Why Las Vegas is a big attraction?
As the airplane left Las Vegas, I was overlooking the city in the middle of nowhere and could not help thinking why Las Vegas is such a big attraction to Chinese, Japanese, Indian, European and even American. Gamble, shopping, show and food are the top reasons why.
The human desire to win money and the addiction to keep winning more make this gamble city truly a sinful city. I heard people told me that Chinese officials visiting Las Vegas their tour packages include thousands of dollars of gambling money. The government pays for it, so why not? For me, every time I go to a casino, I set a limit for myself normally is less than $20. If I lose it, then I quit. If I win any money, I quit also. I am not a lucky person so I know better.
Adult show, theatre show, talent show, comedy show, celebrity show and concert are really fun to see in Las Vegas. No wonder if you have been to Las Vegas and you haven’t seen any of them, you miss a lot of the fun. Make sure you check out lasvegasshows.com before you go.
Food used to be my favorite thing. It was cheap. However it has changed over the years. This time, I stayed at Planet Hollywood. It claimed to have Las Vegas’ #1 buffet and the dinner costs $28.99. Who can eat that much of food? It is overrated and expensive. I do like the hotel though. It was a nice remake of Aladdin. My room was a suite themed with Tom Cruise’s movie “The Firm”. It has several pictures from the movie and even displays a jacket that Tom wore in the movie. Movie fans and Hollywood dreamers, even though it is not the real Hollywood in LA, you can definitely feel the atmosphere of Hollywood excitement.
The Miracle Mile Shops is the shopping complex connecting to Planet Hollywood. Here you can find high-end shops with name brand merchants. Why go all over the world to find what you want, you can shop everything at Miracle Mile Shops. I know Japanese and Chinese have deep pockets and they love name brands. Their society is so emphasizing on “face”, it is a status symbol to own name brand.
My client told me that Las Vegas used to be $100 vacation destination for Americans, but I told him that it is no long true. For a 3-night vacation to Las Vegas from Minneapolis, the best package will cost about $300 per person. Good luck to you and have fun in Las Vegas!
My favorite websites
I enjoy reading my classmate’s well-written blog with poems on weekend activities, good eats and nature surprises around us. http://binlipeng.blogspot.com/
I believe 5-minute laughter every day is good for us. For funny readings, go to: http://failblog.org/ and http://icanhascheezburger.com/ and political funnies http://punditkitchen.com/
Ever since I know this columnist, I like her writings that touch me one way or another. http://www.areavoices.com/onmymind
My sister recommended this blog to me. Written in Chinese, the author “Rabbit Editor” has unique view through her camera and her heart. http://ljj520.blogbus.com/
Need a place to share travel pictures, ideas and favorite foods and scenic places? Join this free online community specifically for oversea Chinese. http://www.loopow.com/
Social and professional networking is so big nowadays, it can be fun. Visit my LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/katieqiongdailey2008 or invite me (QiongDailey) to be your friend on Facebook. I have yet to learn Twitter. A popular Chinese social networking site I like is NetLog: http://zh.netlog.com/qiongdailey.
Last, my favorite picture site is Flickr. It has nice slide shows. I have posted my latest vacation photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/25746090@N04/show/with/3775607045.
Enjoy and share your favorites.
A new book “Hunting the world” is coming out this October
A former 3M executive Erwin Brown wrote a new book called “Hunting the world” which will be published in October. The book will be hard-cover 300+ pages covering adventures on five continents over the last 70 years and 130 pictures. The story of connecting with Mr. Brown is a story on its own. The day Mr. Brown came to speak at my business networking group was the day I spoke at a local Rotary club about China. Therefore I did not meet him. However I was very interested to find out what he talked about and I e-mailed him to introduce myself. We made connections right away on common interest of travel and particularly my interest in Asia. Mr. Brown is kind enough to send me an entire chapter of the book on “Transcapspian Urial Sheep in Turkmenistan”. Here is a snippet of the beginning of the chapter:
I am often asked which one of my adventures has been the
most interesting and exciting. It is difficult to answer, as every
journey has suspenseful moments and interesting twists. Life-
threatening experiences aren’t much fun when they’re happening, but
make fascinating stories in retrospect. Sheep hunting is plain hard
work, and there isn’t much smiling and laughing during the process;
but the satisfaction of accomplishment when the sheep is down is hard
to beat.
I had collected the five different species of North
American wild sheep, the European Mouflon, the Barbary Sheep of
Spain, and the Gobi Argali in Mongolia, but had yet to experience a
hunt for one of the Urial sheep specie of Southern Asia. Of all the
species of Urials, the Transcaspian Urial is the most handsome. The
main range of the Transcaspian Urial is southern Turkmenistan and
northern Iran. A hunt in Iran is out of the question, so I arranged a
trip to Turkmenistan for February 1990. Bob Kern of The Hunting
Consortium made all the arrangements.
……
While I am waiting eagerly to see the chapter of “Gobi Argali Sheep in Mongolia”, I can’t wait to share the good news of the book with you.
