We walked around the Grand Canal shopping center for a while, and weren't the least bit tempted to stand in line for a ride on a gondola through the mall, waving at all the shopper/eaters. Overcome by the beauty of it all, though, Somchai couldn't resist asking a newlywed couple if he could take their photo. Not sure if there expression shows they're creeped out by the request, or just tired of taking pictures, but it made Somchai happy. As for my photo, not sure what I'm doing, either posing artistically, which is very unlike me, or distracted.

Across the street is an even bigger hulk of cement, the Mirage. It's got a bit of a tropical theme, but it's understated to the point of dull. It's only claim to fame is the volcano erupts in front of the hotel on a regular basis. It was apparently the first special effect attraction on the strip when it was built, but now it's pretty unimpressive. The hotel itself was supposedly the first "luxury" hotel in Las Vegas, a huge step up from the scummy Circus Circus and the like. I can believe that, but now it's been passed by all the newer hotels, so there doesn't seem to be a point to it anymore.

We spent a fair amount of time in the over the top Forum mall. It's famous for its ceiling displays, which go from morning through night and back again (and again and again if you shop as long as we did). The stores are a pretty good selection, but the two animatronic displays at either end of the mall are silly, although big crowd pleasers. Actually one of them shoots lots of fire around so that's mildly entertaining, but the robots babbling on about god knows what are silly.

Having some technical difficulties, as my posts seem to move around a bit. So I think the Bally's post might show up in the middle of my Caesar's Palace posts, but then again, it might not. In any event, they have absolutely nothing in common, so you should be able to figure it out. Caesar's Palace did a great job of dressing up yet another drab office building with tons of Roman "ruins" and staying in theme. Well, actually, for no reason whatsoever, they have an exact replica of a Thai Buddhist temple in the middle of all this Romanness. I've got a photo with me posed in front of it,but I'm wearing an absolutely ridiculous shirt, so I can't use it. I think I was trying to dress kitsch to get into the experience, but it really didn't work.



The casino area's a bit of a mess, understated and confusing to navigate. There's a transition area linking the hotel and the Forum shopping area (pictured here), where we wasted some time waiting for the shops to open. This is where Somchai became addicted to the Wheel of Fortune slot machines, winning about $700 in fifteen minutes.

We then hit Via Bellagio, the hotel's small but very grand (and very busy) shopping mall. Keeping with the Tuscan theme, it's done up as a Parisian shopping arcade, except everyone's wearing track suits and eating ice cream. After I reminded Somchai that it was my birthday, he bought me a very nice watch, then spent the rest of the morning trying to make up for the spending discrepancy by going crazy with the credit card in the clothes stores. Mixed in a bit of gambling with the shopping, mostly at Somchai's favorite game, the spinning wheel. Nobody ever plays it because it's the most boring game in the casino, and he plays it weirdly by always choosing the number with the longest odds, which of course never comes up. But I wasted an hour on the slots, and made enough money to compensate for his losing spinning wheel strategy.

From reception it was only a five minute walk to the elevators, then up to our room, #33008, which is a good indication of the size of the place, since it's my first zip code sized room number. The hotel's 6,000 rooms are arrayed along three massive hallways that radiate outwards from the central elevator banks. Since you spend a good chunk of the day walking these massive halls, it's nice that they're actually attractive: wide, nice oriental carpeting and well done terracotta patterned walls. The room was quite sizeable, with a great view over the Strip. The materials, fabrics etc were definitely high quality, but luxe definitely won over the Tuscan theme yet again here. Other than using higher quality fabrics, the rooms looked very American business hotel chain, and the beige color scheme never flatters any room. But it was big and comfortable, and with three bathrooms for two people, there's never a wait!

The taxi dropped us off at the main entrance to our hotel, the Bellagio, which of course in Las Vegas means the casino entrance. So we lugged our luggage through endless banks of slot machines and crowds of drunks, but eventually made our way to the wildly discordant lobby.

Since the Las Vegas architectural union seems to insist on a theme for each hotel, the Bellagio has chosen a Tuscan village theme, but the hotel also has to be over the top luxe and massive, and neither of those has anything to do with Tuscany. So it's all a bit of a mess, and the lobby is a good example. There's a beautiful faux Tuscan backdrop behind the lobby, but it's overwhelmed by an extravagant Dale Chihuly glass sculpture covering the whole ceiling like the Blob in technicolor. Then there's the requisite acres of marble and shiny metals to confirm the luxe label, and as an added bonus, our receptionist looked just like Morticia Addams (or Vampira for those of you not familiar with old American TV sitcoms). There' also a huge indoor garden off to the side, with its theme changed seasonally. Since it was fall, we got to see lots of vegetables, and a big wooden mill, just to further obscure the Tuscan theme. Despite the hundreds of people milling about the lobby, Morticia was able to check us in quite quickly.

125. Las Vegas

The trip started off well. I had been trying for months to pay for an upgrade to first, which is apparently impossible because we used frequent flyer miles for our business class seats. Made one more attempt at check-in, which almost worked, and I even got to give them my credit card. But just as it was about to be charged, somebody called and said there was some little known rule that I could only do this with 48 hour notice. So even though there were plenty of empty seats in first, they wouldn't take my money and let us fly in them. But then at check in they just upgraded us to first for free. I will never understand the airline business.

The flights from Bangkok to Hong Kong to San Francisco were fine, but then of course we had to enter the hell that is the US aviation system. Took America West from SF to Las Vegas, "first class", which is of course a joke. Extreme discomfort, with the added bonus that the other six guys in first were all going to a bachelor party, and decided to start the party en route. There's nothing like being on a crappy airline with six drunk guys screaming after you've been flying for 24 hours already.

Since I couldn't sleep, I looked out the window at the desert scenery, which was pretty interesting, as was the abrupt way the Las Vegas suburban sprawl leaps up from nowhere in the middle of this wasteland. And of course the airport is pretty funny, chock full of neon and slot machines. Also got our first glance of "the Strip", which is surprisingly close to the airport. Looked like about a five minute walk from the airport to our hotel, but in the perpetual Vegas traffic, the cab took about an hour.