Las Vegas: The Artificial Life

Spent a few days in Las Vegas - spending lots of money and enjoying the artificial life. Amazing that they have built this resort out of nothing in the desert.

The hotels are impressive in a tacky kind of way - you get it into and plan your vacation around visiting Venice in the Venetian, New York in New York New York and Paris in the Paris hotel. Overheard some American tourists mention that their friends told them the Eiffel Tower replica in Paris hotel is exactly the same as the one in Paris. Cringed when I heard that - felt like turning round and correcting them that the replica is only half-size of the original. Guess it's not worth it though.

The most enjoyable attraction was the Star Trek Experience in the Las Vegas Hilton. Since 1998, they have built two interactive Star Trek rides - the 4D Borg Experience and the Klingon Encounter (includes getting beamed onboard the NextGen Enterprise and visiting the bridge). I also got a pic of myself sitting in the Captain's chair!

The Cirque de Soleil shows were also very good but at $125 per ticket, it better be. However, after 3 days there, you have pretty much seen everything that's worth seeing. It's not a soulful place or a particular beautiful place. On the 4th day, we were ready to leave.