Las Vegas, Sin City! The lights were dazzling, viewed from the plane as we were landing at the McCarran Airport. And from the sky, one could already tell that the hotels there were HUGE. The one we stayed in, The Excalibur, had more than 4000 rooms! (and Davaoe�os are proud of Marco Polo! hehe)
As soon as the tour operator let us get off - check in took about less than 10 minutes - mother and I, my aunt and uncle, brought our luggage to our room and went off to "walk the strip." It was oven-hot there, no kidding. Yesterday it went up to 102 degrees! But what scared me was my vocabulary as we went from one hotel to the next --- it shrank to one word that has three letters: wow.
There were skywalks that connected the hotels and the blocks. The look of the skywalks complement the architecture of the hotel they lead to. From the towers and turrets of Excalibur, we reached New York, New York Hotel that has a replica of the Statue of Liberty, a huge roller coaster, Coyote Ugly ( I would have gone if I had anyone to go with grrr), ESPN Center.
The Luxor is a pyramid with the brightest light in all of Vegas pointing up to the sky from its peak. The light can be seen from the moon, they say and the airlines have once requested that its intensity be lowered a bit. The hotel called Paris has an almost-the-same-size replica of the Eiffel Tower. Caesar's Palace has statues of the famous Romans and their gods and goddesses. Inside, I couldn't take my eyes off its ceiling (despite the shops =p) because it was a perfect blue sky! Painting --- but it was beautiful!
We watched a show at Rio. I felt like letting my fingers go a-flutter and my toes go a-pointy while I watched. I wanted to wear the hose that make the dancers' legs look slim and skin-perfect! The Bellagio, my favorite, looks elegant & reserved despite its size. Facing the famous strip, it features dancing water in the evenings. I was awed by the synchron-y of music & dancing water, shooting off from rows and circles of fountains low on the man-made lake.
I really liked the las vegas downtown, 3rd avenue in particular. we went there last night. quite a portion of it is closed to traffic, it is lined with casinos and shops all so neon-light bright. people are everywhere. the crowd here is younger and most have their drinks in hand. kiosks are lined up in the middle of the walk --- one sells wigs, another a sculptor doing "busts" (the face, people, not boobs hehehe), a glass blower making crystal animals, all sorts! but what i liked here the most is that the strip is a covered strip (as in covered courts ng ateneo =p). what is great about this roofing is that it is actually a giant "monitor" whose lights are controlled by a computer. we were about to leave when all the lights (casinos, shops, kiosks) went out, some '50s music started to play, and the ceiling went alive with images of the '50s! wow.
But aside from the themes, every famous vegas hotel casino is the same. Thousands of rooms, thousands of slot machines and gambling tables, noisy with the clinking of the tokens & ringing of the machines, people throwing away money, drinking and/or smoking while at it. Oh, and the Filipinos are everywhere. they were the card dealers, the blackjack players, the slot machine addicts, the sale-hunting mall-rats hehehe.
It was truly an experience. I was there from Thursday evening 'til this morning, and let me tell you, that was not enough. I never got to do the slots! There just wasn't enough time. We squeezed in a day trip to the Grand Canyons kasi. And that is another story.
Anyway, hope all is going great there with you =p
ingat, folks!
05aug02, california |
