Spring Break - Las Vegas Leg Part (I)

As I'm typing this, I'm lying on tengkok's inflatable bed in his room along 55th street and Hyde park boulevard in Chicago. But I still have yet to update you guys about my 2 day 2 night trip to Las Vegas, so here goes.

Right after the country-ish and ulu-ness of the Park City mountains, I took a 1hr 24 min flight to nearby Nevada, Las Vegas.

Las Vegas didn't disappoint at all, but neither did it overwhelm. It was just as I had imagined it to be - glitzy, glamourous and opulent, however, the glamourous part of Las Vegas was not as big as I had hoped it to be. Some parts were actually quite lacklustre. But still, the experience was great- many things I loved about it, includingthe stay in the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino! yum.

This is a view from the plane (I'm doing alot of sightseening on the planes! Wadaya expect, I have 6 flights in 8 days. heh!) of the hoover dam in the Grand Canyon. I was actually meant to meet up with some other Singaporean exchange friends in Las Vegas and go on a day tour with them to the Grand Canyon, but their retard tour agency shuffled their itinerary and they ended up arriving in Las Vegas one day later. Hence, I had no day trip to the hoover dam (which actually was a blessing in disguise!) but it didn't matter cos I got to see it from the plane! ha.

Touchdown at the Mccarren Airport in Las Vegas!
That there, where the pyramid thing is, is the beginning of the famous Las Vegas Strip - a strip of casinos, opulent hotels and shopping malls.

The jackpot thinggies ( I have no idea what they're called) already set the mood of the STRIP right in the airport itself.

Weird turtle sculpture. Cute hor.

Welcome to Las Vegas!
Because I was there alone, I had to ask strangers to help me take photographs whenever I wanted to be in a picture. So ma fan!

"Excuse me, could you help me take a photograph?"
"Pardon?"
"could you help me take a photograph please?"
"Oh! sure, what do I do?"
"Press this button here please!"
*pose*
"This alright? It looks abit dark though"
*preview photo*
"Ahh ... hmm... sure, another one would be good!"
"Ok, no problem"
*pose*
"is this better?"
"yup! Thanks so much !"

and repeat.
and repeat.
and repeat.


So yea, I don't have alot of photos with myself in it on the first night in Las Vegas.
The following pics are taken from the shuttle from the airport to the Hilton hotel. It went through the strip so it gave me a good preview of what was to come.

They should have one called 'THAThotel'

There is alot of construction going on in Las Vegas, this is just a sample. heh.

This was the first time in a REALLY long time that I saw so much greenery. I was thus VERY happy and excited. Ha. This was in front of the Caesar's palace.

So yea, I checked into my hotel, the Las Vegas Hilton and I'm glad I only booked it for the first night! It's the start of the strip, but it's not exactly near all the action. So when I went to take a walk around the main area (Bellagio, Venetian etc) , I almost died of exhaustion when I reaced back.
It was like a freakin 6 km hike can!

The view from my hotel room. You can see the main part of the strip in the distance. That track there is the monorail that plies the road parallel to the Strip.

The hotel room is LARGE. and nice, but it was a tat too big that I had to leave the lights on at night cos I was actually scared. Hmmmmm. And it didn't help that Zheyi kept telling me that there might have been someone else in the room with me. YOU SUCK CANNNNN. heh. joking. The casino at the lobby of the Hilton

So after putting down my bags, I headed out for that 6 km hike I told you guys about.

This is the Wynn, a really gorgeous hotel . Love it, love it.
If I ever do go back to Vegas, I shall want to stay there.

The venetian, another famous hotel.

Harrah's.

Below is a video of a part of my 'hike'



As I was walking down the boulevard, there was this group of people standing around looking at some stall. So I went to take a look and I was very surprised to see a guy painting only with spray cans. He's obviously so talented. good for him, and nice hair do too. heh.

I was lucky cos that night that I arrived happened to be Saint Pat's Day. It's some Irish thing that I haven't yet wiki-ed about. ha. So basically everyone was wearing green and getting drunk. Hmmm. Have no idea what that has to do with St. Pat's.

Paris Hotel : GORGEOUS.

Across the road of the Paris is the Bellagio Hotel.
Ok, so I MUST rave about Bellagio.

Do you remember the magical fountain on sentosa?
OK , imagine a fountain 10 times ( and I mean 10 times) bigger than that.
Yes, that was in front of the Bellagio and the fountain 'danced' to a different tune every half hour.
AMAZING.
Below is what I saw from across the road. I'll post more vids that I took of the fountain on the second day later.

Below are pictures of the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

When I took these pictures, I had no idea that I would be staying in that hotel the next day. The updates for the second day will be for the next blog post, but beware , I will be going gaga over that hotel in that post. ha.

So yea, that was the end of my strip trip, and I headed back for the hilton. It was another really long hike back. oh wells! (and no points for guessing how retarded I felt when I discovered on the next day that they had a shuttle plying the strip. ho ho ho).