Las Vegas (Day 2)

Was up early again this morning hoping to catch some people back home for a chat. Not many around so I was mostly waiting for the right ppl to come online. Finally got myself moving by 8.30 plus.

Today I figure I should go shopping for souvenirs. Headed over to MGM Grand again. Was hoping to see if I could get JW the CSI Tshirt. Found out that it is outrageously priced and looks like the same quality that Ah Beng would sell on Petaling Street. So opted out. Saw abit more of MGM that I didn't see last time. Think I saw the open area where the Wizard of Oz display was at last time. Now its fully casinorized with a bar and (wait for it....) more slot machines in place of the brightly coloured yellow brickroad.

First stop, MGM Grand

The CBS Store where I wanted to get the CSI T-shirts from. No sooner than looking at the price that I thought it would most definitely kill my wallet.

Saw this gungho lady betting on two slot machines at the same time. Damn keng. So eager to quickly lose all her money.

The not-so-wonderful "Poker Tower". Its just a sleezy bar and lots of machines surrounding it.

Popped over to New York x 2 again. This time was there only to look at the price of more souvenirs. Walked over to Monte Carlo, cause I heard that the casino in TV series 'Las Vegas' was based off it. Wasn't too impressed as it didn't have anything going for it. No interesting deco or anything.

The good side of Monte Carlo. I choose this cause it looks nicer and because the main entrance was under construction.

The lobby is nice, but that's all that is nice about the place.

Water-fountain outside the Monte Carlo

Walked over to the Pharmacy to get JL's Emperor Zerg action figure. Good thing nobody gave me weird stares. Crossed the road to check out some shops next to MGM. Went into this funky place called M&M World. As the name says, its everything about M&M's. All sorts of overpriced merchandise is there. The main attraction of the place has got to be My M&M Colors (pardon the American spelling). Basically there are tubes of M&Ms in all sorts of colors. You pick and choose the colors, bring it over to the counter and weigh them in. You pay based on the weight.

M&M's World is the only shop in Vegas that sells nothing but M&M merchandise.

Merchandise is everywhere and its not cheap to boot!!

The main attraction, the wall of colour. Select any M&M color you want, bring it over to the counter, look at the price and let your face drop. But honestly, it looks sooo pretty.....

Always count on M&M's to deliver a multicolour display to your blog entry when everything else is dull and grey.

I made my way over to Paris Las Vegas. Remembered Kit's photo of this incredibly big replica of the Eiffel Tower. It really is big when you look at it, but no where as big as the real thing. Outside it looks like the Eiffel Tower got magically stuck into a Las Vegas Casino.

The Eiffel Tower in Vegas. It's hard to believe no?

Stating the obvious

Inside in the casino area, one can see the three remaining bases of the tower (one is prominently displayed at the front). There's an Eiffel Tower restaurant at the half way point up the tower. The place is so popular that you've got to put a reservation down first before you can even go up.

That's part of the Eiffel Tower sticking into the casino

Discovered the normal shopping area of Paris. Looks nice with quaint French architecture that copies a typical French village. There are more restaurants than actual shops in the area I walked. Bakeries are a dime in a dozen. Hence, I took the liberty to try a Salmon Sandwich from one (partly the other reason was I could not find any place to eat as it was lunch hour). Salmon tasted really nice though the bread by itself would have done just fine.

Paris has a very nice hotel lobby

Bedazzled by the interior deco of this place.

Where's les Toiletes?

Am I in France??

Bon appetite!

Nice little Deli in Paris called Lenotre

Spongebob may be American but that doesn't stop him from invading a toy store in "France".

I walked along a little further and found that Paris was connected to the next casino, Bally's. Didn't like Bally's, was all lights and nonsense. So I walked out and made my way over to the Venetian.

The biggest slot machine I have ever seen in Vegas. Lose your money in a BIG way TODAY!

Caesar works part time as a traffice cop when no is looking.

The Casino Royale is a small ol casino that is fighting to survive in an over populated strip

The Venetian is a different story altogether. Simply put, its got the best deco of the lot. Borrowing an Italian theme, the casino has its own mini-lake with working gondolas that look like they were transported straight out of Venice. I've heard that gondoliers are pretty good singers and are suppose to add ambience when a couple hops on board. When I first heard people singing, I thought it was pre-recorded tracks played while the gondolier rowed. Was shocked to find that they were actually singing for real!! You know all Opera-like. Truly amazing, multi-talented. Rowing boats and singing at the same time.

The magnificent Vanetian

Again stating the obvious

Fancy a gondola ride in Vegas?

An artistic shot of the poles near the gondolas.

There are so many nice places to shoot that anyone with a camera can pull off a pretty decent shot without much thought.

See what I mean?

Wow, aside from that the inside was fabulously decorated. The shops sold lots of nice stuff (at not so nice prices). But over all it was by far very nice. The inside really took on the look of a working section of Venice, with gondolas passing by man-made canals along rows of shops.

There are gondolas inside too. Check out the canals!

Saw this inside Brookstone (a shop selling supposedly high quality stuff). Check out the OSIM Uzap!! Now in Ang Moh flavour!! Check out the freaking price!!

And who can forget.....the iGallop!!! My gosh, there is no escaping this madness!!

Of course not everything inside is as tasteless as the items mentioned above. They have nice freaky looking dolls for your home too!! Shermaine you will love these!!

Why stop at dolls when you have a whole wall full of masks to look at!! Wasn't suppose to shoot this in the shop but I did so anyway. My apologies to the owner of the shop.

I somehow made my way over to the area where the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2007 was to be held. Could see lots of ppl with tags hopping around. Making me worried since I don't have mine. Will get it tomorrow. Anyways, that is all for today. Need sleep.