This was a business visit to attend a conference in Las Vegas.

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought of Las Vegas is the miniature of Eiffel Tower. I wasn’t very excited to see the miniatures of major European attractions,  as I have seen the real versions already. Also I heard that Vegas is famous for partying and casinos and I am  completely the opposite person. So, I thought that I would be odd “woman” out there.

Coming to the trip, we landed in Vegas in the night and it was full of lights during landing. I felt as if Diwali was being celebrated that day there. It was good fun to watch colorful roads from the plane.

Once we landed, there was a huge rush near immigration and later we headed to Luxor tower, where we got our accommodation. We couldn’t see many buildings on the way, just the Mandalay bay, where our conference is held, which is beside Luxor tower. Luxor hotel is designed in Egyptian style with a pyramid architecture. We quickly checked-in and as we walked from reception to our rooms, we could see lot of people playing in the casino there. It all looked fascinating and no where I felt like its late night with so many people around. We had some fruits for dinner and went to our rooms to take rest after long flight.

The surprising fact I have observed about Vegas or US is the concept of tips. Our cab from airport to hotel costed us 35$ or so and I gave the driver 40$, he unloaded our luggage from the cab and quickly left before i realized that he didn’t return my 5$. It was taken as tip by the cab driver 😦

Before I realized that I lost 5$, a hotel person offered to carry our luggage from the cab to our room and we allowed him to take our luggage in trolley. Typically, we expect this service to be complimentary in India or other countries. But after delivering luggage to our rooms, that person requested us for tip. Then I realized that we are in US.

These incidents on the first day, gave me a big jolt that I am outside of my country and I told myself “Welcome to US” 😛

Next day we are free in the morning, so got ready and went on to explore Vegas. Vegas is actually a desert, developed like an entertainment destination by the government to generate revenue for the state. Luckily, we were there in Oct and thats the best climate anyone can expect, no jackets/ac required. The weather is very apt to roam around.

There is one big street in Vegas which is called as Strip which contains hotels(Casinos) with various themes. We walked down the strip looking at each hotel and its architecture. The person whoever conceived this idea should be lauded for his creativity. All buildings look very closeby, but we ended up walking a lot and there is no other option but walk to look at all the attractions nearby. I have seen some tourist hop-on buses, that could take us from the final point of the Strip to our hotel.

 

Hotels are of different themes covering most of the tourist spots in Europe and US. Apart from hotels, there are lot of branded stores and cafes like Hard Rock Cafe, Mars, Harley Davidson etc which are also huge and well decorated. We walked down the strip upto Bellagio Casino (Italian themed) and  returned back hoping to cover the remaining ones later.

We got some time in the night after our work, so we came outside for a glance and were wondered how the city looked completely different in the night and it feels like a different place altogether. We walked all over the strip again in the night to see all the casinos in the lights.

Somehow in Vegas, night looks like a day with full of people on the streets with very lively atmosphere all over. There are couple of dance/music performances on the street and everyone looked so joyful enjoying the mood of the city. I felt Vegas is empty in the morning and more lively in the evening.

We reached the famous Bellagio to watch the fountains dance for various songs and it was awesome. We didn’t go beyond Bellagio again, as we were very tired and had lot of work the next day.

Finally after the conference ended, we again got to explore Vegas and this time we first reached Caesars Palace which is right after the Bellagio and started our exploration from there. Caesars Palace itself is so huge that anyone can get lost in that huge place with lot of shops and great roof.

Particularly, since Halloween is around the corner, the decorations inside the palace are too good that it took almost 3-4 hours just to cover the Caesars Palace.

We later crossed the street to witness Venetian Castle. We couldn’t spend lot of time there as it was too late in the night then and took a taxi back to the Luxor hotel.

At the end, tried my hands on the slot machine also, just for the sake of ticking off this thing too during Vegas visit. I didn’t understand how to play, just played randomly with 5$ and lost it.

Overall Vegas is a great place to visit for a long weekend, which can be covered in 2-3 days. My perspective of Vegas has changed a lot after visiting it and would definitely suggest it to someone who is visiting US, to witness a completely new world in itself.