Nikhil Kini's Blog

Loving Las Vegas

24th Dec, 2006 - Its day-2 here at Las Vegas and we decided to go North of the strip as we had never been to those casino's before. We started walking North and went into Harrah's, then to the Venetian and finally wanted to see the new casino, Wynn Las Vegas. When we go there, we were informed that strollers were not allowed into the casino.   This is the first place I have ever come across with a no-stroller policy. We left and will probably never go there again anytime soon. Keep this in mind if you have kids.

Across from Wynn is the Fashion Mall. All the possible fashion stores you can think of are there from A Pea in the Pod to Zara. This mall was very busy. I had lunch here and then we moved out and headed back to the hotel. I hate being tied down in the stroller and I made my father lift me. He must have got really tired carrying me around, but he took me around nonetheless.

On the way back we took the Vegas monorail back to the hotel. It was a short ride, expensive ($5 for a 5 minute ride), but hey this is Vegas.

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The Fountains at Bellagio

Dec 24th, 2006 - In the evening, we decided to go out onto the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard to The Bellagio. The Bellagio is one of the fanciest and most expensive casinos in Vegas. One of the popular free attractions in Vegas are the Fountains at Bellagio.  The Fountains show uses lights and water fountains that are orchestrated to sounds of popular music. The shows start every 15 to 30 minutes and run for 5 to 10 minutes. They run during the day and night, but its best to watch it at night. Apparent the fountain cost  $40 million to build and is equipped with 1,200 nozzles and 4,500 lights. I liked the show.

We then went inside the casino  to see the Christmas decorations and it was a complete madhouse inside. There was no space to move. We saw some of the decorations and then headed back to Ballys. The decorations were really cool and probably the best I have seen across all the casinos I had been to.

We had dinner at the Asia restaurant in Ballys. I tried some Fried Rice for the first time in my life.

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Back to Vegas

Dec 23rd, 2006 -  How many babies do you know that have been to Vegas twice in their first year of life? No many I suppose.  My parents decided to go to Vegas for the Christmas holiday this year. Vegas is pretty close to Los Angeles and so its an obvious destination. We started off around 8 in the morning from home and go to Vegas around in the afternoon.  Thankfully it was a nice smooth drive with no traffic or accidents. My mother and father shared the responsibility of sitting with me and entertaining me during the ride.

Once we got into Vegas, it was a complete nightmare. The Las Vegas strip gets really crowded and it took us about 45 minutes just to get into the hotel. Once there, it took another 45 mins to check in and get to the room. This time we decided to stay at Ballys which is somewhere in the middle of the strip. The room at Ballys was nice and spacious and I had plenty of room to run around. I was very happy and excited about the space after being shackled in the car seat for 6 hours.

In the evening, we went out to the casinos nearby.

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Acrobatics at Aladdin Las Vegas

Dec 23rd, 2006 - The two nearest casinos to Bally's are Paris and Aladdin. Paris and Bally's actually share the share and one can walk across  the casinos without stepping onto the street. We spent some time walking around Paris on our way to Aladdin. I seemed to be very happy with all the lights and sounds of the slot machines. Too bad, I am not allowed to touch them till I am 21 years old.  The Paris Casino was nice. Does adding a "Le" in front of everything make it French? Le Elevator, Le Toilet.....maybe...who cares.

We then crossed the street to go to Aladdin. It was pretty cold outside. Winter in Vegas can be quite cold. It was about 50 degrees, in sharp contrast to the 110 degree when I was here in the summer. The Aladdin casino is well laid out with lots of shops. We spent some time at the shops there. We also saw a small shows (see video), where this family from Argentina did some acrobats. These two boys 13 and 15, did this amazing stunt where one boy tossed the other boy around with his feet 19 times in a row.

We then returned to Ballys, had dinner and headed back to the room. I was quite tired and went to bed. What a day!!!

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Bath Time

Dec 9th, 2006 - Its Saturday morning which means my father will be home all day. He woke up early this morning (thanks to my jet lag) and went out to get some work done on the car. Once he came back, it was time for my bath. When I last had a bath in the US, I was not able to sit upright and so I used to get my bath in the kitchen sink. But now I am able to sit upright and so my parents placed me in my bath tub, filled it up with water and some rubber duckies. I really enjoyed this tremendously. I sat there splashing the water and played with the ducks. My grandma had given the ducks for me. After about 15 minutes, I had to stop playing. I am really looking forward to the next bath. Click through to see the Video Blog.

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