Friday, January 02, 2004
Las Vegas, Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon
I consider Las Vegas as symbolic of everything that America is today.....a symbol of the great American vision, a symbol of American hard work and tireless effort, a symbol of American philosophy of enjoying life to the max, a symbol of American tendency to spend and splurge, a symbol of decreasing moral values in American society......Not without reason is Las Vegas called the "Sin City"!
LasVegas first came into news in early 1900's when it was identified as an ideal stopover facility for trains travelling from California to the east. The presence of an oasis fed by the Colorado river which is about 30 miles east of it made it an ideal location in what was otherwise a harsh desert. In 1930's, the construction of Hoover Dam began (more abt it later), and this insulated LasVegas from the Great Depression. The creation of thousands jobs for the construction of HooverDam coincided with gambling been legalized, and construction workers, who were relatively well-paid for those times, created a booming economy even in those hard times.
Today LasVegas has transformed into much more than just a hub for gambling.....it is the entertainment center of the world. "The Strip", as the stretch of LasVegas Boulevard where the casinos r located is called, is home to some of the best and also budding artists from across the world.
My flight to LasVegas was delayed by an hr because of snow flurries in Chicago. I landed there at abt 12:30am PST on Dec 24th. The first thing u notice once u r out of the plane is slot machines in the airport. I rememberd my Manager telling me that the only place in LasVegas where u will not find a slot machine r the restrooms! Almost every building in Vegas houses a casino! I stayed in Riviera, one of the oldest hotel-casinos in the strip. Riviera was opened in 1955 with 300 rooms, and is today 1000+ rooms big. The accomodations r dirt cheap for a class hotel.....I was paying just $38/nite at Riviera. The hotel makes money out of ppl playing in the casino, and to some extent from the entertainment shows they have.
I took a walk along the strip, and was quite disappointed from the lack of crowd at abt 2am in the nite....probably because it is winter and weather was hovering around feezing. From what I had seen, Miami was much more vibrant during nite, with ppl crowding the streets even at 4am!!!
The next day, I started from the Northern-end of the strip....with the Stratosphere. At 1149-ft, Stratosphere is one of the tallest structures in the world. And, they have amusement rides at the top of the building! There is a roller coaster at 1000+ ft high, then there is the BigShot which propells u up a tower at high acceleration, and the drops u down to a free fall.....all at more than 1000ft altitude. The best ride was the X-Scream. It has a hanging cantilever beam at the top of this building, and the train takes u right to the edge of the beam, and then it drops u down by a couple of degrees.....u will feel as if u r gettin dropped from a hanging beam! That was a kool ride!
Then I visited The Ceasar's Palace.....another hotel-casino south of the blvd. I took a stimulated 3D IMax ride there called Saving the Atlantis. Ceasar's palace had a free show on Atlantis....nothing great abt the show, except that all the characters in the show was played by human-shaped machines. I was amazed by the almost human-like movement of these machines....Ceasar's palace also has a kool corridor with sky-painted domes, that gives u a feeling as if u r in an outdoor market place on a cloudy evening. Although I saw this sky-colored roofing at a couple of other casinos too, nobody cud emulate the open-sky feeling like Ceasar's had.
In the evening, I watched another road-side show called Pirates at the Treasure Island. That nite Amit joined me, and we had our first go at the casinos.....played in the 25cent slot machines, the slowly "graduated" to $1 machines.....did win some money, but finally ended up loosing whatever we won. We had decided that we will not spend more than a certain amount gambling, and stuck to it. Otherwise, the casinos can be really addictive, and thatz how they make money.......more than 40% of the state of Nevada's revenues come from the casinos!
The casinos create a great environ....with glittering slot machines, free unlimited complimentary drinks, music playing all around, and of cousre luring ppl with 5 cent, 25 cent machines.......where u feel u dont loose much, and by the time you've realised, u wud've lost a significent sum!
Another attraction of LasVegas r the entertainment shows there.....shows for all ages, and at different prices.....from free shows to shows that cost upto $100! When I had been there, MGM Grand was hosting a magic show by David Copperfield that was abt $100.....although I wud guess it wud still be worth it! There are lot of free shows in different casinos, and most of them are quite good. Aladdin has a free show every half-hr, Tropicana has a free Air Play show where artists do stunning acrobatics and also an Exotic Bird show (the one featured in Dumb and Dumber, I guess), Treasure Island has the Pirates, MGM had one silly band playing sillier music. We went to a hypnosis show in Riviera, and were throughly disappointed with it.....it was nothing more than "nautanki", as Amit called it. On Sunday, we went to a magic show by Steve Wyrick at Aladdin.....that was pretty good. Most of the tricks were the same as what u wud find in PCSorcar's shows, except that it was perfomed in a hi-tech format. For eg, the regular trick of cutting a human body was done with hi-performance aluminium blades and propellers. It was a pretty kool show though.
And then came Splash! That was the last show we attended on Sunday evening, just before we had to board the flight, and it was definitely the best....a very good show, having everything that u can expect from it. With salsa dances, and a tribute to Madonna's Vogue, and Michael Jackson's History, and performances by international ice skating stars Mikhail Panin (from Russia) and Margarita Barber, Los Latin Cowboys comedy, the Mexican Richard Brothers' jugglery with all three brothers juggling multiple items in hilarious situations and to top it all the “Bela Tabaka’s Riders of the Thunderdome.” These four daredevil Guinness World Record holding motorcyclists race at breakneck speeds within a 14-ft diameter globe of metal mesh. This is the first time I've seen 4 bikers in a globe, and it was really awesome. The lights will be switched off and the darkness creates a breathtaking stream of red-white-and blue light in the globe. Splash is a not-to-miss show in Vegas!
We left for GrandCanyon on Dec 26th. On way was Hoover Dam. This dam is considered one of the civil engineering wonders. Built during the yrs of the Great Depression, Hoover dam was the tallest dam in the world at that time. Concieved in the early 1920's, the construction work began in 1931 and was completed in 1935, with the first unit of power generated in 1936. Built on the Black Canyon, abt 30 miles from LasVegas, the dam was contructed across the Colorado river, which also flows thru the Grand Canyon and can be called the lifeline of western US. This river originates from the Rocky mountains, and like the Ganga in India, is perennial. The lake formed on the upstream of the dam is called Lake Mead and extends upto 110 miles. About 96 ppl died during the construction of the dam, and ppl even today commemorate their effort and sacrifice. The dam is named after Herbert Hoover who was the President of US during the construction of the dam.
26th evening we proceeeded towards GarndCanyon. It was a pleasurable drive, although we were slowed down later because of snow flurries. I could easily reach speed upto 85mph, and as we were driving thru the desert, for miles together there was no sign of life. At one point, for 56 miles there were no gas station or any other kind of service along the hiway!
That nite we stayed at Flagstaff, abt 70 miles from the Grand Canyon National Park. The next day we took the scenic US-180 hiway to GrandCanyon. On the way we stopped at a coffee place where there were a couple of White Buffalos. This place had no electricity, no telephone line (they had a cell fone though!), and quite far from the nearest town. The lady migrated from southern Illinois abt 2 yrs ago, purchased a hut-like structure, and transformed it into a coffee bar on this hiway. To add to the attraction, she brought a white buffalo from Texas and now the family of buffalos is seven strong. I was amazed when she said that these buffaloes change colors thru'out the yr......from brown to fall colors to white during winter!
We reached GrandCanyon around noon. It was very cold day, with temp at abt -5c, and it had snowed the previous day too. Not a good day for hiking, and I will definitely be going to GrandCanyon a better time for hiking. GrandCanyon is a magnificent creation of nature, and is truly grand! With lotsa hollocks studded along the Colorado river, it provides an amazing view from the rim. We visited the south rim of the Canyon and travelled towards the east rim. Each of the elevated points along the canyon is given a name.....the ones I remember r Vishnu temple, Brahma temple, Zoraster temple, Shiva temple, Buddha temple, etc. I dont know how these names came into being, that too with such an Oriental influence. The most impressive was the Vishnu temple, which rises like a Sphinx in the middle of the canyon. There r lot of view points along the rim of the Canyon, and from each viewpoint, the canyon looks all the more grand. As Theodore Roosevelt said, itz something every American should see and preserve!
That evening, we started back to Vegas and reached Vegas at nite. A couple of shows that nite and the next day, and we were all set to fly back to Chicago.....poor by some dollars, but at the same time awe-stuck by the grandeur of LasVegas and the magnificence of the GrandCanyon.
I consider Las Vegas as symbolic of everything that America is today.....a symbol of the great American vision, a symbol of American hard work and tireless effort, a symbol of American philosophy of enjoying life to the max, a symbol of American tendency to spend and splurge, a symbol of decreasing moral values in American society......Not without reason is Las Vegas called the "Sin City"!
LasVegas first came into news in early 1900's when it was identified as an ideal stopover facility for trains travelling from California to the east. The presence of an oasis fed by the Colorado river which is about 30 miles east of it made it an ideal location in what was otherwise a harsh desert. In 1930's, the construction of Hoover Dam began (more abt it later), and this insulated LasVegas from the Great Depression. The creation of thousands jobs for the construction of HooverDam coincided with gambling been legalized, and construction workers, who were relatively well-paid for those times, created a booming economy even in those hard times.
Today LasVegas has transformed into much more than just a hub for gambling.....it is the entertainment center of the world. "The Strip", as the stretch of LasVegas Boulevard where the casinos r located is called, is home to some of the best and also budding artists from across the world.
My flight to LasVegas was delayed by an hr because of snow flurries in Chicago. I landed there at abt 12:30am PST on Dec 24th. The first thing u notice once u r out of the plane is slot machines in the airport. I rememberd my Manager telling me that the only place in LasVegas where u will not find a slot machine r the restrooms! Almost every building in Vegas houses a casino! I stayed in Riviera, one of the oldest hotel-casinos in the strip. Riviera was opened in 1955 with 300 rooms, and is today 1000+ rooms big. The accomodations r dirt cheap for a class hotel.....I was paying just $38/nite at Riviera. The hotel makes money out of ppl playing in the casino, and to some extent from the entertainment shows they have.
I took a walk along the strip, and was quite disappointed from the lack of crowd at abt 2am in the nite....probably because it is winter and weather was hovering around feezing. From what I had seen, Miami was much more vibrant during nite, with ppl crowding the streets even at 4am!!!
The next day, I started from the Northern-end of the strip....with the Stratosphere. At 1149-ft, Stratosphere is one of the tallest structures in the world. And, they have amusement rides at the top of the building! There is a roller coaster at 1000+ ft high, then there is the BigShot which propells u up a tower at high acceleration, and the drops u down to a free fall.....all at more than 1000ft altitude. The best ride was the X-Scream. It has a hanging cantilever beam at the top of this building, and the train takes u right to the edge of the beam, and then it drops u down by a couple of degrees.....u will feel as if u r gettin dropped from a hanging beam! That was a kool ride!
Then I visited The Ceasar's Palace.....another hotel-casino south of the blvd. I took a stimulated 3D IMax ride there called Saving the Atlantis. Ceasar's palace had a free show on Atlantis....nothing great abt the show, except that all the characters in the show was played by human-shaped machines. I was amazed by the almost human-like movement of these machines....Ceasar's palace also has a kool corridor with sky-painted domes, that gives u a feeling as if u r in an outdoor market place on a cloudy evening. Although I saw this sky-colored roofing at a couple of other casinos too, nobody cud emulate the open-sky feeling like Ceasar's had.
In the evening, I watched another road-side show called Pirates at the Treasure Island. That nite Amit joined me, and we had our first go at the casinos.....played in the 25cent slot machines, the slowly "graduated" to $1 machines.....did win some money, but finally ended up loosing whatever we won. We had decided that we will not spend more than a certain amount gambling, and stuck to it. Otherwise, the casinos can be really addictive, and thatz how they make money.......more than 40% of the state of Nevada's revenues come from the casinos!
The casinos create a great environ....with glittering slot machines, free unlimited complimentary drinks, music playing all around, and of cousre luring ppl with 5 cent, 25 cent machines.......where u feel u dont loose much, and by the time you've realised, u wud've lost a significent sum!
Another attraction of LasVegas r the entertainment shows there.....shows for all ages, and at different prices.....from free shows to shows that cost upto $100! When I had been there, MGM Grand was hosting a magic show by David Copperfield that was abt $100.....although I wud guess it wud still be worth it! There are lot of free shows in different casinos, and most of them are quite good. Aladdin has a free show every half-hr, Tropicana has a free Air Play show where artists do stunning acrobatics and also an Exotic Bird show (the one featured in Dumb and Dumber, I guess), Treasure Island has the Pirates, MGM had one silly band playing sillier music. We went to a hypnosis show in Riviera, and were throughly disappointed with it.....it was nothing more than "nautanki", as Amit called it. On Sunday, we went to a magic show by Steve Wyrick at Aladdin.....that was pretty good. Most of the tricks were the same as what u wud find in PCSorcar's shows, except that it was perfomed in a hi-tech format. For eg, the regular trick of cutting a human body was done with hi-performance aluminium blades and propellers. It was a pretty kool show though.
And then came Splash! That was the last show we attended on Sunday evening, just before we had to board the flight, and it was definitely the best....a very good show, having everything that u can expect from it. With salsa dances, and a tribute to Madonna's Vogue, and Michael Jackson's History, and performances by international ice skating stars Mikhail Panin (from Russia) and Margarita Barber, Los Latin Cowboys comedy, the Mexican Richard Brothers' jugglery with all three brothers juggling multiple items in hilarious situations and to top it all the “Bela Tabaka’s Riders of the Thunderdome.” These four daredevil Guinness World Record holding motorcyclists race at breakneck speeds within a 14-ft diameter globe of metal mesh. This is the first time I've seen 4 bikers in a globe, and it was really awesome. The lights will be switched off and the darkness creates a breathtaking stream of red-white-and blue light in the globe. Splash is a not-to-miss show in Vegas!
We left for GrandCanyon on Dec 26th. On way was Hoover Dam. This dam is considered one of the civil engineering wonders. Built during the yrs of the Great Depression, Hoover dam was the tallest dam in the world at that time. Concieved in the early 1920's, the construction work began in 1931 and was completed in 1935, with the first unit of power generated in 1936. Built on the Black Canyon, abt 30 miles from LasVegas, the dam was contructed across the Colorado river, which also flows thru the Grand Canyon and can be called the lifeline of western US. This river originates from the Rocky mountains, and like the Ganga in India, is perennial. The lake formed on the upstream of the dam is called Lake Mead and extends upto 110 miles. About 96 ppl died during the construction of the dam, and ppl even today commemorate their effort and sacrifice. The dam is named after Herbert Hoover who was the President of US during the construction of the dam.
26th evening we proceeeded towards GarndCanyon. It was a pleasurable drive, although we were slowed down later because of snow flurries. I could easily reach speed upto 85mph, and as we were driving thru the desert, for miles together there was no sign of life. At one point, for 56 miles there were no gas station or any other kind of service along the hiway!
That nite we stayed at Flagstaff, abt 70 miles from the Grand Canyon National Park. The next day we took the scenic US-180 hiway to GrandCanyon. On the way we stopped at a coffee place where there were a couple of White Buffalos. This place had no electricity, no telephone line (they had a cell fone though!), and quite far from the nearest town. The lady migrated from southern Illinois abt 2 yrs ago, purchased a hut-like structure, and transformed it into a coffee bar on this hiway. To add to the attraction, she brought a white buffalo from Texas and now the family of buffalos is seven strong. I was amazed when she said that these buffaloes change colors thru'out the yr......from brown to fall colors to white during winter!
We reached GrandCanyon around noon. It was very cold day, with temp at abt -5c, and it had snowed the previous day too. Not a good day for hiking, and I will definitely be going to GrandCanyon a better time for hiking. GrandCanyon is a magnificent creation of nature, and is truly grand! With lotsa hollocks studded along the Colorado river, it provides an amazing view from the rim. We visited the south rim of the Canyon and travelled towards the east rim. Each of the elevated points along the canyon is given a name.....the ones I remember r Vishnu temple, Brahma temple, Zoraster temple, Shiva temple, Buddha temple, etc. I dont know how these names came into being, that too with such an Oriental influence. The most impressive was the Vishnu temple, which rises like a Sphinx in the middle of the canyon. There r lot of view points along the rim of the Canyon, and from each viewpoint, the canyon looks all the more grand. As Theodore Roosevelt said, itz something every American should see and preserve!
That evening, we started back to Vegas and reached Vegas at nite. A couple of shows that nite and the next day, and we were all set to fly back to Chicago.....poor by some dollars, but at the same time awe-stuck by the grandeur of LasVegas and the magnificence of the GrandCanyon.
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