Travels in a Tin Can

differences, but also some that we certainly did not expect.
First, accommodation. No prizes for guessing which place provided
more in the way of facilities and luxury, (Las Vegas...obviously... unless
‘monastic starkness’ is what you are into). In fact the only similarity between
Vegas and Death Valley on this score was the price, or at least what the price
represented: a bargain.
Most of the hotels on the Las Vegas strip are very fancy looking on the
outside, decked out to resemble New York, Paris, Rome, or a tropical island,
but they are not all the same high standard inside. We decided to stay in the
Luxor - an Egyptian style hotel with the main building being a black pyramid.
For just $57 (£35) a night we had a large well appointed en suite room and
included extras such as use of the (very nice) hotel spa and (not so great)
hotel museum. We also managed to wring a free meal out of the staff when
we complained about the poor level of housekeeping we had received. In
actual fact ‘poor level’ merely amounted to a cocktail stick being left on the
floor prior to our arrival and not cleaned up, and a dubious stain on our
sheets, not really a big deal but certainly worth a free meal. The highlight of
our stay, however, was our last night when - for a small charge - we upgraded
to a Jacuzzi suite on the 28th (out of 30) floor of the pyramid. This room had
two TVs, a lounge area, a nice bathroom, and a four person jacuzzi in the
bedroom! We made the most of this by having three jacuzzi baths in less than
24 hours. Never mind that we ended up wrinklier than a basset-hound puppy,
it was worth it! The sad thing about upgrading was that we received a much
higher level of service - even getting our sheets turned down and chocolates
on the pillows. In fact, the service that we encountered was generally a bit