Insert token here. Bet maximum?
Or, "Las Vegas is in the middle of a DESERT. What the hell are casinos doing here?"

No one would ever accuse Las Vegas of moderation. It's one of the last places on earth that I'd want to spend my own money to get to. Since Vegas is the home of the largest computer exhibition in the world, however, and since I'm a computer journalist, here I am. One of the best things about coming to the Strip is that it's like visiting Egypt, Turkey, Paris, Venice, Rome, and many other places, all within a few miles.

For some reason, I felt like climbing up and breaking the nose off of this thing.	The Luxor hotel is essentially a big glass pyramid with a hollow space inside for the gambling. Treasure inside, indeed.	If you want any of it, though, you have to get it past the guard dog up front.
The Excalibur lends pretty good evidence that Las Vegas is really just Disneyland for grownups.	Like at the Luxor, there's a guard out front to keep you from taking away TOO much treasure.	This is a one-third size replica of the Eiffel Tower. Considering the excess of Vegas, it's actually surprising that it isn't three times the size of the original.
New York New York is also smaller than the original, but it includes all the landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and a rollercoaster that works its way around the grounds.	As hotels in Vegas go, Ballys is actually pretty understated. Its only theme is taking your money.	When you call yourself the MGM Grand, you'd better have something grand out front.
Everywhere you go on the strip, someone is trying to jam pornography into your hands, whether you're alone, or with your wife and kids. It's a prostitution catalogue, essentially. I guess it works.	No, this isn't a hotel, but a "museum". One shudders to think what a Coke-themed hotel would be like.	The guy that used to ride this bike is now working as a staute out front at Caesar's Palace.
I'm really not sure what this is indicative of. Something, no doubt.	The Flamingo, centre, is a monolith that overshadows the Barbary Coast, which is definitely an old-style hotel. Meanwhile, a very small piece of Caesar's lurks to the left.	Here you can get a better feel for the sheer size of Caesar's Palace. Somewhere in here someone is playing a fiddle.
Of course, there are lots of places for quickie weddings.	Far more places to gamble, though.	By the time I finally emerged, all the lights were on. What a difference a few hours make.
Thanks to a reflection in the protective glass on a catwalk, you get two directions for the price of one. Kinda like a postcard.	See? Here's the guy who was riding that motorcycle.	While the hotel is pretty blocky, the lightshow has nice curves.
The standup comics here have them rolling in the isles.	This is where Mickey Gilley's bar is. There will now be a pause while most of you say "who?"	At first I thought there was a volcanic eruption out front, but it turns out it was just The Mirage.
If you're ever up at midnight and need a place to eat, look no further than Denny's.	You have to do something. They pump oxygen into the hotels, and you don't need to sleep. You still gotta eat, though.	You'd think an abandoned alcohol glass would be a rarity. The free booze flows so freely, though, that it's actually fairly common. Even outside.
The Las Vegas Convention Center. This is the heart of Comdex.	But lurking below the high-tech gleam is the sleazy underbelly...AdultDex, aka PornDex. I'm not sure which is more like Vegas, really.	Even more sinister, however, is the fact that Vegas is surrounded by a lot of beautiful scenery, and no one can even see it for the buildings and lights. Here are some mountains trying to peek out.
More hotels. The Sahara is in the front, and the Stratosphere is the tower in the back. The Stratosphere has a rollercoaster at the top of the tower.	I'm not much of a racing fan. My dad is, though. He would love this place.	This looks like an ordinary traffic scene until you start to study the billboards in the background.
Not only is there a Star Trek installation at the Las Vegas Hilton, it also has a fully functional bar modelled after Quark's, from Deep Space Nine.	What's more, the musical guest was Richie Havens. How anachronistic. Must be a temporal anomaly. My editor, David, didn't seem to mind.	I retreated to a quiet corner to drink Romulan ale, which is technically illegal in this sector.
My drinking partner was this gentleman, who offered me two bars of gold-pressed latinum for the digital camera.	By this point, David had gotten into a heated discussion with the locals, and we had to beam out before we got thrown into the brig.	But not before showing off our great new glow-in-the-dark Federation tattoos.
I don't know what HC is, but there will be none of it here, thanks.	If you're looking for Wayne Newton, here's where you find him. If you're looking for him.	The Desert Inn is a couple years old. That makes it too old and too small. It's getting torn down any day now.
This place used to be on top of the world, with movie stars everywhere. Now they can't even afford enough E's for their sign. Boom. Bust. Welcome to Vegas.	If you really want to see some of the scenery outside the city, you have to get up high, which is one of the small ironies of these new hotels, which reach high up into the sky.	A scene from the inside of the Monte Carlo brew pub, one of the few places in Vegas where shiny metal isn't being pushed into a slot machine.
On the way out of the Monte Carlo, I tried my luck on the slots...and what do you know? I won.	The Monte Carlo was also where I finally got one of those mythical free drinks.	In Vegas, even the McDonalds restaurants are glitzy. Sheesh.
The watershow at the Bellagio is one of the more interesting things in Vegas, with jets of water shooting up to the same height as the hotel.	It's worth noting once again that Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert.	The weird thing about Vegas is the perspective. From the airport, all of the hotels look so tiny. When you're on the strip, though, they're huge, and everything is so far away from everything else.
It's time to head home. This place is crazy. Why, there are even slot machines at the airport! I won $28, by the way.	The best way to see the scenery is from up in the air. Up close to the city, though, there isn't much. Just miles and miles of muddy-looking ground divided up into large squares.	There is, however, still a city here.
Here's one of the few aerial shots that features one of the hotels. Kinda puts that roller coaster on the top into perspective, huh?	The city's gotten so big over the last few years that it's bumped right up into the mountains.	Heading further out now, you start to see clouds. We didn't see a single cloud the entire time we were in Vegas. Weird.

That's about it, really, apart from a number of shots from the air on the way home.
To see an unsorted directory of full-size aerial shots, click here.