Nevada Road Trip - Red Rock Canyon State Park

Started the 3rd day with breakfast and stocking up of lots of food (lesson learnt from the trip to Valley of fire). Then we traveled to Red rock canyon, located north west from Vegas, which we took 1hr to get to.


The road to Red Rock Canyon.


The happy me, proud of the preparation jobs we've done!


Welcome to Red Rock Canyon!


And behold the great outdoors! There are hiking routes in most of the pit stops, but i was too lazy, so most of the pictures were taken near the pit stops :X


The path leads to what used to be lime rock factory.

The lime rocks.


And our wheels, a 5 seater Ford.


We rested in one of the pit stop for lunch (frozen sandwich) and water.
And this is my colleague, the driver through-out the trip, because i do not have a driving licence yet :P
Kudos to him!


Desert survival tips, bring at least 2.5 gallon of water for every person per day, shades, sunscreen, wear jeans, jungle hat ..etc



Pine tress in the desert.


Along the 13+ miles scenic drive.


Rain pouring down, supporting life of many beautiful creatures.

Nevada Road Trip - Valley of fire state park

The long boring ride to Valley of fire state park.

then finally, we arrived!


And we were greeted by an elephant (Elephant rock).


Sand and Rocks everywhere!


and Indian writings ...


Can't remember what these are ..


There are many more to see at Valley of fire along the 10 miles scenic drive (with over 10 pit stops), but i was too hungry so I wasn't motivated to hike around to snap picture. And so we finally left for Vegas around 6pm for our long-awaited lunch (Ok, turned out to be dinner time already).

Nevada Road Trip - Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

Started the 2nd day around 8am with my colleague by stocking up snacks and water at the nearby Walmart. Then off we went driving south east to Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam was build in 1931 to tame (flood control) the silt rich Colorado river.
6 construction companies collaborated in the construction with only 2 days off (optional) for the workers during Christmas & 4th July (Independence Day) . The man power needed were so huge (no known official figures), a city was build (Boulder City, Nevada) to house them!
90+ workers reportedly died either from falling or carbon monoxide poisoning.

Hoover Dam was finally completed in 1935, and it has been supplying electricity (through hydroelectric generator) to Nevada and beyond!


Enough of history! Here is a picture taken from within the car just upon arrival.


It was so windy, one had to grab on to their hat!


And this is Lake Mead (the upper level of Hoover Dam)

The model showing the bridge across Hoover Dam that is still under construction.


Look at the scale of this engineering marvel! (try to reference with the tiny human in the pic!)


Winged man monument and the flag of USA.


We also went on the Hoover Dam guided tour which took us 500ft down to visit the generators.


hm... where is allspark at?


Ok, I couldn't find allspark, at least I found these huge turbines!


We left Hoover Dam around 1pm and drove north along Lake Mead to Valley of Fire State Park (next post). The plan was to get lunch somewhere along the way. But well, we were so wrong, we didn't find any cafe or such, not in some of the random marinas we visited. So if you were to take this route, please please remember to buy enough food because the ride to Valley of Fire would take around 3hr.

Here are some pictures of Lake Mead.

Las Vegas 08 - Arrival to vegas & hotel view

I went to USA/LV for conference again. I was lucky to be seated in business on United Air 74x-ish.

Here are some pics i took, its on the 2nd level deck.


Nevermind the leg room and feature rich chair, what i really appreciated was the table space available on the window seat, im those who likes to have my files/magazines easily accessible while on the air.

The overall experience on UA business was pretty presence. The meals were served in more elegant manner. And they made it a point to address the passengers by their surname.


After 23hrs+ of flights & transit, I finally arrived at my hotel in Vegas in the afternoon.
The hotel's pool wasnt really that great, but at least I do have poolview of the adjacent hotel :)


Among all the hotels in the center strip, Imperial Palace is probably one of most economical hotel to stay in. And the waitresses would walk around the lobby donning those ..em. cheongsam? night gown? kinky :)


Met up with few friends on the first night for dinner and some alcohol @ the outdoor pub outside Miracle Mile to set me in to the city (helps with jet lag too if taken enough). This is also a good place for people watching and catching Bellagio's fountains display.