Saturday, March 14, 2009

Cross Country - Sin City, all the way...

Day 6 - 11 March

You would think two people, Engineers that too, would plan a 10 day cross country trip to the T, maximizing efficiency and coverage. Hell No! A couple of slackers, we are. We like to say we go with the flow though. We did "plan" to go to the Grand Canyon Skywalk on the West Rim today. What we did not do was find out if it was worth its hype and more importantly how to get there. We started driving fresh and early and thought and thought about a good way to do the skywalk and still have plenty of time left in Vegas. We finally decided the Skywalk was not worth it ($120 saved right there!) and drove straight to Vegas through Hoover dam.


When we were planning our stay in Vegas, I insisted on Hard Rock Hotel - firstly because I'm a fan of the all-rock decor, secondly because I missed staying in Hard Rock in Bali, thirdly because I make it a point to visit Hard Rock Cafe in every city I go to, if there is one (cheap thrill!). Arun really had no say. But even he agrees now, it was a great choice. We loved the feel of the hotel and the service.

The best part of our night in Vegas was "O", the Cirque du Soleil show at Bellagio. The show was true to its promise "Where all the world is water and the stage is all the world." The show had such high artistic class and our respective interests in photography and theater made us notice very different things. Arun could not help being impressed by the lighting effects, the timing and other photographic aspects of the show. My attention naturally gravitated to the script, the abstract depiction, the props and other theatrical elements.

The artists wove magic as they swam and pranced and flaunted their acrobatics atop a stage that was water one moment and unexpectedly turned into a dark jungle the next. The production screamed of creativity, discipline, passion and perfection achievable only through meticulous practice. Even the way the artists themselves cleared the stage between acts was replete with artistic thought. The curtain wildly flew up (literally) once at the beginning and softly floated down once at the end. This is the only time we've seen people sink and disappear underwater after clearing the stage. The orchestra and singers were par excellence, the crests and troughs in the score perfectly accentuated what met the eye, holding the audience in rapt attention. The show, a last minute impulse decision, turned out to be one of our best splurges ever.

I will not go into the details of walking around the strip into the wee hours. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.


3 comments:

lucky said...

Kavitha Engineeraa? I thought we all gave up that claim while doing engineering itself :)

So far, it seems you guys have had truckloads ..err. carloads of fun..
I am guessing that the pictures here are just a preview. Rest/All the pics are going to be uploaded and shared soon.. right?

Alan Smithee said...

Uh oh.. I thought I was being unique in going to Hard Rock in every city that I visit. I usually buy t-shirts and beer glasses.

Kavitha said...

Lucky: Talk to you soon, have tons to tell you. And yeah pics are coming up, subject to Arun's survival at work :-)

Alan: Ha Ha Ha. We must be soulmates or something :P