Sin City & the Grand Canyon
We have always wanted to go to Las Vegas. An opportunity presented itself when we got invited to Shafali's surprise Anniversary party hosted by Mami. It was a wonderful event and as you can see Shafali and Richard were very surprised!
We had lots of fun at Las Vegas. We drove through desert and couldnt believe that the city, is actually right in middle of it. Temperatures were soaring and using the car air conditioning was not recommended for fear of car overheating. So we were relieved to get to our hotel Golden Nugget which wasn't on the Strip (which is that part of Vegas where all the popular and larger casinos are situated).
The hotel was next to another popular attraction called the Fremont Street experience which boasts of a unique light and sound experience. The entire street of 1400 feet has a unique foyer with columns 90 feet high supporting a screen over one's head. The LG screen (also called as space frame) requires 32 computers to display animation. The space frame has 2.1 million lights in the inside surface. The sound comes from 208 speakers producing 540,000 watts of sound. Its awesome!
Over the next 3 days we managed to visit almost all of the hotels on the strip. We visited the Madalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Tropicana, MGM Grand, New York New York, Aladdin, Paris, Ballys, Bellagio, Flamingo, Ceaser's Palace, Mirage and the Venetian. Whew! And there were still a few more that we missed!
Here's a link to the hotels on the strip:
http://www.lasvegasmaps.com/stripmap.html
And here are a few snaps:
Thats Rex in front of the Lion statue in the MGM Grand.
This was our favourite place for lunch and dinner buffet. It was called the Main Street Station. We loved the vast choice of menus available and the ambiance was amazing!
We loved the Luxor for its Egyptian setup. We cant wait to see the real thing. But the view in the night outside was quite breathtaking.
The Mandalaya Bay was stunning from inside as well as outside (as were many of the others that we visited). From the picture one cannot begin to imagine the grandeur of these hotels from the inside. The parking structures are huge and in most of these popular hotels, its tough to get a good spot. The casino from inside are amazingly huge. You can easily spend the whole day just in one casino and never have to go anywhere else.
Ceasers Palace was another stunning architectural wonder. Its amazing how much design and detail has been incorporated in the buildings. For most part we found the architecture of the hotels in Vegas more fascinating than the "chi-ching" of the casino slot machines!
The tower in New York New York hotel was unfortunately closed for construction. So we had to make do seeing it from the outside.
Between the Ceaser's and Mirage was one of the fanciest malls that we had seen. It was called the Forum shop. Some of the most exlusive and expnsive goods are sold at these stores.
The Bellagio had a most amazing display of models of various buildings made completely out of 100% natural material. Here are some snaps:
The Venetian was one of my personal favorites. It was a setting right out of the victorian era. I could close my eyes and just imagine ladies and gentlemen dressed up in the victorian corset dresses and ready for a ballroom dance. There was a nice little gondola ride just outside the hotel. The architecture on this hotel was very European, it reminded me of our beautiful buildings in Mumbai!
But our undisputed favourite was Paris. When we walked in we were completely stumped by the setting. The entire casino floor was made out to look like.. well.. the streets of Paris! We didnt get a good shot of it, so here is a link to whats inside:
http://daguerre.frejol.org/photo.live?id=20040805010
We didnt get to go up the Eifel tower because it was under construction. But we have heard that the view from top is one not to be missed.
We also didnt get to take a snap from inside, but we did get one from the outside which is also quite spectacular.
The gambling and stakes at Vegas was quite an experience. We got to see and feel why one could completely succumb to the temptation. We saw young and old alike gambling hundreds of dollars at a go on the crap tables and at the poker tables. It was quite unnerving. We decided to try our luck on slot machines and we had a net gain of $50!
Las Vegas was a sight to see.. an experience by itself. A man made wonder in the middle of the desert!
But the desert had yet another wonder to offer... A natural wonder.. one which left us speechless and stunned. The grandest of all wonders: The Grand Canyon.
This is one experience which is NOT to be missed. The magnificence of the Canyon cannot be described in words.. so here is a peek at what it looks like.
This is the place we stayed at.
A glimpse of the Gand Canyon:
Some quick facts of the Grand Canyon:
The Grand Canyon stretches over 277 river miles. The average rim to rim distance is about 10 miles. The elevation of the South rim is around 7000 milses and the North rim is 8100 miles.Approximately 4 million people visit the Grand Canyon national park every year. The canyon is over 1 million acres of land and is over 1,900 square miles, one of the largest formations on the earth. It is one of the deepest canyons on earth. The vistas from different parts of the rim offer stunning and diverse view into its grandeur. Geologically it was formed by the erosion of the crust by the Colorado river over thousands of years. The oldest of the rocks found in the canyon date back 2000 million years. The canyon itself is five to six million years old!
We have always wanted to go to Las Vegas. An opportunity presented itself when we got invited to Shafali's surprise Anniversary party hosted by Mami. It was a wonderful event and as you can see Shafali and Richard were very surprised!
We had lots of fun at Las Vegas. We drove through desert and couldnt believe that the city, is actually right in middle of it. Temperatures were soaring and using the car air conditioning was not recommended for fear of car overheating. So we were relieved to get to our hotel Golden Nugget which wasn't on the Strip (which is that part of Vegas where all the popular and larger casinos are situated).
The hotel was next to another popular attraction called the Fremont Street experience which boasts of a unique light and sound experience. The entire street of 1400 feet has a unique foyer with columns 90 feet high supporting a screen over one's head. The LG screen (also called as space frame) requires 32 computers to display animation. The space frame has 2.1 million lights in the inside surface. The sound comes from 208 speakers producing 540,000 watts of sound. Its awesome!
Over the next 3 days we managed to visit almost all of the hotels on the strip. We visited the Madalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Tropicana, MGM Grand, New York New York, Aladdin, Paris, Ballys, Bellagio, Flamingo, Ceaser's Palace, Mirage and the Venetian. Whew! And there were still a few more that we missed!
Here's a link to the hotels on the strip:
http://www.lasvegasmaps.com/stripmap.html
And here are a few snaps:
Thats Rex in front of the Lion statue in the MGM Grand.
This was our favourite place for lunch and dinner buffet. It was called the Main Street Station. We loved the vast choice of menus available and the ambiance was amazing!
We loved the Luxor for its Egyptian setup. We cant wait to see the real thing. But the view in the night outside was quite breathtaking.
The Mandalaya Bay was stunning from inside as well as outside (as were many of the others that we visited). From the picture one cannot begin to imagine the grandeur of these hotels from the inside. The parking structures are huge and in most of these popular hotels, its tough to get a good spot. The casino from inside are amazingly huge. You can easily spend the whole day just in one casino and never have to go anywhere else.
Ceasers Palace was another stunning architectural wonder. Its amazing how much design and detail has been incorporated in the buildings. For most part we found the architecture of the hotels in Vegas more fascinating than the "chi-ching" of the casino slot machines!
The tower in New York New York hotel was unfortunately closed for construction. So we had to make do seeing it from the outside.
Between the Ceaser's and Mirage was one of the fanciest malls that we had seen. It was called the Forum shop. Some of the most exlusive and expnsive goods are sold at these stores.
The Bellagio had a most amazing display of models of various buildings made completely out of 100% natural material. Here are some snaps:
The Venetian was one of my personal favorites. It was a setting right out of the victorian era. I could close my eyes and just imagine ladies and gentlemen dressed up in the victorian corset dresses and ready for a ballroom dance. There was a nice little gondola ride just outside the hotel. The architecture on this hotel was very European, it reminded me of our beautiful buildings in Mumbai!
But our undisputed favourite was Paris. When we walked in we were completely stumped by the setting. The entire casino floor was made out to look like.. well.. the streets of Paris! We didnt get a good shot of it, so here is a link to whats inside:
http://daguerre.frejol.org/photo.live?id=20040805010
We didnt get to go up the Eifel tower because it was under construction. But we have heard that the view from top is one not to be missed.
We also didnt get to take a snap from inside, but we did get one from the outside which is also quite spectacular.
The gambling and stakes at Vegas was quite an experience. We got to see and feel why one could completely succumb to the temptation. We saw young and old alike gambling hundreds of dollars at a go on the crap tables and at the poker tables. It was quite unnerving. We decided to try our luck on slot machines and we had a net gain of $50!
Las Vegas was a sight to see.. an experience by itself. A man made wonder in the middle of the desert!
But the desert had yet another wonder to offer... A natural wonder.. one which left us speechless and stunned. The grandest of all wonders: The Grand Canyon.
This is one experience which is NOT to be missed. The magnificence of the Canyon cannot be described in words.. so here is a peek at what it looks like.
This is the place we stayed at.
A glimpse of the Gand Canyon:
Some quick facts of the Grand Canyon:
The Grand Canyon stretches over 277 river miles. The average rim to rim distance is about 10 miles. The elevation of the South rim is around 7000 milses and the North rim is 8100 miles.Approximately 4 million people visit the Grand Canyon national park every year. The canyon is over 1 million acres of land and is over 1,900 square miles, one of the largest formations on the earth. It is one of the deepest canyons on earth. The vistas from different parts of the rim offer stunning and diverse view into its grandeur. Geologically it was formed by the erosion of the crust by the Colorado river over thousands of years. The oldest of the rocks found in the canyon date back 2000 million years. The canyon itself is five to six million years old!
