What happens in Vegas gets blogged

I was in Las Vegas for a company conference until last week. And what a week it was.

To begin with, there's the long flight into the US from India. Not only is the flight a long and painful affair, there's a lot to be desired when it comes to comfort in traveling. I had heard that Jet Airways had started flying to the US in their brand new aircrafts and so wanted to know how the experience would be. That meant that I would have to fly, not from Bangalore, but from Mumbai to Brussels and then to Newark to catch a connecting flight to Las Vegas.

Luckily, Mumbai is a great city to be in for me. Not only is a large part of my family there, but most of my closest friends are there as well. So the flight to Mumbai was a nice affair. A couple of drinks at our old watering hole (On Toes at Juhu) seemed to seal the deal. After the drinks, I was primed for a nice long sleep on the flight into Brussels. Or so I thought.

My first impression of Jet Airways (International flights) was that these people were still grappling with the process of flying people abroad. Different people had different, and completely incoherent, views of what needed to be done. While one person pointed out a queue to stand in, another person said that my passport had to be scanned into their system (for whatever reason). After waiting for almost an hour in a queue just to reconfirm my seat, I was through to immigration. This part of Mumbai airport I was completely and pleasantly surprised. Immigration and customs took just a couple of minutes and then we were at the boarding gate. There again, Jet showed their amateur status by having chaos reign as they announced boarding. It took me a full 30 minutes to get boarded. Luckily for me, I had hounded Jet for more than 3 weeks to allocate the emergency exit aisle seat for me. As most of you who know me personally, I am 6' 4" in height and that can be a serious problem on longhaul flights. The emergency exit seat gives me the space to stretch and the possibility to sleep. I think I drifted off as soon as the plane took off. The only problem I felt was the seats were not the most comfortable. My bum was hurting like crazy and that woke me up from my deep slumber. After that, it was a fight between the aching buttocks and the sleep that was threatening to overwhelm me. The aching bum won.

Brussels airport was like any other European airport. Nothing to do, very few places to eat, extremely expensive and generally sterile for my taste. Luckily, the stopover was only for a couple of hours which I used to freshen up and have a coffee. Then it was back on the flight and a long flight into Newark. This time, I could not sleep a wink and so I watched three movies in a row before I got fed up and fired up the iPod to listen to some music. A couple of hours of good music and then the landing at Newark's Liberty airport.

Like any other airport, the security was as paranoid as ever. "Take you shoes off, take your laptop out from the bag, not a single metal thing in your pocket, take your belt off." It was crazy! And the queue was really long.

Finally, the Las Vegas strip was visible from the air and we landed at McCarren airport. Thankfully, the conference had bus shuttles running every few minutes to the hotel. So the ride was alright. We were booked at the Paris Hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard which is bang opposite The Bellagio. Like all American hotels, this one is also drab and with the bare minimum furnishings. For some of us who have been pampered by our stays in Indian hotels, the difference is stark and the prospect uninviting. But we have to stay there for a few days and so we had to suck it up. The reason I am saying we is because we had to share a room, one of the cost saving measures employed at the conference.




Here are some of the pictures from Vegas...




For all the stuff that they have made there (The New York New York has replicas of the Status of Libery, the Brooklyn Bridge and the entire Lower Manhattan skyline, the Paris has the Eiffel Tower, the Venetian has canals with gondolas, Caesar's Palace is built in the Roman design), the city is still fake. Everything there, from the place to the people, is all fake. All artificial. It's a place built for sin and it fits the bill completely for it.

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. And I am sure a lot must be going on. The day before I was to check out, I got a call at 4:30 in the blessed AM (while I was fast asleep) and the lady on the other side said that the girls were heading to my room now. In my groggy state, I asked why they were coming to my room. That's when the lady (and I say lady for lack of a better word) realized that she had called the wrong room and promptly hung up. Someone was having to have some fun Vegas style at 4:30 in the morning. All the best to him and may his energy levels be up. I was dead and fast asleep in a few seconds after I hung up the phone.

When we checkout out of the hotel, we were heading towards the Grand Canyon. But more on that tomorrow. Cause it deserves a full post with pictures and details. But suffice to say it was a fantastic trip.