We went for a Las Vegas trip between 23rd December and 28th December flying both ways . We stayed there for 4 days in downtown Las Vegas at Golden Nugget . The hotel was plush with good service and comfortable rooms.
First day, we visited Casinos Bellagio, Alladin , Luxor and MGM Grand. Each casino was built upon a theme. We first visited Bellagio and saw the down facing glass flowers hanging from the ceiling. We did more of Bellagio on the 4th day.
Our next destination was Alladin. As the name suggests , it was themed on the Medieval Arabic countries. The settings recreated the bazaars of erstwhile Arabia. More than half the area of the casino was only shops and was exclusively for shopping alone .
Post Lunch , we visited Luxor. Luxor is the name of an Egyptian town , so its obvious. I felt that Luxor is one of the best casinos we had visited. At the entrance was the statue of Sphinx and the hotel itself was designed like a pyramid. The main attraction in this casino is the museum of Tutankhamun. It houses the tomb of Tutankhamun similar to the original one and the exact scene that was found in the excavation has been recreated here. It shows the Anubis and the gods of the underworld and other such Egyptian mythological figures. From the audio guides , looks like Tutankhamun was a very pampered king.
The last stop for the day for us was the MGM Grand. Apparently it is the biggest casino cum hotel in LV with over 5000 rooms. MGM was not based on any particular theme. I would say it was rather contemporary American environment. At MGM we went to the David Copperfield show. It was superb and enthralling. Of his many illusions that he performed that day, I liked the one where he brings a car from nowhere and the one in which he makes 20 people( from the audience chosen at random ) vanish within a second.
Second day , we first visited New york New York , a casino based on New york skyline and architecture. The main attractions were the statue of Liberty ( I am not sure if it was recreated to the same size as the original) and a roller coaster ride , Manhattan Express. The ride was great and I enjoyed the thrills to the hilt.
We visited Mandalay Bay Casino situated at the South end of the Strip.. Supposedly based on Tropical climate , there was nothing to illustrate that save a few palm trees in the casino . The main attraction was a shark reef with sharks and fishes in their natural habitat . But since we have seen this quite a few times in San Francisco , we skipped it and went to The Excalibur.
Excalibur was based on Medieval Europe. It was built like the old forts that we see in fairy tales. It was very beautiful to look at in the night with the top of the castles lighted up in orange and blue. The interior was also recreated in an authentic manner with ramparts and knights with shining armour.
Our last visit was to the Wynn , one of the most expensive casinos in LV. Built by Steve Wynn , the successful entrepreneur who also built Mirage and Bellagio . The opulence was obvious from the moment we entered. Though it was not based on any particular theme, the architecture and the furnishings was excellent and beautiful. We saw a show called Lake of Dreams . Not much to say about it . Was only made of changing lights and a lake like setting.
We went to the south rim of Grand Canyon next day. En route , we also visited Hoover dam. I personally didn't find anything about Hoover Dam . After all we have seen our own Manimutharu dam and Krishnaraja saager dam built more impressively with fewer resources.
Grand canyon was an amazing experience. Apparently, South rim has one of the best and largest views. It is a semi-arid area consisting of raised plateaus and structural basins. Over an area of around 200 miles, the diverse landscape views and the numerous rock types that can be seen are simply mind blowing. We were even able to see forests and snow at higher elevations. Even the trail of the now nonexistent river that ran through the canyon is still seen. It is of little wonder that it is one of the most studied geological systems in the wonder. Hats off to nature !!
The final day of our stay , we again went and saw quite a few casinos that we decided to give a pass initially. Happy that we had not missed it. We first went to Bellagio. It is the richest casino. Since we had gone immediately after Christmas , we were able to see the Christmas decorations. They were so beautiful . It was obvious that money rains in these casinos. The we saw the chocolate fountain. It consists of white , medium and dark grade chocolates in constant circulation at 120 F while the enclosure is maintained at 95 F.
Our next stop was at Caesar's Palace. Caesar's Palace was opened in 1966 and was the biggest hotel/casino at that time. It was also the first casino to be built on a them. The theme here as the name implies is ancient Rome. Both the interior and the exterior were decorated with roman sculptures and Greek gods. The shopping area of this casino was called Forum Shop and it featured some of the most exclusive and expensive brands. In the middle of the Forum shop, there was a sculpture of David , an exact replica of the Michelangelo's creation. In fact , they claimed that this statue was carved from the same Italian marble that the artist had used.
We then visited Mirage . The best feature of Mirage was the Secret garden where they housed some vary rare animals like white lion and white tiger. That was the first time we ever know that a species called Panthera leo kruger , the White lion ever existed. There were 2 male lions. with their mane and their resounding roar, they were the personification of Royalty . We then saw a Bengal white tiger and then a surprise, a snow white tiger with no stripes at all. These animals have a low rate of survival because due to their albino genes, they lose their camouflage color in the wild. Seeing these majestic felines , I felt sorry for the future generations who might not get an opportunity to see these beasts at all with their present rate of extinction.
Lastly , we went to The Venetian as were to watch a show called " The Phantom of the Opera" . It was superb opera drama with beautiful music and great production values and props. Had it not been a combination of Opera and drama, I would not have enjoyed the play. Among other attractions in the casino are the Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum and Gondola ride. Wax museum was good. Among the many statues Capt Jack Sparrow, Andre Agassi , Angelia Jolie , Michael Jackson were life-like.
As we boarded the plane next day , we felt that we haven't had enough of LV and wished that we could have stayed longer and watched more shows. Well ,well , all good things must come to an end .
