Viva Las Vegas

My family and I recently took a vacation in Las Vegas, remembering and thanking my wife’s stepfather, Allan, who encouraged us to visit Las Vegas at least once in our lifetime. (Allan was a tough WW-2 veteran from NYC who had served in India during 1942-1945, he had also lived in Mussorie, Lahore and Jorhat.)


Arrival:

Airbus-320 landed flawlessly on Runway One-Niner (Left) of McCarran Airport elevated at 2140 feet when the mercury was touching 98 F at 11pm. Just before touchdown, in the final ILS approach we could see the world famous Las Vegas Strip and the blazing lights from Casinos, most pronounced being a beam of blue light coming from a refractive source out of the pyramid-shaped "Luxor” casino, located on the south side of the strip. Most of the passengers were vacationers looking forward to good time in Las Vegas (marking its centennial celebrations (1905-2005)).

Las Vegas was a sleepy little village founded by a Spanish settler from the Gold Rush days. It acquired importance during early 1930s when the Hoover Dam project was started. Gambling and prostitution are unofficially believed to be the brainchild of a Jewish gentleman from New York who was affiliated with the mafia and saw the potential for serving the needs of construction workers. McCarran Airport itself is a very modern facility where eccentric aviator Howard Hughes experimented with his radical ideas in the 1940s.

For a visitor from the East Coast, the cool west coast attitude and relaxed accent are the first striking features that become apparent quickly. Also that there were slot machines to play right at the main airport terminal 24/7/365. There is an elevated train that ferries passengers from the terminals to the lounge, very similar to Orlando airport in Florida. It was indeed "Welcome to Las Vegas, the Sin City".


Airport to the Hotel:

The airport runs a shuttle service for $7 between the airport and the strip every 30 minutes, as our rental car was booked from next day we decided to take a shuttle to our hotel that was located on the North end of the strip. Las Vegas looked very alive in the middle of the night. The streets were busy and you could see people walking to the casinos. There were advertisements for all kinds of shows on billboards or on top of the taxis with wide fluctuation ranging from family entertainment to the Chippendales.

There was a lineup of over 20 people at the front desk, and as it turned out my original request for a condo type suite was not available till the following day. I said to myself "Marta Kiya Na Karta", and then "Muchas Gracias Senorita" to the Hispanic woman and took the card key for our room. At this point my infant daughter was getting very restless due to time zone lag and the constant sound of "ding, ding, ding..." coming out of slot machines. After admiring the night skyline of Vegas from the window of my 29th floor room I crashed into the bed with my faithful TV Remote.


Typical Day:

The next day was Sunday and by the time we woke up, sorted out the hotel room and had our brunch it was already 110 F outside. My wife’s first comment was "Jeeze it is so hot just like India". She was right, it was like India except the humidity that causes sweating and you definitely need a good pair of sunglasses to avoid the bright sunlight.

My first observation was that there is not much greenery except the beautiful, immaculately kept Palm and Cactus trees on the Las Vegas Blvd. Traffic was slow in front of the main Casinos viz. Venetian, Mirage, Paris and Caesars Palace. If there is any central square in Vegas then this area would qualify to be called so. Despite the crowd, streets were very well kept and everything seemed to be very orderly.


Venetian:

In my opinion this is probably the best hotel-casino of Las Vegas that I encountered. There is an artificial blue sky that looks very real and a canal that flows along side the mall where you can rent Five Star gondola rides that run on electric motors with the accompaniment of live opera singing. This was really very impressive. I have never been to Italy but I was told that this is a better deal. We saw a marriage being conducted on a decorated, deluxe gondola among the cheer of visitors. It was very fairy tale like.

In the main square there was a white marble statue of "Dojje" (Mayor in Italian). As the story goes, every town in Italy used to have a statue of it’s mayor in the main square so that everyone would recognize him from the imposters. This guy was a middle aged person wearing his toga and an olive-thorn hat, I decided to take his picture and as I got closer I saw his eyes blinking and then he bowed towards us, and I noticed that by putting a dollar on his feet you can take a picture with him as if you are part of the sculpture. I have never seen anyone being able to stand on one spot for 4 hours with very limited movement. On parting he shook my hand in slow motion.


Madame Tussaud’s wax museum:

Just across the street from the Venetian is a world renowned museum housing wax figures of famous people. It is a scaled down version of the original in London and is indeed very impressive. Wax figures are made in the UK and shipped here on a rotational basis. Before we went in I promised myself that I wouldn’t be fooled by the wax figures. I remembered my childhood friend telling me that you can differentiate a real person from wax figure by looking at the eyes. It seems that these guys had already factored this into their equations where you least suspect so. I was able to take my pictures with Princess Diana, George Bush, Larry King, and Elvis Presley and shoot a putt with Tiger Woods. Then I decided to sit down on a bench along side another tired looking tourist taking a short break, after couple of minutes I realized that he has not moved from his original position and he was a wax figure. They also have a horror show in the museum where you walk through Dr. Frankenstein’s mansion; this was a mediocre show and could have been skipped.


Mirage:

Just across the street from Venetian lies the Mirage that I would probably rank as number one in decoration and services. As the name suggests it looks like a huge botanical garden cum aquarium combined with a Five Star hotel. Its lush greenery and very real nature like sounds were mesmerizing.
You can walk through a bio-dome and see the wild animals that world
famous "Sigfried and Roy" used to have in their shows. I had seen many tigers and lions before but these animals were really the cream of their species. A tiger named "Agra" was almost 7 feet long and 4 feet tall who could move 10 yards at a blink of an eye. You could also have the pleasure of watching white tigers and white lions, something that is very rare. I spent almost 2 hours watching these animals in an indoor habitat in their playful, sometimes lustful moods. Adjacent to the tiger habitat is a blue aquarium housing Dolphins. They are the second most intelligent creatures on our planet after humans, and they can actually communicate with each other by making sounds.

My daughter was thoroughly enjoying the sounds of Dolphins and wild animals and I felt very connected with the nature in this Five Star hotel in the middle of the desert. We met some Sikhs from Toronto who were wearing their "kirpans" and had long flowing beards; ladies had turbans on their heads. After exchanging greetings they told me that there are two Gurudwaras, one Temple and two Mosques in Las Vegas. I decided to visit the Gurudwara just in case I needed to rejuvenate my spiritual self in the Sin city.


Aladdin:

This is another Desert Passage type of hotel-casino that vies for shopping oriented customers. Decoration was not as good as the Venetian but came pretty close; you could see a thunder and lighting show that impressively becomes a rain shower right in the middle of the mall that lasts for a few minutes. You could get an Oxygen Drink or get a quick massage on the move for $15. As I was getting very tired I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and it was worth every penny. They also offer a Cycle Rickshaw inside the casino to take you from once place to another for $4, this Rickshaw wala was very high tech compared to Biharis in Punjab. He had cell phone, walkie-talkie, and knew quite a deal about Sikh Religion and its politics. As it turned out he was from Surrey, B.C in Canada.


Mandalay Bay:

Located on the south side of the strip, slightly away from where the main action takes place, Mandalay Bay is clearly under appreciated. You could eat at restaurants like Jungle Rum, Soviet style Red Square or Mexican Cantina and have your meals with a view of the tropical forest. Mandalay Bay also has a Shark Reef that you can enjoy for an entry fee of $7 where you could see the overhead aquarium that has 100+ species of rare marine life such as golden crocodiles, moon jelly fish and many other exotic varieties of Sharks. Just outside the aquarium is the hotel swimming pool that generates its own waves. If you are into learning wave surfing then this might be the place to consider.

You can visit many other casinos that are also very exquisite and lavish, some famous names are Paris, Monte Carlo, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, Harras, Stardust and many others. I found that after some time they all look the same as many of them are under the same management. If you are just going to Vegas for a short visit then consider seeing only the top ones and call it a day.


Gambling:
I have always heard from pros that the golden rule of gambling is "House Always Wins". Only gaming that I am slightly good at and really enjoy is "Craps". It does not involve any special skills like Poker or Black Jack but some basic knowledge of Mathematics and Probability/Expectation. It is a dice game and you are betting your money on certain numbers that you hope will come combined with some intelligent guesses. For e.g. number "six" and number "eight" have a higher chance in a roll of two dices than number "three". You can make this game more complicated by betting aggressively on Horn Bets or Heart Bets. On the whole I started with $500 and lost $400 after day-5 and when I left Vegas I was $450(net loss of $50). There were some people who made $2000 on this game in one day.

Dealers at casinos can be very nasty and rude, and they reserve the right to remove you from the premises at their discretion. There was one Bangladeshi gentleman who was asking lots of questions about the game and placing bets incorrectly while hitting on the cocktail waitress. After some time I noticed that dealer would ignore him as if he did not exist. It was clearly a case of discrimination but nobody could do anything about it.


Desi Crowd:

There are some mediocre type Indian Restaurants (Shalimar, Kohinoor, Gandhi, Gaylord etc) in Vegas where you could eat Desi food if you feel like but nothing memorable.

My first Desi encounter was with a man from Karachi at the Car Rental place, his family was originally from Aligarh and like many other Karachites that I have met in USA he tried to impress me by speaking a few words of Punjabi. Upon further dialogue, when I mentioned to him that Aligarh and Khurja in U.P are synonymous with "Badmaashi" in India, he said that wherever there are Muslims in India there is "Badmaashi". Now that made me little apologetic and I tried to reason with him that this reputation precedes the partition and has nothing to do with Muslims but he would not agree to it. He was a good salesman as he ended up selling me $20 extra insurance and an upgrade to a bigger car costing me twice my original pre-purchased car rental.

There were many Desis and Middle Eastern people that were visiting Vegas from the West Coast as it is only a 4 hour drive. They were mostly curious onlookers who liked to spend some money on slot machines. There were lots of Indian techies attending various IT seminars sent by their companies in India and I made quite a few friends at the convention center.


Grand Canyon

"Jinne Grand Canyon Nahee Dekhya Oho Jummya hi Nahee"

Grand Canyon National Park is located 280 miles South East of Las Vegas in Arizona State. It is a 6 million years old canyon (Pass or Durra or Ghatee), 1500 miles long, located between Lake Mead on the west side and Colorado state on the other. It can drop 5000 feet from the ground level from both sides and is 2-3 miles wide at the most frequently visited point; as seen on movies such as "Independence Day". It is a very breathtaking and spectacular place that mother earth has given to mankind. We were fortunate enough to see the sunset and sunrise on the South Rim as the sun lifted the shadows and moved east or west depending on the time. I took lots of still and moving pictures of the canyon with my daughter playing with the rocks.
If someone is into hiking and trekking then it is definitely a must. I was told that to hike on foot what looked like 3 miles by air would take two full days to go across the Rim. There are Helicopter rides available for as low as $40 that will give you a full aerial view of the Canyon from all vantage points.
On the way back we drove through historic Route 66 and stopped at a small non descript town called Seligman that was famous in 1960ies and is associated with the Hippie movement.


Belle Air Museum:

Located just 30 minutes South of the Grand Canyon is the "Belle Air Museum" owned by the same people who own the Chino, CA War bird museum. They have some very interesting classic war bird airplanes and cars such as one of the three surviving ME-109 built by Germans in WW-2, that can still fly with the original engine. They also have pieces of a "Japanese Zero" that was discovered 15 years ago under the sea in Guinea that had a German engine. If you are into antique airplanes and car buff like I am then this is a good place to visit.

Death Valley:

"Muchas Caliente Amigos"
Located two hours drive North of Vegas this world famous Death Valley of California has temperature that can be as high as 130+ F in the shade (if any). We were warned to make sure that we have gas in the car and plenty of water when we go there. It is perhaps the most desolate places in North America that I have seen. Coming from India it reminded me of Thar Desert in Bikaner/Barmer with the exception of being dry as opposed to humid heat.

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam:

30 Miles South East of Vegas lies the biggest man made Lake in the World at the base of the Hoover Dam. Water is strikingly blue and you can rent Jet Skis, Boats or get a guided boat tour to see the lake At places it is as deep as 50 feet and 2 miles wide.

Hoover Dam was built during the late 30s as a measure to give employment to millions of young Americans after the depression and simultaneously solving the perennial problem of flooding of the Colorado River. It lies on the intersection of three states: Nevada, Arizona and Utah, but its main client is the state of California, consuming almost 50% of the electricity and water generated by the giant turbines. Hoover Dam is 500 feet deep and at the base is about 300 yards wide. It is truly a remarkable structure and a must see. I had heard many stories about Ghosts of the workers that still live there but did not encounter any, though I must say that if you take the Hard Hat Guided tour it does get very spooky at the base.


Las Vegas is a great place to visit, it has lot to offer whether you are young or old. Contrary to the prevalent reputation, there is lot more to it other than Shows and Gambling. I strongly recommend it to readers to visit this place and witness American Culture at epitome.