Viva Las Vegas!

Check out my photos at www.pbase.com/aueysantos/sincity

I got the chance to walk around downtown Las Vegas alone for a solid 9 hours today, which gave me a lot of time to take photos.

First stop was Forums Shops, inside Caesar’s Palace, which had a Roman theme. You see, the gimmick here is that each of the major casinos have a theme, much like a theme park, which its own mall inside, restaurants, merchandising and entertainment. And everything is really over the top. Some of the ones I did not enter have the largest indoor rollercoaster,
aquariums etc. At Forum Shops, the ceiling was painted to look like the sky and special light direction changed the sky to mimick the sky outside. The stores were made to look like Ancient Rome with scattered statues of Roman Gods and columns. There is a huge aquarium in the center, about 2 stories high containing all types of beautiful tropical fish. In front of it, there’s a “live statue” show. The story is of a Roman God (I assume Jupiter) who is chosing an heir to the throne, and having to test his daughter, a Goddess of Water and the son, a God of fire. There’s a pre-recording of voices by actors and the statues mechanically move on cue. High tech with matching special effect of the water fountain and pools of fire. I couldn’t
get a good vantage point for a photo though.

For lunch, I went to McDonald's. Check out the ceiling at this place!

Next was the Mirage Casino, which had a jungle theme. It was the home to the famous magicians Siegfried and Roy. The white tigers were hiding that day, so I wasn’t lucky enough to get a glimpse of them. At the Mirage, I tried the slot machine – just four quarters and I gave up. Waste of money! I didn’t bother going into the casino areas after that as they all looked
the same to me. Outside the Mirage is a beautiful water show, every half hour after sunset.

Me with Bono. Apologies for the bad photo! Ah, the perils of travelling alone!

Then I went to Venetian which had a Venice, Italy theme. There, I entered the Madam Taussaud’s wax museum. Somehow I must have been really unlucky cuz I was all alone in most of the rooms which really creeped me out. The wax figures appeared so lifelike even mimicking the skin imperfections and to scale! The place was a photo op paradise but since I was
alone I wasn’t able to take photos of myself. One corner had a huge tiger-striped bed with Hugh Hefner. You can put on a bunny outfit and ears to pose by him. There was also Britney Spears sluttdancing by the pole, and the props there were fur coats and feather boas. In another room, there was Las Vegas wedding chapel and George Clooney waiting. You had the option of trying on a bride’s gown and having a photo taken with him as your groom. It came complete with fake
bouquet and wax minister. I was mildly disappointed with the Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt wax figures. The rest were pretty good. But what really freaked me out was one room entitled “Hall of Monsters” I had no idea what was going to happen but there was a small line outside and I got in line without reading the warning. Turns out it’s a darkened hall with wax figures from famous Horror Movies. But some of the wax figures are actually actors who surprise you by jumping out in your face. It was in all good fun but I’m definitely not doing that alone again!!!

Inside the casino, I came to the Venetians’ gondolas inside the casino. They were beautiful but just so fake. The gondoliers actually spoke in fake Italian accents and belted out “O Solo Mio” as they steered down the indoor canals. Costs $15 per person too. Crazy! In the main plaza, I was able to rest and sit down for awhile cuz there was a free concert of Italian opera singers (I highly suspect one was Pinay). I just listened to them as they did Carmen and other famous tunes. The plaza tried to mimick old Italy which some artisans like painters and charcoal artists who did portraits for a fee ($20) and carnival
mask makers, as well as street musicans and mime artists.

At the Belagio casino, I found the Museum of Fine Art and there was special exhibit on the Impressionist Landscape. It was a good break from all the garishness but by the time I got out, my feet and back so much, I practically was crawling.
I didn’t even go to Paris, which had a fake Eiffel Tower, Treasure Island, which had a beautiful Pirate show in front every night and New York New York, which boasts of the largest indoor rollercoaster in the world. Suko na ako! I don’t think I need to go
back either – I was on major sensory overload.

Back on Las Vegas Blvd, things were starting to get raunchier after sunset. I took the street level route for night photos and drunk men (probably on bachelor parties) would yell out obscenities to the people on the sidewalk as their cars passed by. The beautifully manicured landscape were littered with credit-card sized porno photos with numbers advertising “strippers
to your doorstep.” And there were a lot of people handing out fliers advertising Asians, Barely Legal etc.

And that was my day ... 9 hours on the Strip and no sign of Gil Grisam. Oh well.