Cities- Las Vegas, misadventures and a broken camera

Whatever happens in Vegas remains in Vegas! Well, I didn't do anything like you might be thinking right now! :) Its just a popular line ... I definitely had some driving misadventures and freaked out my family! Huh!

Vegas ... it is definitely a Sin City. We stayed in a hotel right in the center of Vegas Strip and parked the car which we took out only when we were leaving the city. We walked around admiring the grandeur of each casino. MGM Grand, Excalibur, New York New York, Venetian, Monte Carlo, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Paris, and so on ... Since it was a family visit there was no scope for mischiefs. During my earlier visits I had enjoyed(?) some shows with friends. And I had lost US$100 on slot machines. I put a question mark! ... you know? some things are not for everybody ... but, you should try everything at least once in life to know what is right for you :)

In Vegas one can see many types of crowds. 50% are like us ... who go in- enjoy the flashy lights, spend few dollars on slot machines, have some beverages or expensive buffet, take pictures and leave. Other 50% are real players. Well, we were there for musical fountains at Bellagio ... and I turn on my camera to video record and my favorite G11 beeps thrice and turns off displaying Lens Error. It was very disappointing. I searched the whole internet for a fix. Then went around the shops to get it fixed. Nope! Vegas is not a techie city. I went looking for a G1X which was not available in Frys-Vegas :( I bought another camera which is a Samsung and is okay ... not like my dear G11. Vegas proved to be expensive for me in many ways :( During my previous visit my camera went unusually out of charge. So, Vegas and photos is a bit of unfortunate combination for me :(

Interesting thing about the Vegas casinos is they all are based on a theme ... like ... MGM has a Golden Grand Lion as its logo and Rain Forest Cafe which is decorated as a rain forest! Beautiful mechanically controlled animals like cheetah, crocodile, python and so on. The souvenir shops sell cute frogies, monkeys etc. Monte Carlo, Venetian and Caesar's Palace are based on Italian grandeur. The ceilings, the pillars, lights and chandeliers, waitresses and everything is based on roman legacy. Paris is flashy like French. Aladin has an artificial sky just like a dreamland. Luxor- an Egyptian drama. Mandalay bay has a Shark reef which is worth a visit. New York New York is designed like an American  downtown. Stratosphere has a high tower. Excalibur is decorated in English style. And many more ...  Souvenir shops sell interesting stuff ... both expensive and funny. Restaurants of all types and all price ranges are in every casino. There was a shop in Luxor displaying Titanic stuff on the event of 100th anniversary. 

For me, just walking on the Las Vegas Blvd was fun. Near some shopping malls there were men in costumes. One was dressed up like Elvis Presley and was standing exactly like a statue. Stupid me walked very near to check if it were really a statue. And he jumped on me!! yeeeeeekkkkkk ohhhh! I screamed and ran ... all around were ROFL :) Grand buffets are fun to see for vegetarians. Lots of fruits and salad are one can have. So, proves to be a bit expensive as main courses with protein have to be skipped. There was one Indian restaurant too but, I opted for Panda Express- Chow mein and Eggplant Tofu.

I always wanted ... to hike from North Rim to South Rim of Grand Canyon and then stay two nights in a luxury room at Bellagio Hotel and Casino to relax. Hoping to do this in my next visit. 

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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.