It's 2012, another year and another April. There's been a long time between travels where I suffered a broken ankle, had surgery and met my future husband to be!
This trip, however, is strictly a girls' road trip and Dee and I are shopping, partying, drinking in the U.S of A. First world all the way and a far cry from the usual backpacking trips i prefer but they say, a change is a good as a holiday!
Dee and I were very excited and land firstly at LA where we had a short layover before flying into Vegas!
Vegas .... and my first impressions were that there were lots of loud tourists, wearing loud clothing and carrying large loud bags! looking out the window and as if in stark contrast, it's all desert with very little apparent life. Sand and sandscapes dominate my taxi's window frame before I glimpse a highway and a skyscrapper and look what we have here, the Sphinx and the Eiffel Tower!? No, i've not teleported halfway around the world in 60 secs, i've just glimpsed the Luxor Hotel and the Paris Vegas Hotel. Vegas is huge and loud and I was totally in awe of all this artifice and crass commercialism in the middle of the desert.
We checked into the Wynn Hotel - a lovely 5 star hotel at one end of the Strip. Our hotel had a whimsical Alice in Wonderland inspired garden and Mad Hatter's Tea Party vibe to it especially when the lovely blooms are vying for attention with the bright blinking lights of poker machines situated in the foyer!
I was feeling jetlagged and it was getting late, so we freshened up in our lovely big room and wandered next door to the Venetian Hotel to have sushi. Wandering the alleys next to the canals, listening to the gondola men singing, it almost felt like Venice, except i could always hear in the faraway music of gambling chips clinking and poker machines chirping from the ubiquitous gambling dens at each hotel.
Time to retire for the night at the lovely Wynn.
Martin and Diane - being old party hounds in Vegas, had managed to book us into an exclusive night club in the Bellagio. We had front of house seats for the famous fountains and views of the Paris Las Vegas Eiffel Tower. After some hours of clubbing, my feet were starting to hurt and it was time to call it a night.
Walking the Strip back to the Wynn was an eye opener. There were teenagers drunk and carrying yard sticks of fluorescent alcopop, grim faced hard core gamblers heading off to try their luck at the cheaper off Strip gambling dens, Vegas cops followed by reality TV crews filming "The Strip" apprehending some kid caught trying to hustle tourists, wild eyed and jet lagged tourists stumbling around at 2am in the city that never sleeps - and there we were, stumbling around in high heels and stopping to take a photo at the (fake) Trevi fountain!
The next day we said good bye to our lovely friends and Dee and i put away our high heels, make up and party dresses and got ready for a wilderness adventure!
We headed to the local airfield to catch a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. It was a gorgeous day and it felt so stark with the clear blue sky and the never ending desert stretched out before us. Our helicopter took us over the Hoover Dam - very impressive feat of engineering over the Colorado River. We also flew over the Grand Canyon and many other equally impressive canyons but which missed out on the title 'grand'.
The helicopter then landed us to an old tin mine town and we progressed to grab our kayaks and do a lazy paddle across the still and very cold river. At a dare, i jumped out of my kayak and into the water and regretted it instantly. The water was slimey!! i thought i was going to start metamorphosising into a 3 eyed mutant like that episode in Simpsons, or Family Guy or was it Futurama!?
Unfortunately the helicopter ride did not allow us to stop at the Grand Canyon reserve to walk some bridge and peer over the rim. Oh well, it was mightily impressive from above as well!
Our last night in sunny and warm Las Vegas - Dee and I had some yummilicious Italian food opposite our hotel. Food had not been good so far (except for at Tao) as the food had mostly been of the fast food variety and bad ones at that and coffee has been dismal too! But tonight's dinner was just delicious - they even had broccoli on the menu yum!
So we said 'see ya' to Vegas and tomorrow, we head for San Francisco!
This trip, however, is strictly a girls' road trip and Dee and I are shopping, partying, drinking in the U.S of A. First world all the way and a far cry from the usual backpacking trips i prefer but they say, a change is a good as a holiday!
Dee and I were very excited and land firstly at LA where we had a short layover before flying into Vegas! Vegas .... and my first impressions were that there were lots of loud tourists, wearing loud clothing and carrying large loud bags! looking out the window and as if in stark contrast, it's all desert with very little apparent life. Sand and sandscapes dominate my taxi's window frame before I glimpse a highway and a skyscrapper and look what we have here, the Sphinx and the Eiffel Tower!? No, i've not teleported halfway around the world in 60 secs, i've just glimpsed the Luxor Hotel and the Paris Vegas Hotel. Vegas is huge and loud and I was totally in awe of all this artifice and crass commercialism in the middle of the desert.
We checked into the Wynn Hotel - a lovely 5 star hotel at one end of the Strip. Our hotel had a whimsical Alice in Wonderland inspired garden and Mad Hatter's Tea Party vibe to it especially when the lovely blooms are vying for attention with the bright blinking lights of poker machines situated in the foyer!
I was feeling jetlagged and it was getting late, so we freshened up in our lovely big room and wandered next door to the Venetian Hotel to have sushi. Wandering the alleys next to the canals, listening to the gondola men singing, it almost felt like Venice, except i could always hear in the faraway music of gambling chips clinking and poker machines chirping from the ubiquitous gambling dens at each hotel.Time to retire for the night at the lovely Wynn.
When in Vegas, you fall into a routine of sleeping in, going shopping, and before you know it, it's time to catch a show, drink cocktails, have trendy fusion food and party it up in some exclusive nightclub! Dee and I managed to catch 2 Cirque Du Soleil shows here which were fantastic as always.
Some of Dee's friends were also in town (local Aussie party girl Diane and Kiwi expat Martin) and we went to some very trendy Thai place for dinner called Tao where my fortune cracker very aptly advised that 'Naughtiness is a Virtue'. Well, i was in Sin City!
Martin and Diane - being old party hounds in Vegas, had managed to book us into an exclusive night club in the Bellagio. We had front of house seats for the famous fountains and views of the Paris Las Vegas Eiffel Tower. After some hours of clubbing, my feet were starting to hurt and it was time to call it a night. 
Walking the Strip back to the Wynn was an eye opener. There were teenagers drunk and carrying yard sticks of fluorescent alcopop, grim faced hard core gamblers heading off to try their luck at the cheaper off Strip gambling dens, Vegas cops followed by reality TV crews filming "The Strip" apprehending some kid caught trying to hustle tourists, wild eyed and jet lagged tourists stumbling around at 2am in the city that never sleeps - and there we were, stumbling around in high heels and stopping to take a photo at the (fake) Trevi fountain!
I had kept this routine up for 2 days and nights and now seriously felt like i needed a holiday from this holiday. Tomorrow - we're heading for a helicopter and kayaking adventure on the Grand Canyon - I was so looking forward to this. Finally, some outdoors and a break from all the partying!
The next day we said good bye to our lovely friends and Dee and i put away our high heels, make up and party dresses and got ready for a wilderness adventure!
We headed to the local airfield to catch a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. It was a gorgeous day and it felt so stark with the clear blue sky and the never ending desert stretched out before us. Our helicopter took us over the Hoover Dam - very impressive feat of engineering over the Colorado River. We also flew over the Grand Canyon and many other equally impressive canyons but which missed out on the title 'grand'. The helicopter then landed us to an old tin mine town and we progressed to grab our kayaks and do a lazy paddle across the still and very cold river. At a dare, i jumped out of my kayak and into the water and regretted it instantly. The water was slimey!! i thought i was going to start metamorphosising into a 3 eyed mutant like that episode in Simpsons, or Family Guy or was it Futurama!?
Unfortunately the helicopter ride did not allow us to stop at the Grand Canyon reserve to walk some bridge and peer over the rim. Oh well, it was mightily impressive from above as well!
Our last night in sunny and warm Las Vegas - Dee and I had some yummilicious Italian food opposite our hotel. Food had not been good so far (except for at Tao) as the food had mostly been of the fast food variety and bad ones at that and coffee has been dismal too! But tonight's dinner was just delicious - they even had broccoli on the menu yum!
So we said 'see ya' to Vegas and tomorrow, we head for San Francisco!
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