinai you filthy Jew and get out in two weeks one - they really hate the Israels there but like their money apparently), the soldiers and second in command got into the back, I rode shotgun and they took me to the fanciest hotel in town. From there, I got a taxi to one I could afford.
I still have no idea which town that was in.
WHY DON'T YOU POST AS OFTEN?
There are two reasons for this.
First, I am traveling a lot slower. England has become a base for me. I go there, stay for three months and run my game (links below) then go explore some other country or place. Then, I return to England. This means that there is a lot less stuff to report, especially when I am in England.
Second, I've seen and done enough different stuff that I am not running into a lot of new situations to learn how to travel and so on. Although there are still many other countries that I could go to, I've hit most of the ones that I can afford or want to go to.
I'm only posting the stuff I find interesting.
WHAT GAME?
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC2TZucbqPpz9Bx8rz57Wbmg/playlists (If you'd like to watch)
Podcast: anchor.fm/ataw (If you'd like to listen)
