Part of the Vegas strip at night

Trip Taken February 2004

Why do people keep going back to Las Vegas, otherwise know as Sin City? Even non-gamblers? Because it is the biggest, tackiest, brightest playground for one and all. I am a non-gambler; don’t know how to and never had the patience to learn it, but I realize that I saw only a very small percent of it even though I have been there three times!

The best way to start a trip to Las Vegas is to land there when its night time. Since Las Vegas is built in the middle of an arid desert floor in what seems to be the middle of no where, all one can see as you land is the brightest streams of colorful lights that sparkle beneath and get brighter and more colorful as the plane lands. The beauty of the airport is that as the cab takes one into the city, the same lights appear in front in the form of gigantic lit buildings and signs everywhere. It just got my adrenaline going each time, like I wanted to run around like a kid and see it all and touch it all.

Reception area of The Bellagio: art piece on the ceiling

Then there are these things called casinos. Modern casinos have so much money into researching how not to let people out of them… and each is so big. It is difficult to find your way out also because they don’t believe in exit signs, so walk around in circles mostly until you realize you were just there a while ago! That becomes a game in itself, I guess, or that is my clearest memory from my stay in MGM Grand.

You would be restricting yourself if all you are looking for is gambling or partying. Although these are central activities, the variety of shows, food, shopping, architecture and variety of people from the richest serious gamblers, or whales as they are called there, to the love bird couple playing their fantasies out for a few days.

Close up of the Bellagio ceiling piece

Let’s start with my favorite: the shows. You have to research all the shows and choose a variety to fit your time and pockets. My favorite was “Le Femme” at MGM, now called “The Crazy Horse Paris”, a thirteen woman nude show that would take a talented member to catch a second of full nudity because the show is a play on the eyes with lights in shapes and forms dancing off of the bodies of swaying, perfectly matched, unequivocal bodies of the ballet dancers. Only in Vegas… the best of art and erotic.

Cirque du Soleil is a popular circus show. They have at least a couple of different shows in different themes, and it isn’t cheap, so read the stories before deciding on which one to go to for the evening.

If you look at a map and think you are going to walk from one front gate of a casino to another in 10 minutes, think again. MGM Grand sits on 6.6 acres and that is a lot to walk across. So your legs will fall off by the time you walk through all these wonderful theme casinos – Venetian, Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace, MGM, New York New York, Alladin, Excalibur, Mandalay bay, Treasure Island – and the list goes on and on just on what is known as the Las Vegas Strip. The themes are so well done and detailed down to the carpets and employee outfits in each that I felt like I was moving through different periods of time through different places. It is kind of sensory overload!

I really have no comments on gambling. It is a vice and an addiction; can cost a little bit more than the other popular vices, but each adult to his/her own in this grown up town. I judge not, lest I be judged, but do pity on partners of those who don’t know boundaries and limits. Enough said, moving on. Basically, the casinos make a lot of money because people loose a lot of money there… one plus one?

In Sin City, things can get sinfully extravagant and expensive. The smart traveler ought to look for deals in advance because casinos are always giving great deals to get people to stay there in hope that if they give out great bargains for room and food, then we feel comfortable enough to stay right there and loose money.

The Hoover Dam

So from such a recently created man made city of indulgence, we took a road trip to the Grand Canyon, a natural wonder created over two billion years. The drive took us across the Hoover Dam, which created the largest man made lake and reservoir and lake in the US, Lake Mead. It’s quite huge and the need for it is obvious, around 38 miles from Vegas, built in the middle of a desert. Apart from driving, there are helicopter rides from Vegas to Grand Canyon too.

We stayed inside the Grand Canyon Park. There are five lodges within the park itself, and they have from rustic to suite style rooms. We choose the rustic one close to the rim of the canyon itself. It was a wonderful experience. Each has their own restaurant and shuttle back and forth for activities, so no worries about parking your car in different places or walking too far. Web site for park lodging: http://usparklodging.com/grandcanyon/index.php

A view into the cannon from the chopper

The thing to do, and this must be me stating the obvious, is to take a helicopter ride into the canyon. The size of it, the colors of the canyon over time, the snow on the top and the flowing Colorado River are so magnificent, I honestly stuck my nose to the glass and had to slow my breathing down to take in the gigantic beauty. I also wanted to enjoy the moment since we only had one night there, so I forgot to take pictures as I stared out at Mother Nature! The sunsets and sunrises are amazing because they bring out the red colors and gold silt in the canyon. This you must make time for if you go as far as Vegas.

From wonders of mankind to wonders of nature, I think we pretty much covered the two extremes in this trip. I think there is so much to see in this world that it isn’t worth repeating a place, but I need to reverse the time and spend more days at the Grand Canyon and just throw in a day of fun in Vegas.

Grand Canyon Park Lodge on the right, at sunset

Arabic dancing in the desert

Trip(s) Taken August-November 2008

Dubai, Dubai, Dubai. Where do I start without being bias or prejudice? Then again, this is my travel experience I am sharing with you; I am not applying for a job at the UN so here it is.

I am not sure what the hell I expected from Dubai other than the movie like stories I heard. They built the greatest hotel in the world in water, The Burj Al Arab. Lots of money there, they said, but if you think about it, Dubai has no oil, so where is the money coming from? Then you heard the Russian mafia is in bed with the Sheiks, and all other kinds of mafia including Indian contributed to the money backed Emirate. Who cares? The point is, is it fun going there? Is it worth it?

I landed in August, peak summer. The weather was the hottest I have ever experienced in my life, with the desert fine dust in the air that gets into every orifice. Once out of customs, the outside minus the weather is clean as can be, the cars are all new, the roads are like any western country. There is a short list of things to do there, so I’ll be brief and simple.

Bur Dubai, although “Bur” means new, is the old side of Dubai, the south. Bur Juman area, I would say, begins the Sheik Zyed Road, the main and largest road that has the Emirates Towers and other popular tall buildings. Further down that road is also the Burj Khalifa, the mile high tower which is now the tallest building in the world, which was under construction when I was last there, and has opened and closed since!

The Burj Khalifa or The Mile High Tower under construction

All the talk about building the “World Islands”, “The Universe”, the what-ever-the-heck on water that costs so much money that they don’t have and can’t reproduce. I don’t know how there are pictures of these futuristic plans so well marketed and circulated that we have all seem them and take for granted that they must be an outline or skeleton of it there already. Having been there, let me tell you, the first two branches of the Palms was done, then halted because of recession and because the Sheik makes laws and changes them as he goes along: one day outsiders can buy in Dubai, the next there is an issue with it. At a few million dollars a property, rich people don’t like continuous problems.

So if you love shopping, the world’s largest mall is there, and just for suckers like you, it is pretty inside and you pay the price for the upkeep and for telling people you bought heels for $2000 that you could’ve bought in London, US or Singapore for half that price! Ok cool, so it is a great shopping place. You can also buy Chanel burkas for $5000.

The Madinat Jumeirah is nice to see, again because of its size and also it is build with a moat around it, creating a kind of Venice feel, with out door restaurants all around and the view of Burj Al Arab. See the Burj, its nice inside and worth the architectural expertise and interior design.

A stop after four-wheeling in the desert

The most fun thing to do there is to take a ride into the desert and do the tourist desert four wheeler experience that ends at night with a dancer in the tents and dinner. I never saw a desert before, the extensive sands and no greenery and no water was a thrilling feeling because you realize your only sense of strength comes from the single fact that you have a sense of direction because of the sun, nothing else like hills for landmarks or anything. At night, it is the prettiest open sky I have seen, without a tree to block vision, just dunes and endless dunes.

Its TGIT, not TGIF, becuase Thursdays are their Fridays, Sunday is their Monday

Night life is great. It is said that Dubai has the best and most expensive ladies walking around in designer clothes. And there are a lot of gorgeous Eastern European and Russian women there. New Asia is about as expensive as one can get and the place exudes money, maybe too much so for me. The Buddha Bar (seems like there is one of those in every big city) is also a nice place to go to. Other than that, the Rock Bottom in Regent Palace Hotel in Bur Juman was my favorite place, an almost American bar feel with pool table room, a laid back dining area with western food and a band and dance area. I think when I am at a place like Dubai, I go for comfort food and a safe place with like minded people and drop my sense of adventure real fast!

Sorry guys, that’s my experience. For those of you who know me well, you know shopping is like Chinese torture for me, so it makes me wonder why people will spend money flying there and staying there (which in itself isn’t cheap), just to spend more money buying stuff there!! Ok, so I don’t have money to burn so I guess in short, if you have money to use as toilet paper, no better place in the world than Dubai!

Remember, it ain’t a democracy, so if you hold a passport they think isn’t too important in the big scheme of money and power, then they can lock you up and throw away the key for the smallest thing that annoys them, and they do. So, all in all, why are you going there again? Oh me, I went for business.