Las Vegas

Its going to be a long blog, I guess, but I need to start this somewhere so here goes.
We had our thanksgiving weekend starting Nov 23rd to Nov 26th of this year and we decided to go to Vegas. So we left on wednesday 22nd evening and drew along Highway 152 which was the least moving one coz of vacation time time heavy traffic..but we enjoyed the way with our freshly uploaded dhinchak hindi songs:) We reached Buttonwillow at around 9pm,we stayed at a motel there which rakesh had booked. Then next day we again drove the remaining 250 miles or so to vegas our end destination. We reached Las Vegas at around 4 pm. Checked into Paris Paris.
We freshened up and left for sightseeing at 7 pm. Actually its such an awesome sight when you enter Vegas..huge palatial hotels everywhere but Vegas had not yet got its hold on me, I mean I had visited places before and I didnt find anything great about this place yet, I had seen all this in Discovery Channel in much detail and I couldnt find anything new. Also, had visited Reno with Rakesh, casino wasnt new to me. But as evening progressed, it got better.
First we visited Caesar's, took plentiful pictures. Saw a cool free show at Caesar's where giant statues of a king, and his kids prince and princess come to life and talk loudly with all possible attractive sound effects and visuals as to who should reign the kingdom blah blah!

Then we went to Bellagio, this is one of the top 10 most amazing hotels. Such beautiful decor inside that I cant explain. We also went to Flamingo. Here I got lucky on the Big Wheel or Big Six as they say in some casinos. Let me explain a bit about it for those who dont know ;) There is a big wheel placed vertically or standing upright and somebody would be there to rotate it. It would stop on one of the nos. i..e 1,2,5,10,20 or 40. Now these same nos. are present on the table and you've to place your bet on any or all of these nos. starting with 1 or 2$ minimum. So depending on which comes correctly you win. So if you bet on 1 and place 1 dollar chip, you get 1. If you've put, 2 chips on 1, then you get 1:1 i.e. 2 chips in addition to your chip and so on. So I used to get lucky for quite some time. We both together made around 39$ on that table. But we also lost around 10$ at some other tables...hehe... then we came back tired to sleep at 12 or 1.

Next day we left for Lake Mead. Now this is a man made lake created using the Hoover Dam. Alas, we couldnt reach upto the dam due to traffic but we went upto Lake Mead and me as usual got some really good pics!!!


Then again we were back to Vegas and started our casino hopping:) We went to Venetia and I enjoyed the beautiful ceilings with huge paintings..and Venice look alike gondolas..There was a couple getting married in the gondola..and when the priest or whoever who got them married clapped, everyone who knew that couple and also those who didnt..like us..clapped loudly wishing them well and a happy married life:) It was enchanting. Along the corridor there were displays of beautifully hand painted face masks and they were so costly because they were so beautiful!!!

Then we went to Harrah's...here like the name goes I felt that hum sab "haar" gaye "haarah's" mein...hehe..we gambled but lost badly. But the surprising point was a woman in lively swim costume ready to pose with the tourists and we got to take a complimentary picture with her. She was sweet and asked R to click my picture with her using our camera!!!

Then, we went to TI..Treasure Island...there was some free show going on outside and we had just crossed the road, and we both ran across to see the show but alas, it was so crowded we just got a short glimpse of the show!!!

We also went to Wynn, it seems its the latest casino built over there. It had beautiful decorations inside the hallway. One example was there were beautifully lit chinese lanterns dangling from the roof and music playing in the background. Slowly but steadily they were moving up and down and the whole atmosphere looked so colorful. Also, R managed to get some very beautiful pics with me and a red flower painting, those are my favourite :)

At night after dinner, we went to Bellagio where we again gambled and lost miserably, we saw a show "O" played by Cirque Du Soleil. It was an amazing show put up by around 40 artists atleast. I couldnt understand their logic but it was just awesome and the effort that they put up was just great.
Now I read some article on them and I know so much more about the show so here it goes for you all:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_%28Cirque_du_Soleil%29

We were dead tired when it got over at around 1. I was so desolate that we had lost in gambling that whole day, but R went on and played at roulette his yet another favourite table. And guess what he recovered whatever we lost and actually made some profit...yippee...


Next day we went to Zion National Park. Its a complete world from this make belief world of Las Vegas. Rocky mountains beautifully carved as if some sculptor etched life into them!!!

Amazing, we thoroughly enjoyed the views and took some amazing pics..and then returned to our crazy town of Vegas...when we were on our way back, it was an awesome sight that R pointed out to me. We were driving through complete darkness and suddenly behold there is light or something like gold shining out from the horizon..guess what it was...it was the outline of Vegas that we could see..that city had some much brightness with all the luminous lights glittering at the distance that it simply dazzles you...what a life it carries..!!!

We covered all the remaining Casinos like Monte Carlo where I lost at the Wheel :( then MGM, New York New York, Luxor and Alladin...and it was nearing 1 at night...we returned to our casino Monte Carlo..and I thought why not try the wheel again. I had spent lost some that evening but then when I played I not only recovered my money but also made small profit..the whole process was fun when I hit 10 twice!!!
Thus ended our trip of Las Vegas..called as Sin city..marked as the Entertainment Capital of the World.

Next day morning we left for our home sweet home at around 9 and reached by 11 at night..!!!Whew what a trip..:)) Happy reading.