Viva Las Vegas!

Welcome to Las Vegas, the fabulous man-made City of Sin carved into the desert of Nevada. Where else can you find the Statue of Liberty next to the Sphinx, breathtaking theatrical and artistic performances next to mindless slot machines, fine dining next to “Margaritas by the yard”?! Fabulous, indeed!

Las Vegas is a mix of reality distortion, time and space travel, and exuberant fashion statements. Let's dive in!


On our way to watch a performance in Paris' most prestigious opera house, we crossed the Rialto Bridge in Venice and listened to the gondoliers signing while they maneuvered their gondolas through the narrow channels. We enjoyed a Gelato and Espresso in a cozy Italian street cafe. It was close to 8pm but the sky was still bright blue dotted with fluffy white clouds, and the birds sang for us.


The opera performance was amazing until the huge chandelier suddenly dropped form the ceiling! We were glad we bought the cheaper tickets, further back! The scene turned really ugly with behind-the-scene staff falling dead onto the stage! What was going on? After the show we heard the rumors of an "ghost" roaming around in the opera's basement. The newspapers blew up the whole story and called this criminal the "Phantom of the Opera". By the way, this weirdo is still at large!


The next day we had a murderous dinner. The invitation said dress informal so we did. Upon arrival we were seated with other guests. We socialized and mingled and soon found out about their weird hobbies! An elderly lady confessed she'd kill anybody trying to harm her puppies, kids, or husband. In this order? Yes! And, she'd use a gun. Does she have one? Of course! Hm... maybe this crowd was to be treated with caution!

Then, all of a sudden, police, guns, screams, blood, and a dead body! The organizers assured they have it all under control. So we sat down and continued with our dinner. This was very suspicious! I decided I need a cover up! For the rest of the night I was Samantha Summer from Manila, a dog fur-stylist by profession, the Alpha Female of my own business called "Doggy Style". As this I went down in (web)history that night, as I tipped off the police on who the murderer was. For my moral courage I received a plaque of appreciation as "Super Sleuth"!

After these two near death experiences we took it slow and watched "O", an "aquatic masterpiece of surrealism and theatrical romance". Once again, Cirque de Soleil managed to sit through a two-hour show with my jaws dropped! I'm a water animal, cancer by zodiac sign and Gambas (shrimp) by term of endearment. However, I clutched my six limbs around my seat as I watched performers climb a rope ladder all the way to the 30-meter-high dome of the custom-made theater just to drop effortless in what seems a tiny little bathtub on stage. Which stage? The stage morphed into a deep pool within seconds and vica versa! Would the artist land in soft water or die on the stage's hard surface? Will my super sleuth skills be needed again? I have a plaque!


The reasons people come to Las Vegas are varied. We had our own mission which we successfully accomplished. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Not for us!

Great Adventure!

The great challenge at Great Adventure is to keep the fun level up while keeping stomach content down. Not always an easy task when riding some of America’s fastest, tallest, or longest roller coasters.

With our “flash pass” we zoomed straight to the head of every line, saving 90% of the usual waiting time (or so they advertise to make you buy the pass which costs three times the value of the park entry ticket). More, we could go two rides back to back. Truly a stress test to my stomach!

We started off with the Superman ride. After being seated and strapped in the seat is tilted parallel to the floor (or rather the tracks since the “floor concept” is a rather vague one in a roller coaster). All you need to do is hold your fist out straight and you’ll fly like Superman!

The Green Lantern was next. Interesting since it’s a stand-up ride. It takes 2.5 minutes to travel the 154 feet (47m) tall green structure “including a 121-foot-tall loop, a 103-foot dive loop, a 72-foot inclined loop and twisted double corkscrews” at 63 miles (100km) an hour. My lesson learned: I can’t take too many loops!

With 128 mph (206km/h!), Kingda Ka used to be the fastest ride in the world before taken over by Ring Racer in Germany. The almost vertical track stands 456 feet (140m) high! Acceleration, up, down, back to start in 54 seconds! The ride is so fast that neither stomach nor brain realized they were upside down. All I could utter was: “What was that”?!

Different from the cushioned high tech rides are El Torro and Rolling Thunder, booth wooden roller coasters. The rides are rattly and shaky but awesome. Just like their structure!

After 21 rides on 11 different roller coasters and almost no food intake within our 10 hours of restless thrill-seeking I called it a day. I wonder if I’ll go to bed with “coaster legs” tonight.

Cirque du Soleil

When was the last time you’ve been stunned and enchanted like a child? I guess it’s been a while, huh? If you are looking for that feeling of holding your breath in disbelief of what you see, go and catch one of Cirque du Soleil’s shows!

I was captured by the costumes, artistic, music, and incredible stage design during Manila’s “Varekai” show. The story reminds of Icarus. Flying to close to the sun a young man loses his wings. He crashes and wakes up in an enchanted forest. He meets various creatures, falls in love with one and…?

The whole story is told by artists swinging on ropes, bending their bodies in the most fascinating ways, or flying through the air like cannonballs. I was amazed to which perfection a human body can be trained and trimmed. I asked myself what kind of personality it takes to push your body so hard to be among the few top artists out there, to devote your life and work to a traveling show, to find your life’s goal in perfection and the applause after a successful show.

Whatever it is that drives them, I owe them my highest respect! Thank you Glenn for an amazing birthday gift!