For a married couple specifically... When boozing, gambling
and strippers take a back-seat and site-seeing leads you on ;)
A heady, vibrant 2.5 days and I HAD to jot down the
travelogue as soon as I am back, before the details turn natty!
The planning for the Sin City happened in less than a week.
Sans a vehicle (still!), we decided to fly. Bless the discount and offers'
world here, Expedia turned up some pretty good deal for a weekday trip. Yes, we
decided to reach late on a Wednesday night to avoid the weekend crowd and come
back on Saturday afternoon.
We were completely oblivious to the kind of hotels there,
about the Vegas Strip that everyone talked about and no itinerary in mind. The
hotel Monte Carlo seemed the best option as per the deals, and we got a room
higher up with an extra $10 thrown in.
The initial night view from the flight was simply majestic
and the hotel was more than a pleasant shock for us. With 5000 odd rooms, and a
30th floor view, we literally jumped with the visual delight. The windows
overlooked the entire colourfully-lit valley, the hills on the horizon and the clear
vast night-sky! A few clicks later, we tucked in with a heavy dinner and a super
gleeful heart.
The first morning started slow. It dawned on us that we did
not have a tour plan. A little net search and talk with the concierge booked us
Cirque du Soleil's KA that night at 9.30pm and Zumanity the next day at 10pm.
We had the rest of the day to loaf around. With the show "Fall of Atlantis"
at Caesar's Palace and Bellagio's musical fountain show in mind, we started
meandering across the hotels (I say meandering here on purpose, because the
routes twist and turn between the hotels before you reach the next
destination). Most of the hotels are connected either with a string of posh
outlets and lobbies or by monorail. So you can actually avoid the blasting heat
outside.
Nevertheless, it ends in long walks because of the humungous
expanse of the hotels. By the time we crossed the Chinese botanical garden and
fountain show in Bellagio, and reached the aquarium and Atlantis show point in Caesar's
Palace, we were darn tired. The garden was superb, with colourful hanging
hand-painted umbrellas, insects and birds made out of flowers, with a small bridge
and wishing-pond below. The aquarium had 50,000 gallon of water. It wasn't
extravagant, but we reached at the time when a diver was feeding the fish -
that made is really wonderful, to see the entire school swimming towards the
food and eating out of the diver's hand. The Atlantis show was a disaster, the
story of the sibling rivalry told with huge puppets, and spewing of water and
fire. The sounds quality was bad, and the puppets were literally dummies.
Tired from the long walk, we decided to ditch Treasure
Island's pirate show and the gondola ride in The Venetian. The unique thing
about the hotels here are the themes they have adopted and adhered to. Caesar's
Palace, for example, is so widespread that you have to turn full 180 degrees to
see point to point! Then there was Luxor, shaped like a colossal pyramid, with
a equally mammoth sphinx in front. The pyramid top emitted light like from a
light-house that is visible from any part of the strip. The architecture and
decor of each of the hotels is classically theme-based, defining grandeur at
its best.
Well, back to our room, we crashed down for a couple of
hours before heading for our first show - Cirque Du Soleil. It has two major
versions that happens in all seasons - 'O' (theme 'water') and 'KA' (theme 'war')
and is hosted at MGM Grand (yeah, the famous Metro Goldwyn Mayer). The KA was
on, we reached before time and totally got engrossed in the magical acrobatics.
The lights, sounds, special effects added to the enthralling dance-drama - a
must-see for one of your Vegas trips :)
Next morning started off slower, since we already had our
Grand Canyon airplane ride booked, and the pick-up was at 11.50am. Obviously,
we were very excited. The airport was a 20 mile drive and I went clickety-click
with the camera on the way. We crossed the real dry Vegas, the sparse
population, stand-alone buildings, the distant hills and miles of barren land
in between, the clear blue sky was breathtaking. The temperature outside was
blasting 98 degree Fahrenheit, staying in the vehicle seemed so much more
intelligent!
The flight took off well, a 10 seat craft (including the
pilot). With all the pomp and showmanship I portrayed before take-off, clicking
pictures with the pilot et al, my tummy gave in to extreme motion sickness twenty
minutes into the air. The small aircraft at low altitude, combined with the
huge air pockets of the canyon worsened my over-sensitive system. I did drink
in the awesome view till we reached Hoover Dam, but after that I could just
peek through my eyelashes. Complete waste of bucks, I was thoroughly
disappointed in myself, but was glad when the 1 hour tour ended. Anirban took
loads of awesome pictures, which I am still relishing :)
It was too hot to be outdoors, and I was tired from all the
excitement. We slept through the horridly hot evening, woke up refreshed and
headed for the next show we had lined up. Zumanity is hosted in the hotel New
York (with the city as its theme, of course). The cast is part of the group
from Cirque Du Soleil, specializing in acrobatics and live acts, but Zumanity
has the edge of sensuality and comedy. We laughed and admired to no ends, one
of those shows that gets imprinted in your minds for years to come. The only
regret was, they didn't allow a single click, even at the end of the show
(unlike KA).
The real fun started post the show. Hotels like New York,
Luxor, Flamingo, and especially Excalibur looks fabulous in the night sky. The
vibrant colours, the tall towers and grand structures are surely the charm of
Vegas life. We romped around from 11.30pm to 3am, from one hotel to the other,
clicking pics, commenting on the obnoxious dressing style of the people (we
came across a string of African-Americans from a wedding, and saw all the
possible cuts and designs possible in white!), and hunting for the especially
long cocktail glass we saw others carry.
I defied sleep till 4.30am, which is highly unlike me! The
thought of leaving the next day just didn't go down well with me, but I coaxed
myself to bed, only to wake up early in the morning. After gloating on the view
from our window for a couple of more hours, we gambled to kill time. Both of us
combined, we played for $7 and won $8.34! A 19% profit ain't so bad, eh?
We bade goodbye to the hotel and made an early head-start
for the airport. The fun ended too soon, but we did so much in the short stay,
I really don't regret much. The next visit plan is already on the table, so
well, you might read about what people actually do in Vegas! ;)
