And finally, after a yearlong break, am again back to blogging. This
time, something on Travel.
Now to be honest I have never smoked cigarette or marihuana or
hukkah extensively. I quitted drinking alcohol back in 2016. I have
never gambled in my life. You may think I party hard, just because
of the title of my blog but you know I am not a party person. I am
more of loner. Then what the hell did I do in Vegas?
The truth is, I enjoyed… enjoyed a lot. It was lifetime experience
for me… and I am sure for Payal as well. Vegas was always in our
bucket list after we moved to US. We wanted to see the craziness of
Vegas everyone talks about, always wanted to visit the Sin city but
never know how to plan it. Finally one fine Saturday morning
somehow, I started searching for Vegas trip on YouTube and that is
how me and Payal grew the seed of our Vegas trip.
They say...You either love Las Vegas or hate it. We
are the ones that love it.
We went through many itineraries over YouTube and Pinterest and
finally came up with simple plan comprises of exploring the Las
Vegas strip and Grand Canyon.
Our journey started with boring long 5-hour flight from Miami to Las
Vegas. Fortunately, the flight time just flew by coz of the
excitement of trip. We reached Vegas at around 2:30 PM PST (This
Eastern to Pacific time change is affecting us even 5 days after the
trip.. jetlag you know...). We had expected low temperature at Vegas
but it really feels when you switch from 25 Celsius to 8 Celsius. We
stayed at Excalibur hotel and would say, MGM properties are awesome.
You need not to meet a single person for check in/check out or any
of your issues/complaints. Everything is on app. Before we reached
hotel, I had all the details about my room and the digital room key.
After checking in to hotel and taking a nice hot shower, we were
famished. We went straight to the food court. Now in US we always
find it difficult to get right food at right time. Sometimes I feel,
me and Payal are the only Vegetarian people in US. Anyway, we ended
up taking a typical cheese pizza but that’s fine as food is never
showstopper for me or Payal. After finishing our Pizza, we went to
explore the Strip.
First, we went to the Luxor hotel, a short tram journey from
Excalibur. In the thick of the Las Vegas Strip stands an immense,
glossy, jet-black pyramid – The Luxor. Now in Vegas, you will find
few common things in every hotel – Shopping center, Food court,
Casino and Shows. Same thing with 'The Luxor'. Common things on top of awesome architecture.
After exploring the Luxor hotel, we went to our most awaiting part
of the trip. ‘The Las Vegas Sign’. We wanted to visit Vegas sign
both at night and in the morning. Fortunately, when we went there,
there were hardly few people and we got good amount of time to take
photos there.
And then we were to the Pin Ball Hall of fame. You can’t miss
playing nostalgic Pinball games on their dedicated consoles.
Our hectic day 1 ended with our visit to Coco cola and M&M
store. It’s always memorable to visit the M&M store.
Day 2 was again the day on the Strip. Today’s first destination was
‘Las Vegas Sign’. This time it was more crowded than the previous
day. But wait was worth it.
Then we went to famous ‘The Venetian’. After all, Vegas is all about
the glamour, about the illusion. And there is no better way to spend
time in Las Vegas than falling again in love with your wife in the
surroundings of a glamorous hotel that transports you to another
realm… like the romantic canals of Venice… Even if it’s
only an illusion. You are in the replica of Venice and no trip to Venice would be complete without a
genuine gondola ride… Payal was eagerly waiting for this part of
trip as visiting Venice is always in her bucket list (hopefully for
time being virtual Venice will do) and needless to say, the gondola
ride was indeed a lifetime experience for both of us.
Next visit was to another famous giant ‘The Bellagio’. The hotel is
inspired from Lake Como in the town of Bellagio in Italy. One of the
most significant attractions here is the Fountains of Bellagio. You
can absolutely not miss this large dancing music fountain when you
are in Vegas.
Another must visit attractions at the Bellagio is their conservatory
and botanical garden. This time it was decorated on Chinese theme. I
would say it was little overrated but definitely a must visit.
After Bellagio we went to the Paris hotel. Once you visit The
Venetian and Bellagio, you will find Paris hotel a little dull but
ya… pic at Eiffel Tower is must. We also wanted to visit Eiffel
Tower viewing deck but unfortunately it was closed.
By 6 PM we were almost done with our day 2 itinerary. We visited
Chandelier bar at ‘The Cosmopolitan’ and the Volcano outside ‘The
Caesars Palace’.
As we still had some time, we went to Fremont Street at around 8 PM.
By the time we were at Fremont Street, we were really tired, but we
explored the area any way. I wanted to visit the area again on the
last day but could not.
Now on Day 3, we definitely wanted to relax a bit. Also, we thought
it would be great to have a different kind of visit after two days
on the Strip, so we chose The Grand Canyon on day 3.
The journey from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon is almost 4 hours long.
After breakfast, me and Payal fell asleep in bus and when I woke up,
I found the entire area covered in snow. I had never expected the
snow. When I woke Payal up, she was also speechless for some time.
What a view we had throughout a day!!!
After our Lunch, we visited the Mather Point. Now any point on Grand
Canyon gives you an awesome view.
This one of the seven wonders of the world is the place you must see at
least once in a lifetime!
In the return trip we watched the spectacular hoover Dam and reached
to hotel at around 11 PM.
And now we were back on Las Vegas Strip. Our day 4 started with our
visit to Mandalay Bay hotel. We visited Shark Reef Aquarium at
Mandalay Bay. Now we have visited many aquariums in US and there is
nothing great or new about this aquarium. Ya, we saw Jelly fishes
for the first time.
😊
Next stop was at LINQ High Roller. This roller seems normal from far
but when you actually come to the place, you will be shocked to see
the grandiose.
Then we visited another famous hotel on Strip – The Caesar’s Palace.
No one can accuse Caesar's Palace of being low-key. As you enter,
you are greeted with Roman sculptures, large fountains and trees
that lead you to the sumptuous marble columns and arches.
We wanted to see the fountain at Bellagio in night lights, so we
again went to Bellagio, which was just next to Caesar’s Palace and
watched the marvelous fountain again. The fountain is something
like… the more you watch it, the more you have to watch it.
And then we explored an entertaining burlesque show the Fantasy
😊. The presenter was AMAZING, her voice was outstanding, she was
funny and entertaining. The ladies dancing? Omg, gorgeous and
amazing dancers and performers. They were topless and sexy in some
of the routines which was definitely first time for us.
Now we reached the final day of our trip. Our first plan to visit
New York New York hotel, which was just next to our hotel. The hotel
is good but after watching Venetian and Caesar’s Palace and
Bellagio, you will find this one very simple. We had a really tasty
Hershey’s Chocolate shake there... 😋
And then we were in Casino finally. Thank God, we did it on the last
day. Actually, we had never gambled in life so did not know how to
play on slot machines or any other games. First, we went to the slot
machine and lost whatever we invested (Which was 1$
😉). Then we went to play roulette. Fortunately, we understood the
game in sometime. Here we definitely won some money. I really wanted
to play more but we did not have much time as we had the flight to
Miami in two hours. Anyway, we were happy as eventually we won
something.
😉
All in all, this trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon was definitely
one of those quintessential American experiences. From the bright
lights of the Strip to the amazing Fremont Street experience to the
snowy wonder of world, this little trip was everything I’d expected
it to be and so much more.
