Las Vegas: Night at the Strip & KA by Cirque de Soleil

3rd Nov 2012

After a hectic stint at work, my colleague and I decided to spend a weekend in Las Vegas just to have a "peek" on our way home. Vegas here we come!

This post was almost 4 years overdue! :p

Our flight was packed with party-goers, hens night girls, guys in Hawaiian shirt and drunken guys. The mood was high and we giggled in anticipation. 

With our last minute booking, we checked into the Riviera. There was a long queue at check-in. The guy ahead of us turned around and chatted with us. Introducing himself as a stage producer. He's staging a show in the strip about something that I can't remember. A group of Asian teenagers walked by and he said these kids are part of his show. Interesting. When we are nearing the counter, he wanted to exchange contacts as he's really interested to know people from different countries. He gave us his contact and said he sincerely hope to hear from us with a hint of desperation? My daddy told me do not simply give details to strangers so we shuffled up to the counter quickly. 

While the counter was processing our check-in, that dude came up again and slipped a pen and paper to get our contacts. Now, it's a little uncomfortable. Scribbled some random number and email and handed back to the guy. Our keys are given at the same time and I told Sian Hwa, let's lose this guy. We hung around the lobby enveloped by the crowd and watched the guy disappear. 

We got lost trying to find the elevator to our room. There were so many paths and each led to the casino. We turned back to ask a pop up counter and before we could ask anything, they'd like 

"Look who's here? Would you girls like to go on a short romantic trip? Watch the sunset at the Grand Canyon or something sexy?" 

We're like, no, we aren't couples. 

"Aww c'mon, don't be shy. It's Vegas"

Phew, we finally managed to get into our room. 

We got a little rest, plan a quick itinerary and headed out for our dinner at McDonald's. Tonight, we're going to catch a show by KA by Cirque du Soleil 

Our hotel and Circus Circus at the opposite

KA was played at the other end of the strip at MGM Grand Hotel. That means, we've got to walk down the strip which we didn't mind with the sights unfolding itself. Just walking down the strip was an entertainment by itself with all the lights, crazy people, street performers, musical fountains ...

Alas we reached the hotel which was under a little bit of construction. Beautiful fresh water tanks decorated the lobby and the hotel was packed! After all, it's the weekend!

There was a long queue at the lobby with casual-smart attires. Guys were very good looking with their suit, shiny shoes and freshly cut hair. OMG, we were so under dressed with our work jeans and shirt. Feeling a little bit out of place and people started to look (or judged) us we've decided to stepped out of the line to recollect our steps. 

Wait! At the far side, there was a queue to the KA theater! So, what queue were we at just now?

Apparently, it was the HaKAssan night club.

that looks like this... LMAO!

Would really want to check this out if I ever go Vegas again.

                    image from Hakkasan

By the way, the show was AWESOME! The stage was like no other. As we were waiting for the show to begin, hot fire and smoke were spewing from the middle stage. The stage continued to expand surrounding spectators all the way to the back - resembling a multi level pirate ship. The performances, costumes, special effects and stunts were on point. At times, I was at the edge of my seat thinking how dangerous those stunts were. Performers were hoisted up about 94 feet flying all over the place. For me, I'll be having a major air sickness making air ribbons with with my puke. 

The most memorable part was the vertical stage battle scene with arrows being shot at the performers (as if being vertical wasn't bad enough). It will be a really painful mistake if the performer miss the cue. The danger is real when a performer fell to her death in one of the KA scene right there in MGM Las Vegas :( May she RIP. 

Leaving you with the official trailer of KA by Cirque Du Soleil