Trip to Las Vegas

It will not be an exaggeration if Las Vegas is called as The City of Lights. The enormous night activities,the Casinos,rides, shows and night clubs in this part of the world, makes the visitors nocturnal.

Las Vegas - The city of Lights

The hotels and casinos in Las Vegas are not just conventional Multi-storied sky scrappers alone. Here is the casino Paris Hotel - a replica of Eiffel tower . This replica is half of the height (appx 540 foot) of its original one in Paris.

Paris(Hotel), Las Vegas

Paris - Bellagio casino -in the back drop

Bellagio is another hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Inspired by the Lake Como in Italy, this casino has an artificial lake set up in 32000 meter square in front of its massive building. The specialty of this casino is the Fountain of Bellagio that takes place every 15 minutes in this artificial lake. This is a real beauty to watch.

The Fountain of Bellagio

Its more beautiful to see the water dancing to the tunes, from the top of the Eiffel tower. Here is the video taken from the top of the tower at a height of 500 feet.

The fountain of Bellagio - from Eiffel Tower

For those who have watched the roaring MGM lion in their movies and shows alone, here is the Lion Habitat set up inside the MGM - Metro Goldwyn Mayer Inc. Casino, to symbolize their mascot. The Lion Habitat - a glass protected lion cage, has two, two years old siblings (though they doesn't appear like that ;) ) well trained by instructors.Its amazing to see the instructors moving so closely with the lions like pets. We saw a trainer teasing the Lion in his tail playfully :)..

Inside MGM Lion Habitat - The Lion King and its Trainer

MGM and Bellagio are among the three casino vaults targeted along with The Mirage, in the George Clooney, Brad Pitt starer Ocean's Eleven.

After Paris, it is Venice now. The Venetian is another Casino in the Las Vegas strip area. Venetian's internal architecture is a replica of the Venice city itself.

The Venetian - Replicating the canals in the Venice

A part of the Venetian casino is designed with Venice like canals. Any guess about the timing of these photographs..

Inside the Venetian

You would have noticed how dark the sky was in the first few photos. Those photos were taken around 10 - 11 pm in the night. The above two photos were taken two hours after the first few photos (i.e) 12:15 am midnight. Yes. The Venetian interior was designed with a spectacular day light effect that makes you feel that you are at outdoors in day time. For a moment i was wondering which part of the day i was. I was stunned for a moment about the light effects they had inside the casino. Amazing !!!

Above all, the most unforgettable experience was in the Thrills of The Stratosphere. The Stratosphere Casino has a tower which is the tallest observation tower in The United States. At a height of 1149 feet, The Stratosphere has three thriller rides,The X scream, The Insanity, The Big shot. These are real thrillers.

'Triple Thrill Ad - posted inside The Stratosphere

Though we didn't get a chance to ride The Insanity, The X Scream and The Big Shot was too good. The X Scream is a ride of my life. The tower seen in the picture is at the top of The Stratosphere at a height of 1100 feet.

The X scream ride goes vertically down towards the ground at an elevated angle,from the top of the tower (1100 feet) with a quick momentum and then stops, then makes a jerk pushing you little more down, then lifts you elegantly. This is repeated for 3 times i guess. I rode this thriller sitting right in the first seat (you can imagine with the above picture).

Sitting there i was wondering what would happen if something goes wrong. What else ? I would not have been writing this now :)

Here are the few other photos taken during this trip.

Inside The Venetian @12.15 am

In front of the Eiffel Tower

Inside the Eiffel Tower

(Gopi*, Naanthaanga, Ganesh, Srivatsan*)

Last but not the least, Las Vegas, from The Stratosphere

Las Vegas - From the Top of The Stratosphere

*The photographers of the trip :)