 |
| The Las Vegas Strip |
Las Vegas is a very interesting city to most people. Not me and Sheldon.
(Dr. Sheldon: You know, I'm given to understand that there's
an entire city in Nevada devoted specifically to help people like
Howard forget their problems. They replace them with new problems such
as alcoholism, gambling addiction and sexually transmitted diseases.)
It's not that I didn't enjoy my visit there, it's just that I'm not so keen on casinos, entertainments and shopping. The one thing that I really can relate with and makes me really love the idea of visiting Las Vegas is
CSI, one of my all time favorite TV series :) However, we didn't take any "CSI tours", all the advertisements seems a bit stupid to me.
We started our Las Vegas trip by doing shopping at
Las Vegas Premium Outlets. Before we got ourselves accommodation, before we had our proper meal, before we did anything else at Las Vegas, we went straight to the outlets and had great time shopping. Both of us had almost equal share of spending and fun. It is a bit crazy for me, maybe once in a life time experience.
After the shopping, we drove along Las Vegas Boulevard for the scenic night view, and also to pick a hotel that we'd love to stay. Since there are so many hotels along Las Vegas Strip, it's hard to choose. We decided to let Agoda to make the decision for us. We drove to McD and use the free wifi, went to Agoda website, set the filter with "Las Vegas Strip", "5 Stars" and "below USD100" and agreed that the first hotel that come out from the search should be the one.
This led us to Flamingo Hotel, which happened to be a great deal! I dropped Ching Ching at the lobby so that she can check in while I waited in the car. When she finally completed the check in procedure, she came out with an expression that shout UNBELIEVABLE! This 5 stars hotel cost us only USD45, even after tax it's only USD50.40. This is the cheapest hotel we stayed for our 15 days South West USA trip!
Since we were way below budget for accommodation, we decided to spoil ourselves with some great meals (食餐豪的!) We went to the
Olives at Bellagio, found ourselves a great seat at outdoor, just besides the fountain at Lake Bellatio. 3 minutes later, a waiter came and told us that the kitchen is closed. We checked our watch and surprised that it's already 10pm!! and we haven't had our dinner!!
So, no great dining experience at Las Vegas for us. Almost all fine dining / contemporary dining restaurants are closed after 10pm. We ended up having down to earth meal at our hotel.
The next morning, we started our day with great breakfast at
Serenipity 3, at Ceasars Palace. The restaurant is cheerfully decorated in orange and pink (a very strange colour combination but turn out surprisingly pleasant). We had our breakfast at the patio. It is fun to have small talks here while most parts of Las Vegas is still asleep.
After the breakfast, we started to walk along the Strips. It's totally different view and experience as compare to night time. There were less tourists in the morning, which means we could take a lot of photos without strangers in them. It also means we could take our own sweet time to walk rather than rushing along.
After exploring the Strip, we, just like any other tourists, went to
Freemont Street. Of course, we were supposed to visit this place the night before, but we were too exhausted then, we decided that the Freemont Street can wait.
Freemont Street is not interesting at all during day time. We did some souvenirs shopping, and the little girl went to weigh herself under the sign of "OVER 350 lbs EATS FREE!" Of course, she is way below target even with her backpack.
Before heading to Big Bear Lake, we HAD TO take photo with the famous Las Vegas sign!
We were very surprise to see the super long queue, and we were not as patience as these people. So, instead of waiting in the queue, we decided to stand beside the queue, and had our post ready. As soon as the other tourists finish their photo shoot and before another one come into the picture, we could take some fine pictures :)
So this is how your picture looks like if you refused to wait in the line:
Other posts for this trip:
