In the middle of nowhere, a.k.a. the desert of Nevada, is the shining city of Las Vegas. Young and Old, Rich and not-so-rich, all flock to the buzzing city and empty their wallets. The casinos, the limos, the live shows, the wild clubs, it has everything most people dream about! I got a chance to witness the glamour for three days during this Spring break. I won't be giving a city tour though. Two reasons: There are better sources out there; and as the wise say, "whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". I will instead be writing on some interesting people I met at the hostel I was staying. There were some usual suspects. Like a guy spending last week of his work Visa before he returned to Brazil. Or a group of Argentinian classmates out on their Spring break or as per a girl from the group, "spending the holy week in the sin city" (It was incidentally the week of Easter as well). Moreover, there were some unusual personalities whose stories, I feel, are worth sharing. So here goes.
Arun was the first person I met at the hostel. He was visiting the US for a few months from India for a business. It was his long standing dream to visit the famous casinos in Vegas for which he had been practicing the Blackjacks and the Pokers on his computer for some time. He was very excited to be able to make the trip right before he returned to India.
There was a small problem though. Arun was married. That is a problem sure, but not the one I'm referring to. Arun was accompanied by his wife and a one year old child to the US. But he did not like the idea to bring them to Vegas. He had used a window of opportunity when his son was not feeling well. The wife had stayed with the kid in Chicago while Arun fulfilled his dream alone.
The first thing Arun did was to withdraw a bundle of twenties from an ATM. He was glad that the wife was not around to question him. Finally, he was going to live his dream. He dragged me to a popular Casino with him. There were a gazillion slot machines where you could bet anything from a cent to hundreds of dollars. Arun started small on the machines. In about two hours, he had doubled his money although he had only bet about $10 so far. The casino had given him a membership card which offered incentives such as a free coupon of $5 to be used on certain slot machines once you bet a certain minimum amount and a $10 coupon to be used at any Blackjack table if you play sufficiently long on the machines. This was a smart strategy. It sure worked on Arun as he kept going. The luck was favoring him as well. He amassed another $30 in the process.
We took a little break to walk along the famous strip of the city. Arun was in a great mood. His first experience at gambling had turned into a big success. We decided to go for a SkyJump ride which is a high speed descent from top of a 800 ft tower but not before Arun gambled some more money. He wanted to play Poker once and to also use a $10 Blackjack coupon he had earned earlier. He went to a Poker table first but was put in a waitlist until they had sufficient players. In the meanwhile, he decided to play some Blackjack. He put $40 on the table. But lost them in all of four rounds. In the hope of recovering the lost money, he put another $20. But lost it as well. While this was happening, he received a call from a Poker manager. They had got enough players. Arun moved to Poker. He started with $40 here as well. Won a couple of rounds initially, but eventually lost all the money. Then tried his luck with another $40, but it was more out of desperation. He was looking very tense in the next round. Luckily, he won this round. He could have left at this point, but tried to stretch his luck even further. Turned out to be a fatal move though! His joy a short while ago turned into despair. He was done with gambling, at least for the moment.
We stepped out of the casino and started walking towards the tower of SkyJump. But Arun's mood had changed completely. He was missing his wife now. He talked to her for a while over a phone call. Not sure what they discussed, but Arun decided not to go for the ride. He didn't feel it right to do it without wife's company. His vacation had ended!
Linda, a senior citizen from California was staying in the hostel for two weeks. All she did was relax in a chair at the poolside, cook her meals in the kitchen, or read a book. One morning, I was taking a dip in the pool when she showed up. A small talk followed which turned into a long conversation.
Linda had retired from her job a few years ago. She owned a house in a small town in California where she lived alone. Her two children had settled elsewhere and her husband was deceased. Once every few months, she chose a location on the map where the weather would be pleasant and a cheap accommodation would be available. A change in the scenery is all she desired. This was basically her life! In this particular outing, she was spending two weeks each in Vegas and Denver.
While listening to Linda, I was feeling very sorry for her. She, however, was telling all this plainly as if it was not a big deal. To think of it, the lifestyle in the US, with its compulsion to provide personal space to everyone, must be resulting in too many lonely people. The younger lot indulges in virtual world of internet as a remedy. But Linda is perhaps too old to venture there. Thankfully, her persona is such that all she needed was someone to talk to and she had found a way to achieve just that.
Wang was an interesting middle aged gentleman travelling from Australia, but of Chinese origin. The reason I'm stressing on the Chinese origin is because of the funny manner in which I was introduced to him. When I asked where he was from, he replied, "I'm Australian!". There was another guy sitting at the table who jokingly said that he could not have possibly guessed that that was where he was from. Wang, instead of laughing it off, kept repeating the phrase "I'm Australian!" over-and-over again. This conversation didn't go beyond this.
Incidentally, Wang and I were sharing a room. So I got a chance to talk to him again when he revealed that he had migrated from China years before. Wang was a professor of East Asian studies at a small university in Australia. He earned sufficient income to accord his family a decent life in Australia but not enough to afford holidays abroad. But the man had a big appetite to travel the world. He would take a month long break each year. Some of that time would be spent visiting his extended family in China sometimes, but he largely went across to Europe or North America. I asked if his family accompanied him. He casually responded that he would give them an option to join. But if their schedules didn't work out, he would simply leave them behind. That's courageous I must say!
Incidentally, Wang and I were sharing a room. So I got a chance to talk to him again when he revealed that he had migrated from China years before. Wang was a professor of East Asian studies at a small university in Australia. He earned sufficient income to accord his family a decent life in Australia but not enough to afford holidays abroad. But the man had a big appetite to travel the world. He would take a month long break each year. Some of that time would be spent visiting his extended family in China sometimes, but he largely went across to Europe or North America. I asked if his family accompanied him. He casually responded that he would give them an option to join. But if their schedules didn't work out, he would simply leave them behind. That's courageous I must say!
So how does Wang afford such holidays if he didn't earn enough? His trick is to plan in advance when the cheaper air tickets are available. He would usually stay in backpackers' hostels in big cities and join big groups to visit nearby attractions. Such trips are typically arranged with a bus transportation and are a lot cheaper. The day before I reached the hostel, he had been to one such trip to the Grand Canyon. To save expenses on the food, he mostly ate cup noodles or sandwiches from the gas station lobby shops. I also once witnessed him placing a couple of pancakes served for complementary breakfast in the hostel to his bag to eat later.
I'm not sure whether I could go to such extremes to satiate my apatite for travel, but Wang's dedication to travel each year in spite of the financial constraints is certainly commendable.
I'm not sure whether I could go to such extremes to satiate my apatite for travel, but Wang's dedication to travel each year in spite of the financial constraints is certainly commendable.
Bob, a gentleman in his fifties from Missouri, is someone I interacted the most yet understood very little of. I saw two sides of his personalities. Not sure which one was true.
Several things were impressive about Bob. For the first, he had undertaken a cross country biking adventure despite his age. He had a great physique and a commanding personality to go with it. He was raised in multiple countries across Europe thanks to different postings of his dad serving in the US forces and could speak Spanish and Italian fluently as a result. He also came across as a very friendly and cheerful guy. We had great conversations on topics ranging from his childhood experiences in Spain to the geopolitics in Asia.
Despite these qualities, there was another aspect of Bob which came as a shock to me. One fine day, I was sitting in the hostel lounge after having my lunch when I noticed Bob entering the hostel wearing his shorts and nothing else. His entire body was painted. He acknowledged me and quietly sat in the couch. His usual energy was missing. Upon probing a bit, he revealed that he had been out partying all night at a place he couldn't remember. His phone and wallet had gone missing sometime in the night and he had to walk to the hostel from that place. I was hugely shocked to see such a well-mannered old man being so careless. There were, however, few more things, even more important things, he had been careless about as I later found out. He requested for my phone to make some calls. The first person he called for help was his dad. Surprising for a 50-plus man to be dependent on his dad still! Although Bob was talking from another room, I could hear him shouting. Not sure what transpired, but Bob looked very annoyed after the call. He also tried calling his brother but didn't get any response. Upon making a few more calls, he was advised to stay put in the hostel for a few more days. In between the calls, Bob revealed that he was a single parent to a 13 year old who he hadn't seen in the past six months. I didn't find it appropriate to ask any further questions seeing the kind of mood he was in. But clearly, things were not going well in his personal life. I had to leave the same day, so couldn't check if he received any help. Hopefully, he did.
Upon leaving Vegas, the first thought that came to my mind was whether it was the passion for biking and meeting new people that brought Bob to Vegas or whether he was simply running away from his disturbed life. But rather than thinking too much, I decided to only remember a part of my first interaction with Bob on his biking endeavors where he said, "So what if I'm on the wrong side of fifties, I have another half a life to live. (I) shall rather keep doing things I love than survive living in the past."
Despite these qualities, there was another aspect of Bob which came as a shock to me. One fine day, I was sitting in the hostel lounge after having my lunch when I noticed Bob entering the hostel wearing his shorts and nothing else. His entire body was painted. He acknowledged me and quietly sat in the couch. His usual energy was missing. Upon probing a bit, he revealed that he had been out partying all night at a place he couldn't remember. His phone and wallet had gone missing sometime in the night and he had to walk to the hostel from that place. I was hugely shocked to see such a well-mannered old man being so careless. There were, however, few more things, even more important things, he had been careless about as I later found out. He requested for my phone to make some calls. The first person he called for help was his dad. Surprising for a 50-plus man to be dependent on his dad still! Although Bob was talking from another room, I could hear him shouting. Not sure what transpired, but Bob looked very annoyed after the call. He also tried calling his brother but didn't get any response. Upon making a few more calls, he was advised to stay put in the hostel for a few more days. In between the calls, Bob revealed that he was a single parent to a 13 year old who he hadn't seen in the past six months. I didn't find it appropriate to ask any further questions seeing the kind of mood he was in. But clearly, things were not going well in his personal life. I had to leave the same day, so couldn't check if he received any help. Hopefully, he did.
Upon leaving Vegas, the first thought that came to my mind was whether it was the passion for biking and meeting new people that brought Bob to Vegas or whether he was simply running away from his disturbed life. But rather than thinking too much, I decided to only remember a part of my first interaction with Bob on his biking endeavors where he said, "So what if I'm on the wrong side of fifties, I have another half a life to live. (I) shall rather keep doing things I love than survive living in the past."
Addendum: The names of the characters are changed.
2 comments:
well done, your writing style for this blog is really good but if you add little bit more pics of the places you visited create more interest.
Thanks, Nazia! I do like the idea of adding more pictures, but I'm not too comfortable adding personal pictures without taking permission from the concerned. I used to do that earlier, but now-a-days take a safer approach of not bringing in any personal identities. Having said that, I did take a risk of putting up Bob's picture here hoping that he wound't find this page.
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