17th June, Tuesday – Las Vegas (Day 2)

Day 18
Another day in Vegas! I think, that a person would either totally love Vegas, or totally hate it – for its utter pretentiousness. You can find literally the whole world in Vegas:

Europe:
Caesar’s Palace (Rome),



The inside of the Forum at Caesar's, which is a shopping complex! Check out the cool giant Trojan horse outside F.A.O.

The Venetian (Venice),


Bellagio (rather Italian if I may say),

and here's the beautiful musical fountain show outside the Bellagio! Simply magnificent.. I think i could have stood there the whole night, watching the show every 15 minutes - the water fountains play to a different music every 15 minutes..


A picture of the stained glass flowers located in the lobby..


beautiful gardens inside the lobby of the Bellagio!

Paris (France)

Paris - the hotel casino, in day time..

America:
New York New York (New York, duh.)

You can pick out Chrysler tower and the empire state building in this photo.. plus an outdoor roller coaster built into the hotel casino complex..

Middle East – Luxor (Egypt with the pyramid and the sphinx)



Luxor pyramid! and its characteristic spot lights at its peak, illuminating the dark desert night..

Tropics:

Treasure Island hotel casino..

Everything is imported in from all over the world, and transplanted to this town smack in the middle of a huge desert – you gotta love its utter pretentiousness yet grandiosity of it all.

For the non-gamblers like us, its all about walking along Vegas and soaking in all the sights! So, I’ll let the photos do the talking!

Of course, there’s always the shopping factor too.. Hehe.. =P

And of course, catching some of the free shows available throughout the day at the various hotel casinos..

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Oh yes, and started planning for our trip to the Grand Canyon. Our initial plans of booking a day tour with any of the operators here fell through cos of its high pricing.. -_-“ so guess wat? Yes, somehow, we ended up renting YET another car.. Urgh.

And to compound matters, this was a huge 7-seater car, aka Janise’s Toyota-Wish-lookalike. Argh. I’ve never even driven such a big car before lah! Kao.

And it wasn’t just the car that was contentious. There was the issue of which part of Grand Canyon to go to – South rim or West rim? The South Rim has traditionally been the place for tourists, since the West rim only opened up a few years ago. However, the South Rim is potentially a 5 hour drive there at the very least, and a total 10-hour return journey with me being the only driver certainly did not sit down well here. -_-“

So I vetoed the idea and voted for the West Rim. As mentioned, the West Rim was just opened a few years ago, but it promised the new attraction of the SkyWalk, where you walk on a glass floor overlooking the Grand Canyon.. Hhmmm.. =)

To help split costs, we decided to make full use of our 7-seater vehicle. Popped by some of the other local hostels, leaving a note to try to get people to share costs with us.. =P Hehe..

So stay tuned for the Grand Canyon post.. =)