Hi Aai and Abasaheb,

Let me tell you about my Las Vegas Trip. On Friday evening(21^st May) around 6:30 we left from LA for Las Vegas. Babu was driving and there was a lot of traffic for nearly an hour. Then as we joined the Vegas highway the traffic reduced. I could see mountains and farms and also could smell the typical odour which comes from a cattle house. For around 45 minutes I could see around since it was still not dark. I expected to see a proper countryside, like we see in India, I believe here the villages look like small towns. Later it got dark so there was nothing to look at but the road, and listen to music. After another one and half hour we pulled out to a gas station. Mostly at gas station you can put the credit card in a slot and fill gas, else you have to go inside the gas station cum cash counter cum snack bar and give your card/cash and they start the pump from inside. You have to fill gas yourself. Inside the gas stations snack bar there were signs like 'Anybody prowling outside at night will be found dead in the morning' and 'Anybody found shoplifting will be xxxx'. Then we rested for some time and then I took over the driving.

When you are moving at speed at 60-70mph and that to at night, there is hardly anything to do, sometimes you feel as if you are just holding the steering wheel and the car is running on its own.

Its not possible to stop anywhere along the road. You have to take exits going to a town or take an exit to a 'Rest Area'. Rest Areas are areas along the highway where there are restrooms and maybe some wending machines.

When Las Vegas was still aroung 50-60 miles, we saw some bright lights. We thought that we reached LV. But actually there were one or two big hotels with lot of lighting just in the same style as LV and again it became desserted. Well we reached Las Vegas around 12:00am. The first view was good. Could see people moving around as if it was evening. We roamed around looking for our hotel for maybe half an hour. Finally we reached our hotel, checked in and parked the car in the parking garage(before checking we had to park in a parking area for CheckingIn cutomers). Then we kept our bags in the room. Reaching the room was also not straight forward. Take a lift to second floor, then take another lift from another area on second floor to the first floor. We stayed in a hotel called 'Imperial Palace'. This hotel we stayed in was on the strip (Las Vegas : 'The Strip' is the road along which there are the biggest hotels and Casinos). Our hotel had around 2000+ rooms but compared to the hotels around it was looking very small. The biggest hotel 'MGM Grand' has around 5000 rooms and it’s the biggest in the world.

Well we kept our bags in the room, it was around 1.00am, we then went out. Next doors there was a casino cum food court (A place where you have many fastfood shops). I had a burger in Burger King. The casino and food court was packed imagine at around 1.00am. After eating, what to do? There were so many machines and people playing, it was totally new. Well believe me after playing on a slot machine for 15mins you easily understand how the machines work. Well I will tell about the Casinos later. So I just played for around half an hour there, then we went to our hotel, actually we went to the casino in our hotel.

Every hotel on the Las Vegas Strip is a huge place in itself, one can just stay in one hotel for two days, and still not finish what all they have to offer. Each hotel has a casino, rooms, buffet(this is also a speciality), Health spas, tourist booths for trips to grand canyon, shops and a lot of other things too.

Let me describe the Casino's. A casino will be a huge area having hundreds of slot machines, those tables with green tops we see in movies surrounded by people in suit with maybe a good looking girl next to them. This huge area I am told is constantly puffed with oxygen to keep people from feeling dizzy and instead feel fresh. The casino has lot of light. Once in a casino its hard to tell whether its day or night. There are no exit signs and so many paths that its hard to get out. This strategy is used to keep people from going out and just stay in their casino. Well I tried to see what was going on, on the green tables. But its hard to makeout, since you should know the rules of the different games. I think the real gamblers and people having tons of money play here, since the betting starts at around hundred dollars. So the alternative for many people are the slot machines. When you are playing on the slot machine, its just you and the machine. You don’t have to be dressed to play on the slot machine. Believe me once you are playing for around an hour you start feeling as if the machine is a human being and look at it expectedly, wishing a good sequence comes and feel attached to it. People treat this machine as a lucky one and the other as not so. Its just addiction especially if you are winning or ready to spend lot of money. I think a person stops playing either when his senses tell him its enough or maybe he faints(I didn’t see any). There is a totally different atmosphere in the casinos. The slot machines make peculiar music when the wheels move and also the sound on coins falling on the steel trays.

There are many types of slot machines, I mean having different combinations. But the way you play is the same. There are machines which accept coins in different denominations, starting from

5 cents to 5 dollars. If you play with 5 cents you have lot of coins to start with, but the money u end up with will be small (in case u are winning). But comparatively even if you lose you don’t lose much. If you play with higher denomonation and are winning you get a lot of money but if you are losing you can lose a lot. OK lets say I am playing with 5 cents, that machine accepts only five cents coins. You can put one coin to three coins in the slot. Then you press a button saying

spin wheels (or you can pull a handle on the side. It does the same thing). The three wheels start spinning. The first one stops first, the second one next asn so on. If you get a particular combination you get some number of coins(5 cents). There are a lot of combinations. The highest paying combination on many machines is 7 7 7 each in a particular color code. So lets say initially

you had put only one coin and u get 777 then maybe u get 150 coins, but if u had put 2 coins u will get 300 and if three coins you will get 450 coins. So your head starts spinning along with the wheels deciding how many coins to play and praying for a the best combination. Well that’s how you play. Now I will tell you what goes on around. Most of the casinos have beautiful waitressess exposing there busts as much as possible(decently) serving drinks to the customes (this is complimentary). I think to get a job as a waitress having big busts are necessary. You can just pay a nominal tip, (u don’t have to reach your pocket for the purse, most are so engrossed playing they give from the coins they are playing). How to carry so many (in case) coins? There are small plastics buckets which are kept along side the slot machines to keep coins and carry it from one place to other. What in case you need change? There are ladies carrying small trollies

along the passages formed between the slot machines. They give you any change you want. Basic idea is to not let the customer take pains to go find the cash counter in order to relieve his money or leave his seat(in case somebody else comes and takes his lucky machine). So all care is taken so that customers can easily spend a lot of money without pains. Ha Ha.

Well all this for one time visitor. There are many other gimmicks too. You can get a card made with your name (just like a credit card) in minutes, they will give you gloves to play too(Hands become black after handling so many coins going through slot machines). Ok so this card can be put in the slot machine. Now if you put around 80 coins you get one point. Like this if you get fifteen points you can get free breakfast. 30 point a free lunch. And for some points even a room.

So babu played so much in the night(actually morning) that he got two breakfasts free. Babu was simultaneously playing on two machines(nothing unusual). Well I packed up somewhere around 5.30am when I couldn’t stand(or sit) any more. Even while going towards the exit I was putting a coin in this or that machine. (Well I was kinda addicted. But its normal. Whoops).

I slept from 5:30am to around 12:30pm.

Then from around 1:00 we had lunch and I went to have a look around and Babu retired to the room. I went to Caesars Palace which was just in front of our hotel. Its one of the most famous hotels in Las Vegas. There was a very beautiful entrance starting at the sidewalk. There was a escalator (which went straight, not upwards into the hotel). I believe this is so that somebody doesn’t start going back(this is my logic). Well once inside there was a big casino, but much much bigger. There were big screens showing games(basketball,horse racing). There was betting on these too. Well Caesars palace as any other hotel along the strip is very very big. Once inside you can just keep going on and on. They had a roof(ceiling) which had sky painted on it. The color(shades) of the sky keeps changing according to current time. Well every hotel has a theme. This hotel had the theme of roman empire. So the waitresses had dress of that kind. There were guards at some place dressed in beautiful outfits, and even a guy dressed as a warrior moving around. There were big statues, waterfalls. There was a big wooden horse(around three stories high). At one place there was a big circular hall. There were some statues. A show is shown every hour. So I waited there for some time( The wait was worth it). So when the show started, the lights went dim. And the statues which are on some cylindrical stands started moving down and disappered. Then a big column with a throne and some king emerged from the ground. The king was a statue but the movements of the king could be passed out to be a real person. So then emerged a warrior then a lady. Well there was story behind what was going on, but the effects were too good. There was fire and water. The dome above is completely digital, showing something about the story. Well it was really cool. Then after moving around I went back to the hotel room. It was still daylight. Then around 7:30 when it became dark, I and Babu went out. In the night Las Vegas is just Magical. Its so lively with people walking around. Well we moved around watching the hotels. There are big hotels and each has a theme. So I will describe a few of the hotels. There is a hotel called 'New York New York', this hotel has design similar to the famous buildings in New York and also the statue of Liberty. A big roller coaster goes around the buildings. There is even a brooklyn bridge. Well this is from outside. Each hotel has got a theme inside too. But its not possible to go in each hotel(Cause of time). Hotel Luxor is made as a pyramid. The rooms are along the four slanting walls. The elevators are also slanting. Inside its all open. There are casinos on one level. On the upper level they have a big theatre and restaurants. Then since this hotel is based on the Egyptian theme there a statues on that era.

Actually there is some kind of understanding between the hotels, I mean when we went to luxor, we went in a tram which went from one hotel to another. Next we went to MGM Grand (This is the biggest hotel in the world with 5000+ rooms). The hotel looks all green from outside. This hotel has a theme park inside it. Like a amusement park inside a hotel. Our idea was to have dinner at there buffet. OK buffet food is also a specialty in Las Vegas. For very low prices they have huge buffet in most hotels. But we just missed it, since it closed before we went. So we just had some fastfood there and came out. Next Babu wanted to go to see something so we seperated. My next stop was 'Bellagio hotel'. They have a very big lake in front of there hotel, and they have a fountain show. The fountain show was marvelous in combination to the music. The fountains are all along the curved lake. So like fountains coming from the ends and merging together. (What I mean to say is that you have to move your head nearly 180 degrees to see the whole fountain.

Well then I just kept walking along the strip and admiring the huge displays some of the hotels have in front of them. Then actually I wanted to go to a place which in the map I had in my map, and looked quite near. So I walked and walked expecting the place to come, at one point the strip was far behind and it became quite desolated. So I took a bus back to my hotel. (It was nearly 2:30am that time). While going back I realized how much I had walked. Then I came to the hotel planning to take the car and go out. The parking area was five floors and I didn’t know where the car was so I started from the fifth floor going round and round till the second floor where I found the car. So I took the car and went to downtown Las Vegas where there is place similar to the strip having hotels and casinos, but it was quite there. So I drove back along the strip having a look at the hotels while driving. So around 4:30 I came back to the room and slept. Babu came back around 8:00, he was playing fom 2:00am till 8:00 and he had just come back to be a bit fresh. He had earned two breakfasts, so he told me to come at around 10:00 to the casino and he continued playing. After having breakfast I decided to play on the slot machines. The previous day I had played with quarters. Initially I had lost around 40 dollars but later after a long time I won the lost money back. So I decided to play with smaller amount, so I played on the 5 cents machine. Ii was lucky this time. By the time we had to check out I had won a lot. The lady next to me wanted to take my lucky machine. So that tiem I won around 60 dollars(I had started with 6 dollars). Well we then checked out.(Actually you can check your bills on the TV in your room). Then I purchased some souveneirs. Then we started back to Los Angeles. I drove 90% of the way back and Babu was sleeping to cover his lost sleep. Since now It was daylight when I was driving back it was much easier. I saw dessert along the way, but it was just dry land and not the kind they show in the movies. So that’s it. I enjoyed the trip to Las Vegas.

Take care,

Manish