Distance :975Km
Denver-Las Vegas
Time :2hrs air travel
cost : $1300 (Rs 65000) per head
Date:13-Feb-2009
song: Immigrant Song- Led Zepplein
The plan: when will I start thinking!!
My training friends n me were deciding since long to meet at some point as many of us were is US ,we decided the best point would be Las Vegas,NV. As per many people ( read males!!) this was the place to be for bachelors ( hope you get it !!) but many who had been there thought otherwise, people advised me that it was worth one day ( few of them had been there just a month back for 4 days n they were really pissed!!).Any ways the presidents day was coming and i was getting full 3 days ( actually 5 ..i ll explain this later).So my friends booked tickets,rental car ( had just newly got my driving license ) and a room in candle wood suits just abt a mile from "the strip" .We actually had a long discussion as where to stay the strip would be really costly besides we were also renting cars so ...we decided candle wood suites.I booked my tickets waiting did add to $1300 trip .well cheap-o-air was not that cheap afterall .I had booked my tickets for friday at 6 PM.I was supposed to go to airport with my friend radhika as she had booked.She being "extra safe" told me to start by 3 PM ( god 3hrs!!! when will these girls learn!!) N my plans were to start at 4:30 and just to make it on time using Denver RTD.Any ways I did not have any work (that i didnt have for the whole 2009) so I agreed.We took RTD n reached the airport by 4:45PM .God how relieved she was!! i said lets eat some thing n eat i did that to till 5:20!! Then i said lets "roll" ( my dnver frnz ll really kill me on this!!) to our surprise there was a huge line for checkin!!! so huge i had never seen!! Oh lord i was just an ass!! we just got in the line n dragged on for 20 mins!!!!! to my relief i got out fast!! i just heaved a sigh of relief.We had about 15 mins to catch a "train" to our terminal!! n to my nightmareee She was picked up for a random check!!! AAAAAhhhhh!!! they checked her in and out, up and down!! i said to myself we r really gonna miss our flight!! i m sure she must be swearing at me ,It was all my fault!!to add to that my bladder was full n no time to pee :( ( everything bad comes together).They then left her in around 5 mins....N from there it was run lola run....caught the train I told her i ll run n tell them to wait...n run i did!! i just reached our gate n it was closed !!! SHIT!! F***!!!I went to the attendant n said sorry we were late!! she gave me a smile"Which flight r u coming from?" I said chicago( lyin does help!!) Radhika came runnin behind! It was 6:05Pm but she let us in!!!
My god how happy iwas otherwise it wud hav cost me a helllll!!! plus also her curses!! I was panting we were the last ppl to enter!.I sat on my seat ,couple besides me smiled n said you r really lucky .....N there came my surprise!!! the captain announced that the plane would be delayed by 45mins!!! ( that was the reason we could catch it!!)...n so continued my journey to McCarran Airport in LV...Even though we started late we reached on time..the airport is pretty shoddy (for a tourist airport you dont expect this ) and of course there were slot machines even on airport..hell wat kind of fleecing is this!!!
I bit radhika bye with her cousins...and went out
Las Vegas Night 1 : Gloomy all the way
I had expected las vegas to be hot ( in the sense of weather ) When I got out of airport it was cold as hell must be around 4-5 deg cel ( 40 deg F) , good i had got my sweater as I stay in denver.I got to the bus stop, caught 105 bus to flamingo street.Las vegas is really small (
).You could actually feel the big jets flying over your head!!! the vibrations that is.I then walked to the candle wood suits .It was pretty ok and the staff was really helpful.The room was like a service apt with all the required stuff like TV :) ( with one good show after another who would not miss TV ).The strip was around 1 mile from our place I could see the initial glimpses of the casinos from my window. LV seemed really gloomy and cheap!!After an hour or so I went back to airport ca
r rental taking a cab ( this driver "over" charged me $20 to go As'ol n was really irritated n rritating ) I went dere met my frendz aft long time!!! My frnd had booked a convertible !! f*** it really pissed me off as it would really add to my bill .Anyways I can be an ass at times!! it came out like this $50 per day for car+ $30 per day for insurance ( i wont regret this)+ $10 extra driver+ $20 GPS ( even this i dont regret) so $110*4 = $440 just for the car!!! man that is costly.But I did loosen up as i saw the car but who wud drive a convertible in such cold conditions ( WE DID!!).we went back to our rooms after loosing our way even with GPS,we had a long unplanned day tommorrow.
Day 1 : Hoover Dam : What Da.....
In had had a good nights sleep so was fresh..with no plans ahead. I had taken all the print out of maps around LV.We had planned for hoover dam but not on day 1 but we dec
ided to go with it!
We started at around 8AM ( which is itself a feat!) went to quiznos ate some subs n started searching for banks ( BOA and WellsFargo ) as we were low on cash .Really speaking we dont need much cash in states as they accept credit/debit card even for 1C .We did find BOFA but not wellsfargo.Anywayz we proceded towards hoover (GPS!! ) i was driving .Its is really irritating when people tell you how to drive and backseat driving is the worst kind..i had to go along with that torture but i did get back with the same!!.Roads are really clean ,traffic is fast.I had few problems driving on lefthand side ( which is left?????????) but i got used to it soon!!Hoover is around 60-70 miles from LV and it takes around 2-3 hours to get dere by car.There are many
organised tours there.The speed limits on highways are 75Miles/hr I was initially afraid of ticket but lateron i did exceed 100miles/hr and was not ticketed!! The road is barren most of the times...well what do u expect from Nevada.Open rooftop was really .On the road all the signs are clearly laid down and you really cannot miss hoover dam.On the way Lake mead ( supoosed to be the backwaters of hoover) is clearly visible ..aaah the deep blue!! There are some check points ibetween but they dont trouble you a lot so its ok.As the hooverdam approaches you could see mountains getting bigger .Just nearby you see a large and ugly power station with steel trusses.There was also some construction going on some bridge ( suspension) the guide there claimed it is the worlds highest!! ( all the people claim thier 
bridge is highest..one more to the elite group!!).Just as you enter the area of dam everything turns to wierd reddish colour!! We parked our car...though it was very difficult to find any parking space even after paying $7.The parking is like a pyramid 5-6 floors it has some of the pretty views of the dam.The dam is really humungous!! could see its bottom it feels awsome ( only for a little while :)) .The visitor center is made unerground.We went dere they had two tours one was of $35 t
our ( i donno wat it stood for) another was $15 tour ( we took the cheaper one).The dam is "C" shaped arc its really huge .I think golden eye was filmed on this...no wait universal soldier was filmed ( remember the hindi translation ..."saraa badan jall raha hai..."hehee).The water catchment area is lake mead.The dam lies half in nevada and half in arizona in two time zones ( they have watches displaying this) .Amazingly it was built in one year.It supplies electricity to 5 states (NV,AZ,CA,UT, n good old CO).Cars are allowed on the dam .They have regularly spaced observation decks.the tour was ok...they first showed us a film the film showed how and why the dam was built ( some senate member hoover had proposed it)
.Then we were taken to a lift which swiftly went down .The lift attendant was cracking same ol jokes on which
everybody was laughing.."me n my wife" jokes.( hope you ppl dont face dese jokes) The drop is good ,you can feel the pressure changing in your ears.They tell you at each point the significance of it .( pretty boring with all the non vital statistics)..Then they took us to the generator rooms huge ( stator n rotors ) r dere .We are able to see that from a distance.then finally they took us up again using the lifts to the place where we had a good view of the dam.All ppl ( mostly indians ) were taking fotoz with the dam ( no doubt it must b the most fotographed dam) .over all the $15 trip was ok ...should have been cheaper( for more info: http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/ ).We then went walking along the dam.pretty ok it was not too exciting.U get used to the hugeness of the dam n get bored.There is also a souvenir shop selling the same old stuff keychains,mugs,tequil
a shot cups etc..i was not tempted to buy that.There was also a cafe (bad n expensive as usual).It was around 2 o'clk we decided to head back to our hotel ,rest n go gambling..We headed back..on the way i suggested we head to the lake mead ( surprisingly, to which every1 agreed!) .It is just along the way .It is like a national park with facilites for RVs ,the lake has good parking for cars
The entry fee is $25 ( u can stay 5 day
s on that ).The lake was blue as could b.We could see pretty daring seagulls ( ???) But the most daring things were the fish .They were big and fighting to eat the popcorns one of the stores was selling.They had facilities for boating,speed boats etc.We did not have time for either of these .As indians we had to take fotographs after that we left!! We decided to go to the strip ( read not strip club ) this is the place where you find the most amount of lights in the world ( what a waste!! My father wud hav killed these ppl).There was still some time for darkness I guess it was just about 4 Pm or something like that but it was really cold. We reached the strip it was just about to get dark.You really get over whelmed by the show these ppl have put on and the amount of money these ppl have put in on this "small" road. names like Ballys,ceasers palace,bills all designed to strip you naked...ohhh now i get it!!! ( dumb me).We toook a ride throuh the whole strip n decided was enough for the day and returned back to the candle wood suits.
Day 2 : Carshing into Grand canyon .
We had decid
ed that tommorrows day will be for the grand canyon and decided to start by 4Am .As it would be a long ride of around 5-6 hrs.How naiive we were I got up at 6 ( comm'on wat else did u expect). but we did start by 8 .there started our problems there are two places where we can go ( actually there are N no) the western rim with the sky walk and the southern rim. A "gentleman" had suggested me that southern rim was the place to go as it offers same view of the sky walk and sky walk is costly!!!! $70 just to walk on 7 inch glass !! ( was a bit tempting ,though wont deny that!) So we decided to go to the southern rim .Both was impossible as the grand canyon is around 227 Miles long and the two rims are milessss apart 
seperated by a ravine ( isnt it obvious) .The southern rim is around 200-300 miles from las vegas but we still decided that was the place to go.The problem now we faced was we did not have an adress of any place nearby And it is a huge place!! the GPS could not properly locate the southern rimWe finally could find a place Some railway stn.And there we started 
after making the tank full ( abt $20 not mch).the road to grand canyon was via the hoover dam so till then we knew where we were going! The road was amazing ,no traffic at all .smooth ( hmummm), the view was really good we were in Arizona pretty arid place .It was too cold thats why I did not opt to open the convertibles hood ( though some had wished!).We exchanged driving after every 100 miles or so driving at 90+ miles/hr ,cuz every one was doing it!I
really wud not recommend you that.I could see snow fallen every where! do u expect this from a desert area?.Then came the thing I regret I did.Was driving too fast for my own good sudenly I saw a stone just in front of me!! my friend did mutter some thing ! bfore i could react I was over it!!! oh lord!!the tyre Burst!( m i deaf i donno).We were clocking more than 90 miles/hr.I could rim n lotta vibrations n car going out of control ( front tyre) any ways i did control the gar n pulled it aside! phew!!( well i wouldnt have been writing this then!) .Luck plays its part! we were also not hit from behind where almost everybody clocks more than 90 miles/hr! I though here goes our grand canyon! but spare tyre did come to our rescue.My frnd knew how to change it.I learnt many things that day .changing tyres was one of them.My frient took over from me and we started again towards we lost nearly 1 hr!! we initially started slow then we came back to our selves .We drove for two hours or so till we came to some city .Flagstaff then the GPS really started working ( S alert!)We came to some block GPS "Turn to left" we did ..again "Turn to left" we did..."Turn to left" ohh my god the gps is 
screwed! neither there were mountains nor anything grand canyon like.We went to a 9-11 store.The store man just smiled when we asked him! he said daily 10-15 ppl come here in search of GC .the GPS malfunctions in these areas due to mountains !!! :( and the GC is around 70-80 miles from here! i thought he was joking!(no he was not) told me to H108 to GC..ohh lord it was already 1:30 ( we were driving since last 6 hours ) but we pushed to finally reach the grand canyon visitor center ( south rim ) ( more info ,official site: http://www.nps.gov/grca/). From there on we were not lost.Had to pay $25 for car entry.The GC is a national park.The place is simply for the nature lovers like me.It was snow every where. n mind it damn slippery. 
There are view points after every mile or two.We went to the first point yayapai point.The view was really breath taking.Nothing can be more beautiful.The nature!! oh lord.People were thronging to take snaps and get snaps taken ( why would i be left behind + i am indian ).The 
colorado river was not visible ,that deep the canyon was! 1 mile deep!! the distance between the two peaks was more than 10 miles ( first time in life i saw straight 10 miles ).It is very risky at some places as there are no fences and the snow is really slippery! you could just end up falling 1 mile into river if u r lucky :) ! ...a good place to die ( wish its not me)..many ppl die esp in winters not a joke. The grand canyon it self is a place to spend 4-5 days exploring.There are many trails going down like bright angel trails .It takes around 3 hrs to go down n twice that to come up.During summers there are many rafting 
schools down!These places previously for indians ( red indian tribes not us!).I guess most of them are closed in winters .Summer is the time to go there.There are buses regularly in the park .The come aft every 15 mins.We had our car so.....
We saw many points along the way.There I guess we should give more than two-three days.I regreat not going there for long time.There is also a fully wooden hotel seemed expensive but wat is not expensive in states.The foto also shows the colorado river ,the bluish tinge is really amazing .I wonder how the colour comes.The colorado river starts from colorado ( of course!!!) n passes thru AZ upto UT ).This place is simply breath taking..only for nature lovers!!.
We decided to go back to LV as it was getting dark.and we wanted to go gambling! We also had booked for skydiving tommorrow ( I was bit reluctant, not that was scared or something but costs were mounting!!).We went to a MacDz out side the park.I ordered something ,the person reminded me saying it had beef ( these ppl do have knowledge! n not as dumb as we think they r!!).I drove in pitch darkness at 90+ .really scary no lights at all on roads! only thing that guides you is the two strips of yellow lines! but trust me no one expects you to stop!We reached LV by around 11Pm.N went to sleep. We had to go sky diving tommo.Amazingly I was not scared .
Day 3 :Dive Dive Dive Vegas!!
The same night I had got a mail from Sincity diving school that we have a confirmed appointment and we had to come to paris ( casino not the city!) .There was a small van which came to pick us up.A lady had come to pick us up.When we wnt to
the van already an isreali couple was sitting.The woman looked messed up ( the couple!) .The lady greeted us with a smile! n kept chatting with us.Meanwhile I drank black coffee n some muffins which i seriously regret!The jean airport ( not McCarran) was around 25 mins from the place.She kept us telling stories abt how many ppl come n backout!! Then came the intresting part she made us sign some document ststing soo many clauses that i didnt even care to read all! had to sign in more than 20 places! after do
ing that we would not be able to sue these ppl even for thier negligence! We reached some place empty only one building was dere and we could see lots of small planes parked.It was cold,windy and cloudy! over all not a very good day for diving..that i didint know .I could see mountains faar faar away .It was really soothing.Since the isreali couple came first they were given the first chance to jump.all were cracking stupid jokes.It was $183 for the jump $80 for a movie and $90 for a movie+foto.We agreed to take a full thing as it is/was one in a lifetime chance .Now i know with my indian salary it is nearly impossible to take it.My hands were cold i guessed it must be due to the weather I really could not feel the fear which i found really odd as I am scared of heights!They
made us wear the suits but no helmets.The jump was going to be a tandem jump ( i.e a person would be on my back) The person on my back would shoot the video.I had a much older jumper...and as usual these guys pretended they were jumping for the first time.The guy was taking our video as we were walking to ur plane ,a small two seater ( in which we 5 ppl including the pilot crammed like hell) . These guys gave us 
instructions ...kepp your hands crossed in front n legs behind when you jump!! I felt a ltiile bit of fear, but not the spine chilling one!! And the plane took off like a normal plane! the view was simply awsome.Could see the small shrubs, snow capped mountains the view was really breath taking .you could see the interstate ohh! simply marvelous! I think the view kept me busy thats y i did not think of the jump.mean while these guys kept on repeating "ARE U EXCITED?" "YEE!!" we ceremoniously kept repeating.Then suddenly at a point ,my tandem jumper said it was the time! he opened the side of the plane and...Gush the wind ! i simply could not hear any thing and my mouth kept open! He made me keep my feetdangling from the plane ! ohh Shit!!! Shitttttt! Shitttttttttttttttt!! He tied himself to me! he just pushed me and pulled me back! then I got a bit scared, but before i could get more scared we jumped!!!! HeHaw! once we jumped i did not feel scared! The view ! simply unexplainable! too bea
utiful...small ice particles were hitting my face! My frnd jumped after me! The free fall was going to be for 30Seconds ( we had jumped from 3 miles) but it seemed lot lesser! He pulled the rip chord .I thought it ll hurt but i hardly felt any thing! He began talking n same time taking a video! he showed me my frnd who had jumped after me some faaaaaaaaar away! Now we were hanging ...felt i was still in the air! The view was much better than grand canyon! He let me steer the parachute a little bit! Then comes the ugly part! we had to loose our altitude so one end of the parachute has to be puled 
down.This sends parachute in a spiral down! ohh this churned my stomach! he spiralled in opposite direction for some time! I was fully giddy .I was praying that i dont puke in the middle,in the air! LV could hav got good showers!! hehee!As we descended I could see a small van waiting for us ,smaller than an ant,soon it was growing bigger! I just prayed i reach ground fast as my stomach was totally upset! We had a smooth landing...on FEET!! I was stll giddy but i did not puke! my frnd came after me and landed on his ASS! hehee! After this we were taken back to the airport which was around 1-2 miles faroff.The Isreali couple was already there.I excused my self an did throw out!! all my coffee n muffins were out! I shouldnt have eaten! though my throwing off i kept a secret from all!!All four of us were dropped back to the Paris! On our way the couple started chatting with us.they were on a tour since last 3 months.The guy actually came from new zeland n said that was the place to be.Bunjee jumping is much more scarier than diving.( i wud do that one day!).Over all the diving was grt experience! but I did not like the poor quality of video sent.The fotoz were just the frames of VGA! $90 was not worth it!
Day 3/Night 3 :Gambl
e all the way!
This was our ( esp mine ) final night in LV.We decided to go to all the casinos .gamble a bit, learn new games! But always remember the house always wins! It was cloudy and it did rain We were lucky enough to sky dive as all other appointments were cancelled by the diving school due to weather! We decided to go to the south of the strip n start our gambling.We went to LUXOR the casino based on egyptian theme.It has a huge black pyramid
.On the top of pyramid there is a high powered LASER ,supposed to be the most powerful laser in....i donno! the casino is attached to the Mandalay Bay another casino.There are good shows there ( infact each casino has a show).These shows r really costly ,$100 is costly for me! in Luxor there were shows like human body art etc.We went to the luxor's casino.I tried my luck with slot machines.Putting just $1 at a time.I lost around $20 initially but suddenly when $0.92 were left i got 3 rows! My machine hung for some time from $0.92 it went straignt to $17 ( I donno how !!) i was richer by -$3 ( for the first time i "WON" something ). Since we did not have much t
ime we decided to head to other casinos.the distances between the casinos is not large but the casinos r themselves HUGE!! Your feet take a good amount of beating.We had a car so we used to go casinos in car! the parking is FREE! I couldnt blive my self! Something free...use it! It also started raining. The Casinos have put up a display! trust me you will never see so many lights any where! So much show...It feels so fake! but its really worth seeing "ONCE". We went to many other casinos
. PARIS, MGM GRAND, The Mirage, Bellagio,The venetian etc. MGM Grand is one of the oldest casino .There is a mono rail which takes us to all the casinos .It starts from MGM.The building has a wierd prussian blue color looks very good in the night.It too has some shows. As we did not have much of a time we opted out of the shows.The Venetian is one of the "best to look at" casino cum shopping center.It has been modelled over venice! God they must have spent atleast a billion dollars to get it constructed! The have artificial lake over which there are gondalas.By paying some amount couples can njoy a lot. They have 
made an artificial sky inside the mall looks like day!The mall has all the haute-cotoure brands Gucci,Versce,LV,YSL,Hermes..I ll be their good customer one day ;).Paris seemed pretty sleazy...was not good all .The olnything good about it was a replica of le tour effiel and l'arc of triomple ...now i can use these fotos to tell ppl i was in paris hehee....It had a restaurant on the top of tower i guess.We played slot
machines over there..I did not put much ..amazing restraint...if you win even a little bit you get tempted to play more..My friend lost more than $300 in roullet.There is a show every day at the treasure island (TI) n BTW its free.Its the pirate show..where there is a pirate ship full of babes! in the skimpiest cloths you can imagine!! basically in corset n g-strings nothing else..theres another ship with real "male" pirates trying to overtake the ship.But the female pirates fight back..it is a musical.They did dance really well .You can catch this on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZ2YOFZ2Rs ) The song is pretty catchy.." a little bit of 
sugar...." It happens daily twice ,check out the timings on the site. The show is always crowded and ppl throng to watch the thongs!! hehee...that to free.The show is ok kinda boring! There are many other shows Zumanity is pretty famous ( cirque du soliel - ( cirk - du - solai ) - the french-canadian circus ) is good. The Blue-mans group is epensive n good abt $75. There are also lots of
other free shows just check on the net for them. Bellagio has a good show of water fountains it takes place after 7 pm after every 15 mins till midnight. There are also good rides if you are into roller coasters one of them is the vertical push stratosphere ( should hav tried that it is for $35 ).The area around it is pretty sleazy.For those who like food and can eat all LV is pretty famous for all you can eat...bellagio has a good all you can eat buffet!
Las Vegas Aftermath :
I had a flight to catch to denver the next morning ( tuesday ) I returned the electronic keys to the desk at 5 in the morninig .All had left the previous night.I went to the car rental returned the car and got back to office by 2 PM. no one even noticed heheee.thats wat u call freedom!!
Las vegas is a place to b once in your life time but only once! but there are many good attractions around LV. The Grand canyon is really worth a visit and stay.LV is simply show,sleazy.strip clubs at every corner. If you are a gambling freak this is the best place for u but remember house always wins! local ppl seemed wierd and non polite ..might b i havent seen enuff of dem!
Overall the trip was crammed with adventure, new things, heavy on wallet n other "Stuff" hehee
My god how happy iwas otherwise it wud hav cost me a helllll!!! plus also her curses!! I was panting we were the last ppl to enter!.I sat on my seat ,couple besides me smiled n said you r really lucky .....N there came my surprise!!! the captain announced that the plane would be delayed by 45mins!!! ( that was the reason we could catch it!!)...n so continued my journey to McCarran Airport in LV...Even though we started late we reached on time..the airport is pretty shoddy (for a tourist airport you dont expect this ) and of course there were slot machines even on airport..hell wat kind of fleecing is this!!!
I bit radhika bye with her cousins...and went out
Las Vegas Night 1 : Gloomy all the way
I had expected las vegas to be hot ( in the sense of weather ) When I got out of airport it was cold as hell must be around 4-5 deg cel ( 40 deg F) , good i had got my sweater as I stay in denver.I got to the bus stop, caught 105 bus to flamingo street.Las vegas is really small (
).You could actually feel the big jets flying over your head!!! the vibrations that is.I then walked to the candle wood suits .It was pretty ok and the staff was really helpful.The room was like a service apt with all the required stuff like TV :) ( with one good show after another who would not miss TV ).The strip was around 1 mile from our place I could see the initial glimpses of the casinos from my window. LV seemed really gloomy and cheap!!After an hour or so I went back to airport ca
r rental taking a cab ( this driver "over" charged me $20 to go As'ol n was really irritated n rritating ) I went dere met my frendz aft long time!!! My frnd had booked a convertible !! f*** it really pissed me off as it would really add to my bill .Anyways I can be an ass at times!! it came out like this $50 per day for car+ $30 per day for insurance ( i wont regret this)+ $10 extra driver+ $20 GPS ( even this i dont regret) so $110*4 = $440 just for the car!!! man that is costly.But I did loosen up as i saw the car but who wud drive a convertible in such cold conditions ( WE DID!!).we went back to our rooms after loosing our way even with GPS,we had a long unplanned day tommorrow.Day 1 : Hoover Dam : What Da.....
In had had a good nights sleep so was fresh..with no plans ahead. I had taken all the print out of maps around LV.We had planned for hoover dam but not on day 1 but we dec
ided to go with it!We started at around 8AM ( which is itself a feat!) went to quiznos ate some subs n started searching for banks ( BOA and WellsFargo ) as we were low on cash .Really speaking we dont need much cash in states as they accept credit/debit card even for 1C .We did find BOFA but not wellsfargo.Anywayz we proceded towards hoover (GPS!! ) i was driving .Its is really irritating when people tell you how to drive and backseat driving is the worst kind..i had to go along with that torture but i did get back with the same!!.Roads are really clean ,traffic is fast.I had few problems driving on lefthand side ( which is left?????????) but i got used to it soon!!Hoover is around 60-70 miles from LV and it takes around 2-3 hours to get dere by car.There are many
organised tours there.The speed limits on highways are 75Miles/hr I was initially afraid of ticket but lateron i did exceed 100miles/hr and was not ticketed!! The road is barren most of the times...well what do u expect from Nevada.Open rooftop was really .On the road all the signs are clearly laid down and you really cannot miss hoover dam.On the way Lake mead ( supoosed to be the backwaters of hoover) is clearly visible ..aaah the deep blue!! There are some check points ibetween but they dont trouble you a lot so its ok.As the hooverdam approaches you could see mountains getting bigger .Just nearby you see a large and ugly power station with steel trusses.There was also some construction going on some bridge ( suspension) the guide there claimed it is the worlds highest!! ( all the people claim thier 
bridge is highest..one more to the elite group!!).Just as you enter the area of dam everything turns to wierd reddish colour!! We parked our car...though it was very difficult to find any parking space even after paying $7.The parking is like a pyramid 5-6 floors it has some of the pretty views of the dam.The dam is really humungous!! could see its bottom it feels awsome ( only for a little while :)) .The visitor center is made unerground.We went dere they had two tours one was of $35 t
our ( i donno wat it stood for) another was $15 tour ( we took the cheaper one).The dam is "C" shaped arc its really huge .I think golden eye was filmed on this...no wait universal soldier was filmed ( remember the hindi translation ..."saraa badan jall raha hai..."hehee).The water catchment area is lake mead.The dam lies half in nevada and half in arizona in two time zones ( they have watches displaying this) .Amazingly it was built in one year.It supplies electricity to 5 states (NV,AZ,CA,UT, n good old CO).Cars are allowed on the dam .They have regularly spaced observation decks.the tour was ok...they first showed us a film the film showed how and why the dam was built ( some senate member hoover had proposed it).Then we were taken to a lift which swiftly went down .The lift attendant was cracking same ol jokes on which
everybody was laughing.."me n my wife" jokes.( hope you ppl dont face dese jokes) The drop is good ,you can feel the pressure changing in your ears.They tell you at each point the significance of it .( pretty boring with all the non vital statistics)..Then they took us to the generator rooms huge ( stator n rotors ) r dere .We are able to see that from a distance.then finally they took us up again using the lifts to the place where we had a good view of the dam.All ppl ( mostly indians ) were taking fotoz with the dam ( no doubt it must b the most fotographed dam) .over all the $15 trip was ok ...should have been cheaper( for more info: http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/ ).We then went walking along the dam.pretty ok it was not too exciting.U get used to the hugeness of the dam n get bored.There is also a souvenir shop selling the same old stuff keychains,mugs,tequil
a shot cups etc..i was not tempted to buy that.There was also a cafe (bad n expensive as usual).It was around 2 o'clk we decided to head back to our hotel ,rest n go gambling..We headed back..on the way i suggested we head to the lake mead ( surprisingly, to which every1 agreed!) .It is just along the way .It is like a national park with facilites for RVs ,the lake has good parking for carsThe entry fee is $25 ( u can stay 5 day
s on that ).The lake was blue as could b.We could see pretty daring seagulls ( ???) But the most daring things were the fish .They were big and fighting to eat the popcorns one of the stores was selling.They had facilities for boating,speed boats etc.We did not have time for either of these .As indians we had to take fotographs after that we left!! We decided to go to the strip ( read not strip club ) this is the place where you find the most amount of lights in the world ( what a waste!! My father wud hav killed these ppl).There was still some time for darkness I guess it was just about 4 Pm or something like that but it was really cold. We reached the strip it was just about to get dark.You really get over whelmed by the show these ppl have put on and the amount of money these ppl have put in on this "small" road. names like Ballys,ceasers palace,bills all designed to strip you naked...ohhh now i get it!!! ( dumb me).We toook a ride throuh the whole strip n decided was enough for the day and returned back to the candle wood suits.Day 2 : Carshing into Grand canyon .
We had decid
ed that tommorrows day will be for the grand canyon and decided to start by 4Am .As it would be a long ride of around 5-6 hrs.How naiive we were I got up at 6 ( comm'on wat else did u expect). but we did start by 8 .there started our problems there are two places where we can go ( actually there are N no) the western rim with the sky walk and the southern rim. A "gentleman" had suggested me that southern rim was the place to go as it offers same view of the sky walk and sky walk is costly!!!! $70 just to walk on 7 inch glass !! ( was a bit tempting ,though wont deny that!) So we decided to go to the southern rim .Both was impossible as the grand canyon is around 227 Miles long and the two rims are milessss apart 
seperated by a ravine ( isnt it obvious) .The southern rim is around 200-300 miles from las vegas but we still decided that was the place to go.The problem now we faced was we did not have an adress of any place nearby And it is a huge place!! the GPS could not properly locate the southern rimWe finally could find a place Some railway stn.And there we started 
after making the tank full ( abt $20 not mch).the road to grand canyon was via the hoover dam so till then we knew where we were going! The road was amazing ,no traffic at all .smooth ( hmummm), the view was really good we were in Arizona pretty arid place .It was too cold thats why I did not opt to open the convertibles hood ( though some had wished!).We exchanged driving after every 100 miles or so driving at 90+ miles/hr ,cuz every one was doing it!I
really wud not recommend you that.I could see snow fallen every where! do u expect this from a desert area?.Then came the thing I regret I did.Was driving too fast for my own good sudenly I saw a stone just in front of me!! my friend did mutter some thing ! bfore i could react I was over it!!! oh lord!!the tyre Burst!( m i deaf i donno).We were clocking more than 90 miles/hr.I could rim n lotta vibrations n car going out of control ( front tyre) any ways i did control the gar n pulled it aside! phew!!( well i wouldnt have been writing this then!) .Luck plays its part! we were also not hit from behind where almost everybody clocks more than 90 miles/hr! I though here goes our grand canyon! but spare tyre did come to our rescue.My frnd knew how to change it.I learnt many things that day .changing tyres was one of them.My frient took over from me and we started again towards we lost nearly 1 hr!! we initially started slow then we came back to our selves .We drove for two hours or so till we came to some city .Flagstaff then the GPS really started working ( S alert!)We came to some block GPS "Turn to left" we did ..again "Turn to left" we did..."Turn to left" ohh my god the gps is 
screwed! neither there were mountains nor anything grand canyon like.We went to a 9-11 store.The store man just smiled when we asked him! he said daily 10-15 ppl come here in search of GC .the GPS malfunctions in these areas due to mountains !!! :( and the GC is around 70-80 miles from here! i thought he was joking!(no he was not) told me to H108 to GC..ohh lord it was already 1:30 ( we were driving since last 6 hours ) but we pushed to finally reach the grand canyon visitor center ( south rim ) ( more info ,official site: http://www.nps.gov/grca/). From there on we were not lost.Had to pay $25 for car entry.The GC is a national park.The place is simply for the nature lovers like me.It was snow every where. n mind it damn slippery. 
There are view points after every mile or two.We went to the first point yayapai point.The view was really breath taking.Nothing can be more beautiful.The nature!! oh lord.People were thronging to take snaps and get snaps taken ( why would i be left behind + i am indian ).The 
colorado river was not visible ,that deep the canyon was! 1 mile deep!! the distance between the two peaks was more than 10 miles ( first time in life i saw straight 10 miles ).It is very risky at some places as there are no fences and the snow is really slippery! you could just end up falling 1 mile into river if u r lucky :) ! ...a good place to die ( wish its not me)..many ppl die esp in winters not a joke. The grand canyon it self is a place to spend 4-5 days exploring.There are many trails going down like bright angel trails .It takes around 3 hrs to go down n twice that to come up.During summers there are many rafting 
schools down!These places previously for indians ( red indian tribes not us!).I guess most of them are closed in winters .Summer is the time to go there.There are buses regularly in the park .The come aft every 15 mins.We had our car so.....We saw many points along the way.There I guess we should give more than two-three days.I regreat not going there for long time.There is also a fully wooden hotel seemed expensive but wat is not expensive in states.The foto also shows the colorado river ,the bluish tinge is really amazing .I wonder how the colour comes.The colorado river starts from colorado ( of course!!!) n passes thru AZ upto UT ).This place is simply breath taking..only for nature lovers!!.
We decided to go back to LV as it was getting dark.and we wanted to go gambling! We also had booked for skydiving tommorrow ( I was bit reluctant, not that was scared or something but costs were mounting!!).We went to a MacDz out side the park.I ordered something ,the person reminded me saying it had beef ( these ppl do have knowledge! n not as dumb as we think they r!!).I drove in pitch darkness at 90+ .really scary no lights at all on roads! only thing that guides you is the two strips of yellow lines! but trust me no one expects you to stop!We reached LV by around 11Pm.N went to sleep. We had to go sky diving tommo.Amazingly I was not scared .
Day 3 :Dive Dive Dive Vegas!!
The same night I had got a mail from Sincity diving school that we have a confirmed appointment and we had to come to paris ( casino not the city!) .There was a small van which came to pick us up.A lady had come to pick us up.When we wnt to
the van already an isreali couple was sitting.The woman looked messed up ( the couple!) .The lady greeted us with a smile! n kept chatting with us.Meanwhile I drank black coffee n some muffins which i seriously regret!The jean airport ( not McCarran) was around 25 mins from the place.She kept us telling stories abt how many ppl come n backout!! Then came the intresting part she made us sign some document ststing soo many clauses that i didnt even care to read all! had to sign in more than 20 places! after do
ing that we would not be able to sue these ppl even for thier negligence! We reached some place empty only one building was dere and we could see lots of small planes parked.It was cold,windy and cloudy! over all not a very good day for diving..that i didint know .I could see mountains faar faar away .It was really soothing.Since the isreali couple came first they were given the first chance to jump.all were cracking stupid jokes.It was $183 for the jump $80 for a movie and $90 for a movie+foto.We agreed to take a full thing as it is/was one in a lifetime chance .Now i know with my indian salary it is nearly impossible to take it.My hands were cold i guessed it must be due to the weather I really could not feel the fear which i found really odd as I am scared of heights!They
made us wear the suits but no helmets.The jump was going to be a tandem jump ( i.e a person would be on my back) The person on my back would shoot the video.I had a much older jumper...and as usual these guys pretended they were jumping for the first time.The guy was taking our video as we were walking to ur plane ,a small two seater ( in which we 5 ppl including the pilot crammed like hell) . These guys gave us 
instructions ...kepp your hands crossed in front n legs behind when you jump!! I felt a ltiile bit of fear, but not the spine chilling one!! And the plane took off like a normal plane! the view was simply awsome.Could see the small shrubs, snow capped mountains the view was really breath taking .you could see the interstate ohh! simply marvelous! I think the view kept me busy thats y i did not think of the jump.mean while these guys kept on repeating "ARE U EXCITED?" "YEE!!" we ceremoniously kept repeating.Then suddenly at a point ,my tandem jumper said it was the time! he opened the side of the plane and...Gush the wind ! i simply could not hear any thing and my mouth kept open! He made me keep my feetdangling from the plane ! ohh Shit!!! Shitttttt! Shitttttttttttttttt!! He tied himself to me! he just pushed me and pulled me back! then I got a bit scared, but before i could get more scared we jumped!!!! HeHaw! once we jumped i did not feel scared! The view ! simply unexplainable! too bea
utiful...small ice particles were hitting my face! My frnd jumped after me! The free fall was going to be for 30Seconds ( we had jumped from 3 miles) but it seemed lot lesser! He pulled the rip chord .I thought it ll hurt but i hardly felt any thing! He began talking n same time taking a video! he showed me my frnd who had jumped after me some faaaaaaaaar away! Now we were hanging ...felt i was still in the air! The view was much better than grand canyon! He let me steer the parachute a little bit! Then comes the ugly part! we had to loose our altitude so one end of the parachute has to be puled 
down.This sends parachute in a spiral down! ohh this churned my stomach! he spiralled in opposite direction for some time! I was fully giddy .I was praying that i dont puke in the middle,in the air! LV could hav got good showers!! hehee!As we descended I could see a small van waiting for us ,smaller than an ant,soon it was growing bigger! I just prayed i reach ground fast as my stomach was totally upset! We had a smooth landing...on FEET!! I was stll giddy but i did not puke! my frnd came after me and landed on his ASS! hehee! After this we were taken back to the airport which was around 1-2 miles faroff.The Isreali couple was already there.I excused my self an did throw out!! all my coffee n muffins were out! I shouldnt have eaten! though my throwing off i kept a secret from all!!All four of us were dropped back to the Paris! On our way the couple started chatting with us.they were on a tour since last 3 months.The guy actually came from new zeland n said that was the place to be.Bunjee jumping is much more scarier than diving.( i wud do that one day!).Over all the diving was grt experience! but I did not like the poor quality of video sent.The fotoz were just the frames of VGA! $90 was not worth it!Day 3/Night 3 :Gambl
e all the way!This was our ( esp mine ) final night in LV.We decided to go to all the casinos .gamble a bit, learn new games! But always remember the house always wins! It was cloudy and it did rain We were lucky enough to sky dive as all other appointments were cancelled by the diving school due to weather! We decided to go to the south of the strip n start our gambling.We went to LUXOR the casino based on egyptian theme.It has a huge black pyramid
.On the top of pyramid there is a high powered LASER ,supposed to be the most powerful laser in....i donno! the casino is attached to the Mandalay Bay another casino.There are good shows there ( infact each casino has a show).These shows r really costly ,$100 is costly for me! in Luxor there were shows like human body art etc.We went to the luxor's casino.I tried my luck with slot machines.Putting just $1 at a time.I lost around $20 initially but suddenly when $0.92 were left i got 3 rows! My machine hung for some time from $0.92 it went straignt to $17 ( I donno how !!) i was richer by -$3 ( for the first time i "WON" something ). Since we did not have much t
ime we decided to head to other casinos.the distances between the casinos is not large but the casinos r themselves HUGE!! Your feet take a good amount of beating.We had a car so we used to go casinos in car! the parking is FREE! I couldnt blive my self! Something free...use it! It also started raining. The Casinos have put up a display! trust me you will never see so many lights any where! So much show...It feels so fake! but its really worth seeing "ONCE". We went to many other casinos
. PARIS, MGM GRAND, The Mirage, Bellagio,The venetian etc. MGM Grand is one of the oldest casino .There is a mono rail which takes us to all the casinos .It starts from MGM.The building has a wierd prussian blue color looks very good in the night.It too has some shows. As we did not have much of a time we opted out of the shows.The Venetian is one of the "best to look at" casino cum shopping center.It has been modelled over venice! God they must have spent atleast a billion dollars to get it constructed! The have artificial lake over which there are gondalas.By paying some amount couples can njoy a lot. They have 
made an artificial sky inside the mall looks like day!The mall has all the haute-cotoure brands Gucci,Versce,LV,YSL,Hermes..I ll be their good customer one day ;).Paris seemed pretty sleazy...was not good all .The olnything good about it was a replica of le tour effiel and l'arc of triomple ...now i can use these fotos to tell ppl i was in paris hehee....It had a restaurant on the top of tower i guess.We played slot
machines over there..I did not put much ..amazing restraint...if you win even a little bit you get tempted to play more..My friend lost more than $300 in roullet.There is a show every day at the treasure island (TI) n BTW its free.Its the pirate show..where there is a pirate ship full of babes! in the skimpiest cloths you can imagine!! basically in corset n g-strings nothing else..theres another ship with real "male" pirates trying to overtake the ship.But the female pirates fight back..it is a musical.They did dance really well .You can catch this on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZ2YOFZ2Rs ) The song is pretty catchy.." a little bit of 
sugar...." It happens daily twice ,check out the timings on the site. The show is always crowded and ppl throng to watch the thongs!! hehee...that to free.The show is ok kinda boring! There are many other shows Zumanity is pretty famous ( cirque du soliel - ( cirk - du - solai ) - the french-canadian circus ) is good. The Blue-mans group is epensive n good abt $75. There are also lots ofother free shows just check on the net for them. Bellagio has a good show of water fountains it takes place after 7 pm after every 15 mins till midnight. There are also good rides if you are into roller coasters one of them is the vertical push stratosphere ( should hav tried that it is for $35 ).The area around it is pretty sleazy.For those who like food and can eat all LV is pretty famous for all you can eat...bellagio has a good all you can eat buffet!
Las Vegas Aftermath :
I had a flight to catch to denver the next morning ( tuesday ) I returned the electronic keys to the desk at 5 in the morninig .All had left the previous night.I went to the car rental returned the car and got back to office by 2 PM. no one even noticed heheee.thats wat u call freedom!!
Las vegas is a place to b once in your life time but only once! but there are many good attractions around LV. The Grand canyon is really worth a visit and stay.LV is simply show,sleazy.strip clubs at every corner. If you are a gambling freak this is the best place for u but remember house always wins! local ppl seemed wierd and non polite ..might b i havent seen enuff of dem!
Overall the trip was crammed with adventure, new things, heavy on wallet n other "Stuff" hehee
