Feature

Never Say No to Las Vegas!

Md. Saiful Islam

As I left Bangladesh in August 2008 for higher studies I had a feeling of emptiness somewhere in my mind. No sooner had I reached USA the class for MS started and I spent most of the hours dwindling between home and school. Time was going fast and before I knew midterm was around the corner. We were planning to go somewhere else in the mid of December at the end of the semester. Some one suggested New York, others suggested Florida. Suddenly one of my childhood friends residing in Wisconsin suggested going to Las Vegas. I was a little amazed that nobody considered going to Las Vegas before. Since my childhood I have been hearing about Las Vegas. It is one of those places that I always wanted to visit. Thus I agreed to go for the trip without giving it a second thought. Through Internet my friend found a very convenient travel package. The package included a 4-day-stay in a five star hotel in Las Vegas and a return plane trip from my city to Vegas. The trip would only cost $283.79. Since I could share the room with my friend I could avail the package for only $ 263. Although I agreed upon the trip I realized that there would not be much fun if my friend and I go all by us. I convinced 4 other Bangladeshi students to tag along. Finally, the six of us started our trip to Las Vegas.

The plane reached McCarran International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas in time. Finishing the formalities of the airport when we reached the main terminal we found my friend Sazzad waiting for us He had already planned the locations that we should visit, and the places where cheap food was available. We had to ride on an inbound Bus from the airport to go to the main city. When we asked the driver whether the bus would cross our hotel he told that it would. Thus, it was convenient for us. After 10 minutes the driver told us that we had reached our final destination and that we had to walk a while to reach the hotel. A Red Indian woman sitting beside me said that I would have to cross the road and take another bus to visit the city. As everything was unknown to us we chose the second option and left the bus. But the path was not ending and it was already drizzling. After walking for almost an hour, I was the last person to reach the hotel lobby because I was busy taking pictures. Flamingo, one of the oldest hotels of Las Vegas, was the one where we were staying. Flamingo still stands with full glory and remains as a silent audience of the history of Las Vegas. We were happy since the hotel was in the center of the city junction where the strip and Las Vegas Boulevard merged. Strip is the name of the famous street of Las Vegas, which crosses the Flamingo road and merges with Las Vegas Boulevard. Gigantic hotels and casinos are established beside this road. Though Las Vegas is famous for gambling but in my eyes it was an establishment that could mesmerize anyone. It had transcendental architectures stitched with the history of human civilization. It could be considered as an ideal city with the best facilities provided for the citizens and tourists. It might be easily called the city of light. Las Vegas is very neat and clean with a lot of tourists moving around. Thus it makes this city an alluring canvas of an artist. It is a mind-boggling city for a tourist.

We all felt exhausted when came to our rooms after finishing all the formalities of the hotel. The trip however had just started. . In the morning when I left my hotel room I took a little breakfast. In the domestic flight they normally do not serve any snack or meal. They only serve soft drinks or water. You would have to buy food in the plane similar to the Bangladesh Railways. Americans are really professional.

After some time we found out an outlet of Burger King. Everyone filled their stomach by choosing individual meals. After having a cheap dinner we all came out in the street to explore the city. We were mesmerized by whatever we were watching in front of us and walking for a while we all came in front of Hotel Bellagio. There was an artificial lake similar to the crescent lake of Dhaka. Suddenly a fountain popped up beneath the water and started playing with the music as if it were a professional dancer. Every tourist on that area was mesmerized with the beautiful view of the fountain. The fountain kept dancing for fifteen minutes. I had never seen such

The next morning we met up with our friends at McDonalds to have breakfast. Then we came out to see Las Vegas in the morning light. In comparison to the night the city was awfully calm; there was no hustle and bustle from the crowd. Tourist came to Las Vegas from Europe and other parts of America. They were moving around to see Las Vegas. Few tourists from Indian origin also caught our sight. Watching the beauty of the morning light we felt even charmed. There are lots of grand hotels and resorts in the city to provide accommodations for increasing number of tourists every year and specially that time of the year because Christmas and New Year were two big festivals and lots of tourists liked to spend that time in Las Vegas. It would be worth mentioning that these hotels were more than just hotels; they were more like palaces. Every hotel in itself is a city. Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Treasure Island, The Mirage, Flamingo, New York-New York, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Palazzo, The Venetian are some of the famous Hotels with the best facilities in Las Vegas. Normally the rent is expensive but if someone can manage a travel package it is cheaper. All the best architects of the world gathered here to furnish and decorate these beautiful hotels. No one can grasp the extent of the architectural beauty of Las Vegas without witnessing it first hand. Another thing worth mentioning is that while walking we thought that the adjacent hotel was within walking distance but usually the hotels were at least half a mile apart and the architects designed the hotels in such a way that everyone got puzzled while assessing the relative distance. Every hotel arranged different shows to entertain the tourists and those shows were a little bit expensive. We were able to see some of those shows. We managed those tickets in the Internet, since they were cheaper in the Internet. All the famous artists from different parts of the world came frequently in Las Vegas to entertain the tourists. David Copperfield, Rita Rudner, Barry Manilow, Lance Burton, Bobby Slayton are among those of famous entertainers. The great Sphinx's, The Pyramid of Egypt, Eiffel Tower of Paris, Statue of liberty, The History of Greek Mythology and Roman Emperor, Famous canals of Venice these famous monuments and more were featured in Las Vegas. There are lots of grand shopping malls in Las Vegas. The city also has a lot of Casinos since it is the city of gambling. Gamblers gathered here from all the parts of the world.

Walking for half a day we felt our legs aching. We also felt really hungry. We were introduced to a British couple in a Bus stand and they let us know that there was a cheap buffet there and if we had coupons we could have lunch for only $4 each. The readers might find it interesting to know that a tourist can go anywhere in the city if he bought a ticket for $5 in Deuce Bus Service The ticket could be used in any other buses running on other roads. Deuce runs in only Strip. You can go in any particular direction with $2 if you are not interested to buy ticket for all the day. We used the five-dollar ticket for the rest of the day. We found it easy to move anywhere in the city. Buses were really neat and clean. Buses were readily available every five minutes or so. Las Vegas also had an amazing weather. In Vegas the average temperature is 67.1 (F) and it goes to maximum in the July to 91.1 (F) and it the temperature decreases in the month of January. Although snowfall is unusual in Vegas, one fine day snow started falling thus ruining our trip to the Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam. All the trips from Las Vegas were cancelled due to the unexpected snowfall. There were arrangements for tourist from Las Vegas to go the two famous places mentioned earlier. In Vegas it is possible to visit two places with a cost below $100. If money is not a problem for you, you can always travel from one place to another in a helicopter Normally it takes 12/14 hours to have a roundtrip

If you want to visit Las Vegas manage at least seven days. Otherwise you would sigh with anguish like we did while leaving Vegas. We could barely tolerate the pain when our last day at Vegas came. Due to bad weather my flight was cancelled and I had to stay one more day. All of my friends left on 19th December 08. One thing I could not resist myself from writing is that everyone has a general idea that Las Vegas is a place for gambling. However, Vegas had an intrinsic unworldly beauty nobody would believe until they visit the city. Each side of the city was surrounded by mountains that reminded me of the stories of westerns classics that I read in my teenage years. Las Vegas was an oasis in past, but now it has turned into a dazzling, glamorous, mind-boggling city. Someone was telling before the tour that people would not know the real America until they visited Las Vegas and I concur. As I left Las Vegas, I kept planning to return to the city of lights once again.

North Carolina A&T State University, USA
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