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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael On our wedding anniversary, we are known to enjoy going to Las Vegas because that's where we met a long, long time ago. Ten years ago, you could still find super-luxury hotel rooms there (see... Rundbrief 01/2001 The translation to English is: "rent without the credit card immediately writhing in pain.
Nowadays, it's not that easy anymore, but every now and then you can find some real luxury for your money: This time we stayed at the MGM Signature, in one of the three new towers that were built a few hundred meters behind the MGM colossus. Our place was not only equipped with a kitchen (an absurdity in Las Vegas) but also had the most amazing balcony I have ever seen.
I am relatively free from dizziness and have only twice in my life felt that the ground was being pulled out from under my feet due to height: On Angel's Landing, the dizzying mountain ridge in Zion National Park. Rundbrief 12/2003 .. and on the open (!) balcony of this suite on the 23rd floor, about 80 meters above the swimming pool. Normally, you can't open even a window anywhere in Las Vegas, as the hotel operators are likely too afraid of million-dollar lawsuits or bad press. But at the MGM Signature, you simply open the door and step out of the air-conditioned room onto the balcony. You hardly dare to go all the way to the railing, feeling the still almost 40-degree hot desert night and shuddering at the height.
We have still not managed to see a show in Las Vegas, so the only news we can report is that the magician Hans Klok, who was previously unknown to me, is now performing with the Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. Instead of craving the glitz of the desert city, this time we explored the underworld and seedy side of the city of sin.
Unlike in Germany, prostitution is almost universally prohibited in the USA. One evening, we saw a bicycle patrol (!) of the police stop a conspicuously dressed young lady with a noticeably older gentleman on the sidewalk of Las Vegas Boulevard and then question them separately.
In the state of Nevada (motto: Anything goes), there are some counties that allow the operation of brothels; however, the city of Las Vegas is excluded from this. To invite the, um, bachelors staying in the city to these establishments, South Americans distribute cards with scantily clad women and printed phone numbers at the roadside for the lowest wages. Recently, trucks with huge billboards have also been driving around to promote the brothels with the unmistakable names "Shady Lady Ranch" and "Chicken Ranch." According to a newspaper article, this doesn't sit well in prudish America, but legally, it seems to be fine.
The South Americans, by the way, have a special method for handing out the cards: they snap their fingers briefly on the card and extend it to the passerby who has been alerted by the sound. It takes a lot of self-control to hold back!
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