24 hours madness in Vegas

I spent a mad 24 hours in Vegas when I was in LA. I started by catching a 6 hours Greyhound bus out at 8am. And realise immediately why people from the States do not use the Greyhound. The bus was full of bums and low income earners hoping to make it big in Vegas. One bum was so smelly that nobody sat next to him! Upon arriving in Vegas, I immediate set out for that famous boulevard.

First impression - I WAS BLOWN AWAY. Ok so people from the States wonder what the facination is. Well when you see and watch it on TV, hear about it on the news and then finally see it with your own eyes. It is just simply fantastic! I felt I was in La La land!!! Though the La La land would have been even better if I was loaded! ;)

Even the first sighting of Vegas was incredible. One moment it is all desert and dry plains, and then you start seeing big billboards on the side of the road (with one gun shop selling M-16´s wtf?), before the tall white buildings of Vegas rose out like a mirage in the distance. And everything in Vegas is HUGE. Then again, everything in the States are massive! From their billboards, food portions to big cars and 10 lanes wide boulevards.

Walking around the main strip neon signs, TV screen, and big billboards all jump out at you. I thought there were some hilarious contradiction though. Such as passing by wedding chapels (whom broadcast your wedding for free over the Internet) and seeing a big poster of Dalai Lama´s upcoming preaching. And of seeing nuns in their garb strolling by those big evil casinos.

I really enjoy watching the different people out here too. From fat mama´s to men in cowboy suit. But I saw a lot of families too, like this is some kind of healthy outing or something. :)

This fountain is pretty impressive too, found outside Paris Vagas. I went up the Eiffel Tower for a great view over the city.

Afterwards I caught a few free shows. The most impressive being Ballagio´s massive fountains. I was hugely impress by it´s size, and the height of the fountain. I just wish the show was longer! LOL

I caught the pirate show at Treasure Island next, that wasn´t as impressive though the audience were huge. I also caught the volcano show outside of the Mirage and the Roman show inside Caesar´s Palace, all pretty average but fun to watch neverless.

Vegas is all about gambling, shows and shopping. I didn´t have time to gamble, but I caught shows and shopped. They had some pretty cool shops too! Such as the M&M bar on the right. I LOOOOVE M&M´s and they had all kind´s of M&M. Such as M&M´s with peanut butter inside! It was yummy!!!! And at some casinos such as the Venetian they built a canal inside the mall, and had paddlers take passengers out on boat. The ceiling were pretty impressive, with the sky painted on.

So most of these casinos had a theme, from Paris Vegas´s French furnishing, Excalibur´s old England theme, Caesar´s Palace´s Roman theme to Luxor´s Egyptian theme.

Obviously if you wanted to catch a decent show you had to pay for it. So I fork up nearly 150USD for the latest Cirque du Soleil show. It was call "Love" and is based on the Beatles. The show was at the Mirage, and I booked it prior to arriving here thanks to Andreanne in Melbourne. She worked for Cirque du Soleil and manage to get me a pretty decent seat inside.

Technically this is the most advance show I have seen. Every seat in the purpose built theater had 4 speakers built in. The lighting and sound effects was also impressive! And the show, it was fantastic! I enjoy hearing all the Beatles song, and watching the actors dance to the songs. They used 3 VW Beatles in the show, and one actually comes apart during the show. But in terms of the actors skill I was more impress with the other Cirque du Soleil show I saw - Varekei.

So in the end, I caught the 1.30am bus (which was delayed till 3am thanks Greyhound!) back to LA. It has been one tiring but fantastic 24 hours for me. :)