America is a country of deals. Fantastic offers are made on everything from common salt to holidays. Most shopping is done when sales are on and people religiously look through coupons in the local paper to see which stores are offering incredible discounts on what goods. I found one such deal when i was looking up the daily bus schedule from NJ to NY. Tickets to Atlantic City and back by bus for only 3 USD!! One pays more than that in tolls if one travels by car.
Since, despite all my efforts, I have not been able to convince Shalabh to take me to Las Vegas, I decided that a visit to Atlantic City would be an acceptable compromise. Satish and i decided to make a day trip to the Las Vegas of the east coast. It was a dark and gloomy day and we nearly changed our minds but got on the bus nevertheless, thinking it would be a great way to spend time with each other.
A 3 hour bus ride later, we were in Atlantic City!! We decided to pay homage to the city by spending a little money on it and headed to the Tropicana Casino. After trying to make sense of some of the games, we decided that the slot machines work best for us ;) Each of us set a limit for ourselves and played till we, of course lost all the money. Not being very interested in emptying our pockets any further, we decided to walk around the casino.
The Casinos dont spare any expense to make the interiors look larger than life, all glitz and glamour. I shudder to think what their monthly electricity bills would be! Thousands of lights, everywhere. Its a visual spectacle that i would not have missed for anything in the world. The shopping arcade has been treated to look like the streets of some European town. the ceiling painted to look like the sky and the lights designed so that the ambience is always that of late evening. Lovely!!
My first introduction to casinos was years ago, at the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo. What I remember of that casino is vastly different from this one. That was old world, very elegant and had a restrained opulance about it. This was much more brash and in the face. I cant help but think that maybe it embodies the personality and cultures of the two continents.
Another thing that struck me as very sad was that most of the casinos were filled with hundreds and hundreds of senior citizens. They were sitting at the various machines, just playing by themselves, with no evidence of enjoyment or excitement. Did they come there just as a way to pass the time? Later, we walked along the boardwalk (the boardwalk is literally that!! A walkway made up of wooden boards. This is a walkway that is a few miles long and borders the sea. It has the beach and the sea on one side and is lined with restaurants, cafes and shops selling memorabilia and clothes and.. oh .. just everything on the other) and went up to the beach. the boardwalk is truely beautiful, full of people, performances and life. I also went into the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum and looked at some strange exhibits, by which time, it was time to board the bus and come home. All in all, a fantastic day!
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