We Gambled!

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As I told you in my earlier posts, we went on a 4 day tour to see Yosemite park, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.  The bus was very comfortable.  The driver was a huge man and he was cracking jokes with passengers often! My husband was game and he too was joining him.

I forgot to tell you in the beginning.  We caught this tour bus at Oakland. When we entered the bus we heard a Hindi movie song, that too a melodious song! Not, 'jab we met' type song.  A couple of Chinese were already sitting and then the driver who had gone out came back and asked us if we won't mind hearing Hindi songs! He, a white man, was asking us if we would mind hearing Hindi film songs! Hindi songs were his favourite, it seems! We were so happy to hear a couple more songs from Hindi films.  The bus was going to some other points to pick up passengers and after sometime, the music stopped! Our music is going everywhere!

We had started early and had Jalapeno buns and orange juice for breakfast.  I had lot of croissants in this trip! Had Latte coffee often, but one by two.  The cup always was large.  Both of us had half cup each.  But it was very tasty.  We were cruising through the desert area.  I never expected the desert to look so beautiful.  Most of the area were full of cacti plants/trees.  We saw some trees and they were called Joshua trees, the guide said.  We came across Murray's family farms in the middle of the desert area.   Have a look:

The Murray's Family farms at Bakers Field, on our way to Las Vegas.  It was a Sunday and we saw many locals with family, shopping here.  Many jeeps and tractors were there in the parking lot! They were selling fruits, vegetables, provisions and food items too! It was clean everywhere!

I noticed some small back birds in front of the Murray Family Farms.  This was near the entrance.  Doesn't this picture look beautiful?!

It was Halloween time when we went on this tour.  Saw this at the Murray's family farm.  We bought some fresh grapes and apples here which was very very tasty!

On our way to Las Vegas.  The desert area but saw a lot of vegetation.  I noticed long trucks had separate roads on the far end of the highway.  I liked the sky/clouds in the picture.  These desert pictures were taken from the running bus, so won't be very clear, sorry!

Joshua trees and other vegetation on the desert

Saw these wind mills on our way to Las Vegas.  This is one of the important power supplier for this area, the guide said.   The towers with high voltage power cables were built very low, my husband said.  He is an electrical man.  The lamp posts on the road were made of wood unlike our concrete posts!

Since we were travelling on the highway, we didn't see much houses or residential areas in this desert area.  Wherever we saw, the houses were single storied and had tiled roofs.  California area is prone to earthquakes and so mostly they build single storied houses esp. in the Bay area etc.   We saw huge multi storied buildings only in San Francisco.  I think Berkeley also didn't have high buildings.

Then we reached Las Vegas!

We stayed at Excalibur hotel which had 3,700 rooms! 

The guide took us to the hotel and we were asked to register with our passports! They gave a card for gambling (whether we asked for it or not, everybody was given a card!).  They gave a 'gift' also. It was a porcelain tower replica of their hotel!

I had seen these gambling places in movies.  I saw many Roulette tables and other machines here with lots of bright lights, coloured flashing bulbs!

These tables were full in the evening and night.  Early mornings the area was deserted.

Husband and I played in a machine for 1 dollar each! Husband got back 6 dollars and I, 10 cents! I was interested in watching roulette tables... Watching people is interesting for me, always!

The tables were taken care of mainly by women, esp. South Asians! Very smart women.  Many women were also playing.  And smoking too! The next day we went to a dance drama in a taxi.  The driver was from Florida.  He said that people cannot find gambling casinos outside this area. It is banned actually.  He himself gambled like others here, he said.  Everybody is attracted to gambling in this place, he said.  People who gamble, lose everything and for going back home, they pledge their watches and other things at the surrounding small shops and the tourists can buy them cheap from them! I don't know how true this story is, though!

Let me write more about this area...no, no more gambling stories but about other attractions we saw at this gambling capital!

Before finishing this post, I have to tell you about an incident.  We noticed some heavy duty security people everywhere at the hotel which had the casino too.  The next day, we came back after attending a dance drama at 11 pm. One huge man stopped us before we entered the lift and asked us to show our key in a sign language! I look so tiny and both of us are senior citizens and he must have thought that we were bursting into the hotel without keys! I started laughing while showing the keys! Husband was glaring at me!

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