Sin City

There is no place like Las Vegas. Atlantic City, Reno, Macao? Pale imitations all! I have visited 'Sin City' at least six times now. The first time, I was participating in what was then the largest technology fair on Earth: Comdex.

The days belonged to the hordes of visitors that crowded the our pavillion (I was working for a small startup and demo'ing our hot new software product here). The evenings and nights were an endless stream of jangling slot machines, sizzling Vegas shows, huge frozen margaritas, and long walks from one mammoth hotel to another.

I don't think we slept much during that week at Vegas. I stayed at the Circus Circus, which is at one end of the Strip. BTW, key scenes in the James Bond movie, Diamonds are Forever, were shot in the live circus area in the middle of this hotel.

The next few times I was here were all for conferences, but the evenings and nights were filled with fun activity. Whenever, I have come back here, I find a new hotel or entertainment that wasn't there before. In fact, The Venetian wasn't even built when I first came to Vegas; there was another hotel in its place.

I have stayed at the Rio Suites, Treasure Island and most recently at the Venetian, which boasts of the largest standard hotel room in the world, antique-style bathroom and canopy beds. I have watched Cirque du Soleil's Mystere and Ka, two of the most awesome shows on earth (if you haven't seen one of Cirque du Soleil's shows, you are missing something; I still haven't seen 'O' which is their most popular one now and plays at the Bellagio). At Vegas, I have also eaten in the most unusual settings and tried the most lavish buffets ever! And this is only the list of those activities I am willing to put up on my blog. :)

There's an excellent series of articles at MSNBC describing the many sinful pleasures at Las Vegas:

On the sexy shows that sizzle in the Strip: ‘The Crazy Horse Paris’ at MGM is by far the sexiest, most chic revue in all of Las Vegas. The girls, who are mainly French and Russian ex-ballerinas, have incredible dance talent and exotic beauty. They keep the ideal of the ‘glorified girl’ alive. I have never seen another Vegas revue that manages to create such mystique, glamour and sex appeal.” ...Read More.

On getting swanky in Sin City: "Mammoth hotels with 24-hour casinos. Red-hot celebrity chefs. Luxury shopping. Endless entertainment. Shamelessly lavish hotel suites. Just another day in Sin City" ...Read More.

Also check out Forbes' slide-shows of the Top Ten nightclubs, sexiest revues, and best restaurants at Las Vegas.

The pictures here are from my Vegas trips in 2003 and 2006 at the Paris, Bally's, Ceaser's Palace, and the Bellagio hotels.

Travel+Leisure has another excellent feature on how to hit the best spots in town in a single day for under $250.

I remember a funny incident when we the city was filled with attendees from the computer software industry for a large conference. As some of us strolled down the Strip, a tout offered to turn our "software into hardware", and even before we had figured out what he was trying to say, he had pushed cards with pictures of adult entertainers with their phone numbers into our hands!