I say glitzy but K says gaudy.
Everything in Vegas screams BIG, colourful, LOUD, larger than life. I never quite understood when I told friends we were going to Vegas, the first question they asked was "which hotel are you staying at?" When we arrived, it all made sense. There is a main road called The Strip where most hotels are located, and literally huge hotels and their malls line The Strip. It's like an endless Orchard Road, so to speak. And each hotel is just MASSIVE. They have their casino (for sure), their own mall (loads of shops), and at least a theatre for their resident shows. We kept making the same mistake every day we were there. We would say "oh let's go in and have a
quick look" thinking it's a mere few minutes delay. Nope, that doesn't work. To walk across an entire resort takes like 15-20min. And then you get even more sidetracked. It's just unreal. A "quick look" never happens in Vegas. In general, people spend their time walking from resort to resort exploring the specialised themes. And Vegas is a place where you either love it or hate it.
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| Our hotel at night |
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| A bird's eye view of our hotel's swimming pools |
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| Our hotel in the day |
We decided to splurge on a 5 star hotel and stayed at The Palazzo which was great. It was on The Strip and it was just such a beautiful hotel. Most of the rooms there are suites so it was proper, like the size of a studio apartment except there is no cooking area. We were well impressed and tried to enjoy their facilities as much such as using their gym and lounging by the pool. The funny thing about most hotels in Vegas is that they don't come with a daily complimentary breakfast. We managed to find one deal with a complimentary Chinese breakfast which was sadly, unimpressive, but we were grateful that they allowed us to switch to an American breakfast. They would come and set up the in-room dining services every morning. See there are so many cafes and restaurants within each hotel that they see no point in providing any complimentary breakfast; they'd rather you explore their resort and settle for something which you like.
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| Our (sad) Chinese breakfast |
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| Luckily we could swap it with an American breakfast |
It was proper summer temperatures in the desert. On average we had 39deg C and it was my first time experience such temperatures I was properly wilting under the heat.
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| I felt like I wanted a slush everyday. Like a 7-eleven slurpee. |
The first day we arrived I remember hearing this guy walking past me exclaiming "geez, what a warm breeze!" It's true. You feel waves of hot air coming towards you. I felt like we were in an oven and that the whole of Vegas would melt away. Thankfully most people spend their time in the air conditioned malls, casinos, theatres. There is always something to see and do. And come night time, there would be some serious big scale display at most hotels. One of the most famous ones is the water fountain display in front of the Bellagio hotel. That was very big and very impressive. I especially love the performance when they play it with Sarah Brightman's Time to Say Goodbye. Another one is a live volcano eruption in front of the hotel Treasure Island which was right across the road from us.
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| The fountain in front of the Bellagio |
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We visited Downtown Vegas which is on the outskirts
(yes, not very downtown I know) |
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| Somebody recommended us the Gold Digger club in Downtown |
As I mentioned, everything is big. Even the roads. I think I did the longest jaywalk in my life here in Vegas. Running across like 8 lanes early one morning when we were running for our tour bus which was to bring us to the Grand Canyon. That was pretty funny.
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| Exploring the pool at the Bellagio hotel |
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| Inside the Bellagio where they had an ocean scene made out from flowers |
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| A wedding chapel in the Bellagio |
Some notable hotels that are worthy of mentioning:
The Venetian - this is the sister hotel of The Palazzo. As you can guess, this is themed after Venice and right inside the mall, they created a canal with gondolas and boat rides. Yep the gondola men sing here too. Complete with a fake sky painted with clouds. They even have a square (St Mark's Square), like how they do in Italy.
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| St Mark's Square |
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| The canal |
Paris Hotel - you step inside and you think you stepped into Paris. You have the Eiffel tower in front of you, and you have trees lining up the whole casino floor, making it feel like you are gambling under the Parisien skies. Waiters and waitresses dress up in their french gear and the check in counters have opulent paintings lined up all around.
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| Paris hotel in the evening |
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| In the day |
MGM Grand - this is modelled after a cinema and this is also where live boxing matches take places, such as the not so recent big match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. In fact while roaming the mall we saw people crowding this young guy asking for photos and autographs. He is one of the boxers but we had no idea who he was :S David Copperfield has his nightly magic show here at the MGM Grand too.
Of course we have the New York Hotel too and one of the first hotels Caeser's Palace (with a Roman theme).
Besides the whole Vegas experience of drifting in and out of malls/ casinos/ gawking at everything that is big and impressive there - not forgetting fanning at oneself and squinting underneath the hot sun - I can think of 2 highlights while we were there.
1) Grand Canyon day tour
People told us any visit to Vegas is not complete with a tour of the Grand Canyon. Ok technically they are not anywhere close to each other, but close enough to do a (very) long day trip. We took 15h (left at 6.10am and got back to our hotel at 9pm). Vegas is in the state of Nevada whereas the Grand Canyon is in Arizona. The drive there took 5h and slightly longer on the way back. We did two stops within the canyon and you can imagine cameras clicked non stop. You feel really tiny standing with the north rim in front of you. (It's divided into the north and south rim. We were told the south rim tour takes a little longer but the view is better.)
Some choose the helicopter tour too, to save time. The entire helicopter tour takes only about 4h and they fly you directly into the canyon which sounds pretty cool. Price wise, clearly there is a big difference and we decided to go easy on our purse strings. Furthermore we were not hard pressed for time.
2) Watching Cirque du Soleil's "O"
OMG this show had me hooked from start to finish and I am not ashamed to say that my mouth was half opened half the time going omg/ oh gosh/ wahh because I was so amazed at ALL the acrobatic acts. This is probably one of the best shows I have ever watched. It is the most popular Cirque du Soleil's show in Vegas (they have quite a few going on every night in different hotels). "O" is the water themed show, resident show of the Bellagio (the one with the fountains). Firstly the stage is impressive. There is a huge water tank where the swimmers can dive in - all in sync, no less - and then suddenly it is able to close up and the amount of water reduces considerably. And yet in another scene all the water is gone and the dancers appear and dance on dry ground. The performers swing from one end to the other, they climb up high, they spin themselves, they somersault into the water, they do acrobatic stuff in the air and in the water.. gosh, too much to mention but you get my drift. If you ever go to Vegas, you need to watch "O" and be blown away.
All the Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas:
https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/destinations/las-vegas/home.aspx
About "O"
https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/o/show/about.aspx
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| Finally I could taste from the cheesecake factory |
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| We found a lobster place which was very popular |
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| My lobster roll |
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