Back to Nature

Woke up really late today. Guess everybody is trying to enjoy the calmness of the outskirts. Haha. Decided to skip some part of the national park to get to airport in time. Poor Ranjan n Sosan will also need to skip Santa Monica Beach :(

Entrance of Furnace Creek

We first headed off to badwater, the lowest point in the western hemisphere. A few hundread feet below sea level. It is freaking hot once we get out of the car. The area is full of salt creek and the most amazing fact is that small little fishes lives in puddles of water between them. The view was great but difficult to capture on camera. We didn’t stay too long as the heat was really crazy.

-282 feet below sea level

View of Badwater
A closer look. There are pulp fish in the water!

Road to nowhere

Headed off back to the car. This time I am taking the wheel as Ranjan need to eat. We are so deprive of time that we had to eat in the car. Haha. We headed for Artist Drive. Stopped by the road countless number of times to take picture. Hehe.

Ranjan got on the car!I copied, Haha.Sosan too, but she too scared to stand. Oops!

Continued our journey towards Artist Pallete. The colours formed by the erosion of the soil is so beautiful. Such a nice mix of colour. This is ceetainly better than the grand canyon. Hehe. The drive around this area is even more fun. I feel like I am thrown into a off road race car circuit. Winding roads, rocks canyon between the road, dips, sharp u-turn, you name it you got it.

Nice photo!
Calendar models!
Artist Pallete

Our final destination in Death Valley is the Sand Dunes. Some wanted to try rolling on the sand but changed their mind as they sand was too hot. Still, one was crazy enough to lie on the hot baking sand. Haha.

View of the dessert behind trees.We're in the dessert!
Water! I need Water! Drink Advert. Anybody need a model?

The rest of the day is spent driving to LA. We were looking out for traffic police all the way due to my previous speeding experience. Gosh. Lucky this time everything went well. Thank God. It was 7pm when we got to LA. Did nothing much but chill at the airport and had a dinner together. Sosan called it a final dinner and got a ‘Choi!’ from all of us. Haha.

It is 300 plus miles to LA!

Goodbye my travel buddies. You guys are so fun to be with. So gonna miss traveling with all of you. You guys sure make the travel bearable, interesting and most of all FUN!
Bye papa Ranjan who looks after the group, Sosan the entertainer of the group and Hendrik the cameraman! This holiday would have never been so perfect without you all. Gotta do this again in the future!

Bye! Gonna miss you all.

Leaving Las Vegas

The Maximum Vegas experience is coming to an end. So glad that everything work out great this time in Vegas! The stay was great, how I wanted to have more time here. After check-out, we went to rent our car. This time we were really lucky we manage to get an SUV for the price of a compact car. Haha. Happy!

Our beloved car

Before setting off to Death Valley, we satisfy our craving to shop by stopping at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets. Armed with only 2 hours everybody went their own way to speed shop. Haha. Macam supermarket sweep game show. Haha.

Long road to Death Valley
Jumping for excitement!

Finally we are off to Death Valley. It took us only2.5 hours there so we manage to catch the sunset! The rocks formation is really nice so colourful and breathtaking. The sunset view however, is better at grand canyon. We had a great time taking photos at the Zabriskie Point.

Resting after the long drive

Beautiful rock formation
I couldn't help but laugh at this funny photo
Postcard quality isn't it
Group photo

Set off to the ranch for a check-in. We were really satisfy with the room. Much better than expected. Hehe. And they have a fridge while MGM grand does not have one. Weird isn’t it.

Manage to catch the stars a little before check-in. It was the most I’ve ever seen in my life. So magnificent. Our plan to stargaze later the night did not materialize as we fell asleep. Diaoz……

Still considering whether to upload some pretty funny videos onto the u tube. Hmm should I?

Experiencing Vegas

Since we never explored much yesterday, we were keen on doing everything today. That includes hotel sightseeing, gambling and clubbing. Hehe. Got up round lunch time again. Haha. Sosan went to close her bank account as she was too broke from shopping needed more money. Hehe.

Went exploring hotels on the strip after the lunch. Hend who was super lazy decided to go back to the hotel to chill. (I wonder whether her ordered special room service….) So it was only the 3 of us exploring around the strip. But no before Sosan redeem herself on the act she did on the M&M’s in NYC. See the difference?

First stop was Planet Hollywood. There I really nothing special bout this place except the fact that there is a lot of shops. More like a shopping mall replica.

Then we set off to Paris Las Vegas. Really nice architectures. Took many photos here. Wanna stay here next time when I come to Las Vegas.

Bellagio is up next. Man this place is huge walking around it really make my feet ache. As we got to the conservatory, we couldn’t help but notice how the whole place is American theme. Isn’t Bellagio Italian? Enlighten me on this please. Planed to come back to watch the fountain show at night.

Gosh, is he wearing an air balloon?
Mini Mount Rushmore

We quickly headed off to Caesar’s Palace after that. Ranjan decided to try his luck on the roulette there. And guess what? He won like more than the amount he betted on. So lucky. I guess first timers will always win ya. Haha. I had a great time there seeing the game. After the happy event, we went around the place to take even more photos.

It took us very long to get this pic. Ppl are like queueing up to take photo

We tot this was Ali until after we took the photo. Haha. Blur us.
Spiralling escalator!

Headed off to Treasure Island next. This time, Ranjan decided to try black jack. We waited for the dealer to have bad luck before playing. But sigh guess its just the dealer’s lucky day. We lost, but still the earnings from the roulette is more. Verdict = win! Hehe.

I just love this one
A very difficulst shot. But turns out nice

We wanted to check out Circus Circus which is on the far north end of the strip next. So we went to take the monorail. Man, the monorail here is damn expensive. 5 dollars for a ride! Kaoz! We took it anyway but with a fun pass than decrease he fare to 3 dollars. Still, it was the most expensive in the states.

Circus circus was not really grand but I must say the concept of a amusement park and arcadein the building is good. My friend who wanted to get on the rides decided a little to late. Haha. It closed right before they decided to get on the roller coaster. What a shame.

At that time, Hendrik is finally done with his ‘business’ and is ready to join us. So we took the expensive monorail back to our hotel. Next up on the list is the Cirque du Soleil KA show. I am missing this show the 2nd time around. No more money on me. Sigh! I took a photo in front of it anyway. Haha. I heard from them that it is realy really good. After listening to the CD they bought, I couldn’t agree less.

We ended the night with a clubbing experience at LAX night club at Luxor. Good thing we gotten free VIP passes. Hehe. It was quite a sight, no wonder they call this Sin City.

Viva Las Vegas: The Second Chance

Back to Vegas again. This time I am determined to have a positive Vegas experience. Set off super early from New Orleans to catch our flight at the airport. Reached Vegas at 1pm but only manage to check-in at 4pm due to the super long queue at the rental car place. It was good however, as we manage to get a free shuttle to the hotel. Hehe.

This time, I am staying at MGM grand! Hehe. So good. Felt grand the moment I went into the lobby. Hehe. We were all like wow!. The room was big but the is no fridge. We got ourselves a room at the higher level too. Hehe.

The lobby
Check-in time
At level 25 Woohhoooo!

Set off to buffet at Luxor that night. Not exceptionally good but it was passable. We ate so much that we had trouble walking straight. Haha. Even went to the toilet. Gosh what an embarrassment. Haha. The most funny thing is someone took too much and try so hard to finish the meat. Greedy us.

The Buffet placeJust fooling around

After the ‘fullfilling’ buffet, we explored around Luxor, Excalibur and New York New York. Here are some of the photos taken.

We went back early to rest as we have a long day ahead tomorrow. When I mentioned bout breakfast buffet, Ranjan was like no not tomorrow. Haha.

Colourful New Orleans

The plan today is to experience Mardi Gras. Got up as late as 12pm. What a bunch of pig we are. Haha. We took the ferry to old Algiers and there a shuttle bus waited for us to take us to the museum.

We had great fun trying on the costumes before going on to a tour of the place.

Royal Family Potrait

Oh I just can't wait to be king

Sexy!

We learned a little more about Mardi Gras like the how the floats are made, what materials are used. Basically it is like rag at a large scale and of course with much more budget. Apparently there is actually a toilet in the floats for nature’s calling. HahaThe officially colors are green, gold and purple symbolizing faith, power and justice. Here are photos of us with the colorful and impressive floats.

Beautiful Joker

Mighty Mouse lost his head!



Blaine Kern's Mardi Grad World is fun!

We did a little change of plan as the weather was too hot. Instead of exploring more, we watched a movie entitled ‘Then she found me’. It was a really good movie with strong message. It is also hilarious at the same time. Been very long since I watch such a good one. Only the 3 guys went for the movie as the gal wanted to check out the aquarium, which later she found out was closed and went shopping instead. Faints.

We went back to the same restaurant that we had lunch the day before as the food was good. Very unadventurous isn’t it. Haha. After that we headed back to the hotel for some rest. We need the energy to party again tonight.

Bourbon Street, where the party is

The crowd was less good as compared to yesterday. Still it was kinda good. Bar hopping is great! Someone who missed out on the party last night seemed to be making up for it with double the fun. Does extreme Judgemeister Shot ring a bell?

Upstairs balcony is a good for chilling. Hmmm what r they chatting about?

This Jazz band is good