Yet another comeback on the blog with yet another (very long) travelogue! Though it has always been my hobby to travel, but off late only travel and vacation seems to rejuvinate my sagging spirits. Earlier a bottle of beer and music in a pub used to suffice. But that was in some past life. If old age is approaching fast on you then take my word, nothing can uplift your spirits like a visit to Las Vegas - the city of lights. Literally. Read on.
We started off with a flight from Chicago to Vegas where Dear A's bro joined us from Phoenix. Then we rented a car to Grand Canyon on a drive through beautiful desert landscape of Nevada and Arizona. On the way we halted to see the mighty Hoover Dam which is an awesome monster of cement and concrete blocking the course of mighty colarado river. We took a guided tour around its power station. It reminded me of a school trip to Koradi thermal power station in Maharashtra,India many ages ago. Then we continued onward to one of the natural wonders of the world - Grand Canyon! My "visited" list of worlds wonders is fast closing in to completion! It was a scary ride through the nite in the deserts with hundreds of miles of straight-line pitch dark roads with hardly any other roaring engine nearby. Dear A drove all the way from Hoover to Canyon, I was asleep most of the time. By the time we checked in the hotel it was quite late, but we still managed to sneak into the Jacuzzi to wash off weariness of the journey. Next day, we got up at the first light to watch the sunrise in the Grand Canyon. First halt was at a Gas Station and in the 10 min that it took me to fill the fuel my right hand thumb was frozen solid!! I actually had to use other hand to bend it. Then I looked at the exterior temperature meter in the car which showed -24 Celcius!!! Brrrrr.....But still we braved on and caught the sunrise in the breathtaking Canyon, shivering all the time. The snaps are worth a laugh.I really missed hot corn and road side tea stalls that you get in good ol' Lonavla:-) Rest of the day was luckily quite warm and sunny and we spent it seeing various spots in the Canyon. One gets a very natural and breathtaking view of a landscape formed about 6 million years ago. You can neither capture it in cam film or eyes. It can be stored only in your memory! I also bought a replica of an Red Indian musical instrument as a momento. I like to pick up one momento of every place I visit for my collection. Another sign of approaching old age:-))
By mid afternoon we left from the natural wonder to the man-made wonder - Vegas and reached there late evening. After a short catnap we were rested and raring to see the Las Vegas Boulevard - the main street called as "strip". We dressed up in our best Vegas clothing only to be spoiled by bulky winter jackets we had to wear over that:-( Winter in desert is such an oxymoron. Nature is crazy. Ain't it? The first night was, I must admit, badly planned so we basically did nothing more than hanging around and walking up and down the strip in the cold. But I actually wanted to do just that. Hang around and soak-in the spirit and spectacle of Las Vegas. So we just saw things around, visited miscelleneous places and retired by 3AM. The next two days were more organized as we now knew what to see and do. So by end of the trip we kind of covered everything there is to see in Vegas: The free shows, Bellagio fountain, Freemont street experience, Casinos, Buffets (Alladin notably), malls, and et all. We visited all the casinos on the strip in the 3 days but just kinda window shopped. I had come prepared with a resolve not to gamble. Visited Vegas and did not gamble? That would be a natural shocked reaction from you dear reader, but gambling is not my forte and I am never lucky enough to win anything free. But, I spent a small fortune seeing some of the outrageously expensive Vegas shows. If you dont have the big heart required for gambling, then the next best thing to do in Vegas is to watch these shows. Atleast you are guaranteed to win. Each casino has a trademark attraction in form of a comedy, erotic, magic or some other creative art form in their respective theatres and some of the shows have been running uninterrupted for several years. It's next to impossible to see all of them in 3 days, but top 3 on my list were "The Blue Man Group", "Bodies Exhibition" and "Bite".
I had read about the Blue Man Group show in some flight magazine years ago. This show is a must-see for all those in "creative art form" business or even otherwise. The show is basically a comedy without any dialogues. The actors are these 3 bald blue colored men who ooze creativity from every pore and the audience! Yes audience too is actively involved in the show. It cannot be described in words, the show entertains your visual and auditory senses. See it to belive it. Period.
The other unique exhibition that I saw is called "Bodies" and it exibits well preserved human bodies in various states of decomposition!! It would have been a hideous site if it were not for the tastefully arranged exhibits who once were living human beings like us. Visit http:/Also demonstrated are various "components" of human body in entirety or as cross-section dissections. Another hideous exhibit is pre-mature babies from 1- day old to 2 months including a pair of conjoined siamese twins! The best exhibit was a "skeleton" with just viens and arteries which look like a huge mass of entangled wires. Visit http://www.tropicanalv.com/ent_bodies.asp and see the image gallery to get an idea. It is undoubtedly the best exhibition in the world which leaves no bad taste but awe for natures best creation - the human body.
The 3rd show was called "Bite" which is basically a erotic + acrobatic show based on the theme of vampires and their hidden world. Though it was nothing like the Lido show that I saw in Paris, it helped "complete" our Las Vegas "pilgrimage": Been there and done that! We left back for Chicago on the 3rd day with a resolve to come back soon. One can never get tired of that place called Las Vegas!
Cheers!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
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