Thursday April 10, 2003.
I've spent the past four days attending a trade show in Las Vegas.
This place is a popular location for conferences and exhibitions because the Las Vegas Convention Centre is huge and there
are many thousands of hotel rooms here, with world class entertainment available all year. Some of the larger hotels,
such as the MGM Grand, have over 4,000 guest rooms! That buiding alone almost warrants it's own zip code.
My favourite hotel is Bellagio. It's a work of art.
The whole design is so beautifully done. It's so aesthetically pleasing to me. The highlight of Bellagio is
the gigantic musical fountain out front which puts on a show four times an hour every evening. The fountain's
spouts can shoot water columns to over one hundred feet in the air - very spectacular and impressive.
The other great attraction to me is the sheer density of human talent.
Every major hotel presents some kind of world class entertainment all year round. Celine Dion is currently performing
at Caesar's Palace. Magicians and comedians abound. Traditional Las Vegas showgirl performances are given nightly.
My favourite show is Cirque du Soleil. They have two permanent shows here - one in Treasure Island,
called "Mystere" which I have now seen six times over the many years I have been visiting Las Vegas, and I am not tired of
it. The other, which I haven't seen yet, runs in Bellagio and is called simply "O" in mimicry of the French word "eau" for
water, and is reputedly better than Mystere.
My only real discomfort in Las Vegas is from the low humidity
- only 17 per cent, compared to the typical 85-90 per cent humidity of Hong Kong. I dehydrate easily in this desert
environment and have to make sure I drink a lot of fluids. I seek refuge near big fountains and appreciate the dampness
they create.
I'll drive from here to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.
