Day 3- Grand Canyon

This is a long day as the journey to Grand Canyon will be around a 4 -5 hour drive. We would only reach the hotel at 11.30pm or 12am. The guide drove us to get our Mac breakfast. We could order whatever we want, but we only have limited space in our stomach. The menu looks slightly different from the Singapore menu. There's this Ultimate meal where everything is in - the hotcakes, the meat, the egg, the hash brown. All 3 of us chose this set meal while others picked other set meals.

(The ultimate set meal that cost the same as the big breakfast.)

After the breakfast, we headed for Hoover Dam which was built during the Great Depression period.

(Hoover dam)

(Bridge under construction in the Hoover dam area)

(Nice clouds taken from the car)

I could feel the heat of a desert area at this area. I am really scared of heat. When everyone else didn't complain about the heat  in the car, I was telling the driver to make it cooler as I really found it too stuffy. It's a long ride to the national park and coupled with the fact that we only arrived the day before, I was dozing off during the entire journey. I seriously suspected that I was suffering from jet lag. I usually don't fall asleep for the entire bus journey, but I still caught glimpses of the Route 66. Route 66 serve some historical values for the Americans but since I am not one, I failed to appreciate the true significance of this route. I was wide awake when we finally reached the national park. Surprisingly, the air is cool. I would have thought that it is as hot as Las Vegas. The Canyon is just like a painting to me. It's real big as well. After walking a short distance along the South Rim, we paused for our lunch picnic. We were given sandwiches, cheese and crackers. I like the Sandwich but it's too huge for me. After lunch, we continued with another 2.5 hours walk along the Rim. The guide was friendly and funny. He was helping us and other tour mates take pictures. It's a casual walk. There's nothing strenous. At times, we would walk towards the edge to admire the beauty of the Canyon. Our final stop is a spot near the Visitor and educational center as we awaited for the sun to set. I was a bit disappointed as the sunset didn't look as nice as I what I expect.

(The majestic Grand Canyon)

(Playing with the exposure after the guide explained to us that it might be better to set a lower than 0 exposure for the canyonlands)

(The Grand Canyon in the evening)

(The sunset)

Day 4- Las Vegas

Day 4 is shopping day! We set off later than usual since we slept pretty late the day before with the 15 hours Grand Canyon day tour. Once I stepped out of the hotel, I felt the immense heat again. It must had been around 36/37 or even higher. We took the deuce to Sahara hotel so that we could take another bus to the Premium outlet of Las Vegas. Deuce travelled along the strip while the other bus travelled on another stretch of roads off the strip. There wasn't a proper bus stop for the other bus and hence, we couldn't find the bus stop. My nose started to bleed while we were walking to look for the bus stop. I didn't know whether it is due to the heatiness within my inner body or it was due to the outside heat. This nose bleed was quite serious as it only stopped after a prolonged period and the cycle started again when I was in the outlet mall. My nose bleed prompted us to stop by Sahara for lunch.

We had lunch at the Nascar cafe. It's pure American food with burger and fries. The curly fries is nice! But we couldn't finish as the portion was huge.

(Passing by Paris Las Vegas as we consulted the Concierge. It's  beautiful!)

(Our lunch at Nascar Cafe. Even the salad is huge! And the meal wasn't too expensive. It was around US$30 in total)

After further consultation and some navigation around, we finally found the "bus stop" which was just indicated by a stand. It's not a very long journey to the outlet itself. It took around 10 mins to reach from the Sahara stop. This outlet mall was more crowded than the one we went on Day 2. It also has more shops. All of us had fun shopping in this outlet mall and we even had to sacrifice visiting fremont street in the end. I was so thrilled to find a tube dress (for function type) at US$21. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price, so it was a must buy. All of us also went crazy at Naturaliser as the discounts for shoes was crazy. On top of a 60%-70% discount, we had another 50% off the 2nd pair of shoes. At the end of the day, I was carrying many many paper bags. The bus journey back to the hotel was torturous. The outlet wasn't very far from our hotel, but the traffic along the strip was really horrendous. It took us around 1 hr plus to reach our hotel. In addition to the horrendous traffic, the bus was really packed. We had to stand throughout the bus journey. The bus driver would ask people to move in as much as they could at each stop.

Day 5- Las Vegas

We went for our ATV ride today. I actually prefer this to the ride I had in Korea as there's less people and we had more room and freedom while we drove. There were in total 5 of us. Lunch was simple with some baked beans and meat with bbq sauce. After we rode back to the starting point, we were droved to an old mine. There's nothing fantastic about the old mine though.

(ATV ride)

After the ATV ride, we went back to hotel to wash up before we had Ben n Jerry for dessert. It's one for one with the discount coupons!

We then walked to Venetian with the intention of taking the gondola ride, but we gave up that idea eventually as it was too expensive. It cost over USD 16 (SGD 20 ++). So after taking a few pictures at the beautiful Venetian decorations, we took the monorail to the South Strip. The monorail is more expensive than the Deuce but it's so much faster!

(Interior of Venetian)

(Exterior of Venetian)

(A view of the strip from the bridge connecting New York New York and MGM Grand)

This trip seems pretty complete with nature, architectures and shopping all in one. My favourite place will still be Yellowstone. The geysers were fascinating and the colourful pools were beautiful. And there's consensus on this, so I had not lured my friends to a condemned place. I have enjoyed the shopping too.. The prices are alright.

Day 1- Las Vegas

My trip started with Las Vegas. After my 16/17 hours flight in a SQ plane, I finally reached San Franscisco airport. The flight has been more comfortable than my flight to UK (via Qantas). I arrive on the same day as my departure date since San Francisco is 15 hours behind Singapore time. The first day is all about flying as we took the domestic flight to Las Vegas after our international flight. We arrived in Las Vegas at around 5 plus in the evening. When I arrived, I truly knew that I was in Las Vegas as I was greeted by the slot machines. It's a true gambling city. It's a short cab drive to our hotel, planet hollywood. In fact, I could see the strip from the airport. That's how close the airport is to the main streets.

(Slot machines in Las Vegas airport)

(Sign greeting us at the airport ... )

Our first stop in Las Vegas is the Bellagio hotel as we wanted to try the buffet which is ranked the highest among the buffet category on tripadvisor. As we walked towards the hotel, we saw the Bellagio fountains. It's beautiful!

(Bellagio fountains with the 'Eiffel tower' in the background)

It's a long queue for the buffet which is not surprisingly as we had read about the long queues on the tripadvisor. The buffet comprises of Alaska crab legs, snow crab legs, Kobe beef (I am still puzzled whether it is the authetic Kobe beef), Prime ribs, Sushi and some Asian crusine. It also has a pretty wide range of desserts and ice-cream. The Alaska crab is sweet, but I will love it more if it's in a hot pot just like the crab I had in Hokkaido. Overall, it's not a bad meal but it doesn't fall into my top 3.

(Alaskan crab legs and the dessets)

After dinner, we went straight to the Bellagio fountain as our intention is to view the musical fountain at night. They played different genre of music each time. We stayed for 2 or 3 shows which were around 15 mins apart. It's a peaceful feeling as I watched the musical fountain.

We wanted to collect our shuttle bus tix at MGM Grand so we walked to the South strip, but the walk was surprisngly long. MGM Grand is really a big hotel. The walk through the casino to reach the hotel concierge is really painfully long.

(Paris Las Vegas hotel with its iconic replica of the Eiffel tower)

(Monte Carlo in the South Strip)

Day 2- Las Vegas

We walked to MGM Grand to take the shuttle bus to the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas. I bought a coach bag at this outlet as the bag only cost USD 65 after a 50% discount! Besides coach, I also bought quite a few clothes and a Polo Ralph shirt for my dad. C introduced Charlotte Russe to me. I would say I quite like this brand. As the 6pm bus was full, we had to take the 3 pm bus back to our hotel. After a short rest, we decided to venture to the Casear Palace which is also on the Center strip where my hotel was located.

(The deep blue sky and the Roman decorations in Caesar Palace.)

Caesar Palace is of Roman theme. As we walked around the shopping mall, we saw Cheesecake factory and we decided to have our dinner in this famous restaurant. The cheesecake is not bad, but it pales in comparison with the Baileys cheesecake I had in Sunshine coast. We didn't like the buffalo wings which is coated with blue cheese and has this sour taste. We had ordered another pasta which taste quite good. The table next to us were looking at what we ordered and they replicated our choices.

After dinner, we decided to walk to another shopping mall and as we walked, we saw the Volcano show. It's not too bad with the fire spurting out from the "Volcano" outside the Mirage.

We decided to take the bus Deuce back to our hotel. The journey is short but it took at least 25 mins to reach as the traffic was horrendous and the bus was fully packed. The bus driver would stop at every stop and asked the various tourists to move in as much as they could.

Just back from my USA trip and I had received a not so good news.. I have to fly to China for a job soon... and well I guess I didn't like that idea because it's a first year client and the bosses combination is not fantastic.. On top of it, I feel that it messes up my other jobs, but well I have no choice over this..

Okie enough of the bad news..