How to Be Haunted
Some places get under your skin; some slide across the surface like a shadow in front of you; and some, you know you never, ever need to go back to again.
Left Vegas this morning. This was the third time I was there, although the first--didn't get out of the airport--doesn't really count. Second time, eleven years ago, spent most of the time shopping for books. Some good bookstores there, at least there were back then.
This time, checked out the fake hotels. Why go to New York when the fake one has slot machines? And, having been in the real Venice just a few months ago, I can tell you the Vegas hotel Venice is . . . well, all it needs to be complete is a Doge with a giant head running around shaking hands.
I loved watching people take pictures of these things. Gondolas right next to the Strip; the fake Euro fountains. This morning, a guy taking a picture of a fake tree inside a fake greenhouse.
So is there any need to ever go back to Vegas again? Nope. Not saying it wasn't interesting, don't want to denigrate the fun a lot of people have there, but I can mark it off the list and never think of going back.
Then there are places that slide off the surface. Everybody I know loved New Zealand; I thought it was Canada after a really long plane ride. Had a good time there, saw some really, really cool things there--the glow worm cave was amazing--and if I end up there again, I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun, but it's a big world, there's a lot of stuff I've never seen before that I'd like to see, and of course, as Italo Calvino so aptly said, there are "books you would read if you had the time, but unfortunately, your days are numbered." That's my take on a return to New Zealand.
Then there are the places that never leave your head. Wadi Rum in Jordan. Any part of Japan in the dead of winter, when the sweet potato vendors are pushing their carts in the streets. So many parts of Alaska, BC, Yukon. Iceland, just to see how the light hits the mountains again.
I was on the plane down from Vegas, thinking, I don't have to be on a plane again until late November, when it's time to go to the Canary Islands.
But now I'm thinking there's time, there's time. And there's such a big world out there.
Left Vegas this morning. This was the third time I was there, although the first--didn't get out of the airport--doesn't really count. Second time, eleven years ago, spent most of the time shopping for books. Some good bookstores there, at least there were back then.
This time, checked out the fake hotels. Why go to New York when the fake one has slot machines? And, having been in the real Venice just a few months ago, I can tell you the Vegas hotel Venice is . . . well, all it needs to be complete is a Doge with a giant head running around shaking hands.
I loved watching people take pictures of these things. Gondolas right next to the Strip; the fake Euro fountains. This morning, a guy taking a picture of a fake tree inside a fake greenhouse.
So is there any need to ever go back to Vegas again? Nope. Not saying it wasn't interesting, don't want to denigrate the fun a lot of people have there, but I can mark it off the list and never think of going back.
Then there are places that slide off the surface. Everybody I know loved New Zealand; I thought it was Canada after a really long plane ride. Had a good time there, saw some really, really cool things there--the glow worm cave was amazing--and if I end up there again, I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun, but it's a big world, there's a lot of stuff I've never seen before that I'd like to see, and of course, as Italo Calvino so aptly said, there are "books you would read if you had the time, but unfortunately, your days are numbered." That's my take on a return to New Zealand.
Then there are the places that never leave your head. Wadi Rum in Jordan. Any part of Japan in the dead of winter, when the sweet potato vendors are pushing their carts in the streets. So many parts of Alaska, BC, Yukon. Iceland, just to see how the light hits the mountains again.
I was on the plane down from Vegas, thinking, I don't have to be on a plane again until late November, when it's time to go to the Canary Islands.
But now I'm thinking there's time, there's time. And there's such a big world out there.
posted by e. Readicker-Henderson at 3:03 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, places strike me in some of those ways too. I'm glad I went to Thailand, for instance, and parts were well worth seeing, but somehow I could rest easy never going there again. It slide off me, I guess. Mongolia, on the other hand. A brief visit, but definitely under the skin. Like parts of Bali, too. And Krakow. And Rome.
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