Innumerabilis

Sidenote: Previously, I’ve always placed the caption at the top of the picture, but now that I went back to view the posts, it seems a bit weird. Hence with effect from this post, I’m shifting the caption/description to the bottom of the photograph.

Las Vegas is pretty near to Grand Canyon, and so we took five days off and went to Las Vegas! We went there by Vision Air, which offers the ride free for Xanterra employees. Well, we waited for about one hour before another Vision Air bus came, which turned out not to be our bus. The driver was very nice, though, and called back to enquire for us. Turns out that they put us on the wrong list and no bus is coming! In the end, the company specially dispatched a small van to bring us to another small town where the big bus to Vegas is waiting.

Our room at Excalibur Hotel. It is big and nice, though oddly there is only a shower but no bath.

At night, we went to walk the Las Vegas strip. Bellagio is a really nice and classy hotel, but it is most famous for one thing…

Its water fountain in front of the hotel’s façade! Sentosa’s musical fountain just can’t compare to the scale and grandeur of the Fountains of Bellagio.

A water fountain inside Caeser’s Palace.

The row of shops inside. What is most amazing about this place is, through the clever combination of light, paint and music, it made me feel as though I was walking through the streets outside at dusk when it is actually late at night! The sky especially is surreally realistic.

A roman-esque statue inside Caesar’s Palace.

The hotel lobby of Caesar’s Palace.

The foyer of Caesar’s Palace. I remember being impressed by how many layers (and how many lights!) the foyer had.

This is a water feature outside the “Forum Shops”, a building right next to Caesar’s Palace.

Harrah’s, one of the bidders for Singapore’s IR, in Las Vegas.

The Venetian, which is showing the musical Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately, the tickets for Phantom were too expensive, even at the 1/2 price ticket booths where you can get same-day tickets cheaper.

Walkway inside the Venetian.

Our hotel, Excalibur, at night. Doesn’t it look like a fairytale castle? Though with a name like Excalibur, I should have expected this.

Today is supposed to be some kind of holiday, I think, because the American flag is flown at half-mast.

This is the view of the flag taken from the swing at the El Tovar hotel. Yes,El Tovar has two swings on a side foyer, and I love to spend my break there:

Today I’m working AM shift, because in the afternoon (at about 4 pm) I’m going Las Vegas!

I went in the post office today to enquire as to why mail from Hawaii has not reached after 13 days, and mail from Kansas, after 10. The cashier took one look at me, and identified the problem readily.

It seems that when I signed up for the PO Box, they took my last name and pasted it on their side of the box. Any mail which does not match the last name would be returned to sender. The problem is, the Chinese convention of putting the surname (or last name) first has befuddled the original clerk responsible, and he pasted my first name there. As a result, all mails not harbouring my first name in Chinese has been returned to sender!

Gosh, what a lot of trouble over such a small miscommunication.

I’m afraid that any mail is on its way back to the sender, if he happened to provide a return address. If not, well, goodness knows where it is now.

The problem has been rectified, though, so you can send it to me now. Just in case, use my full name. (Email me if you don’t know it).

Thank you.