Chicago

Here I am, standing aimlessly at Chicago Ohare Airport, without my luggages! WTF, my bags did not arrive with me in Chicago! I am so cloth-less now! First United damaged my bag and not wanting to compensate me, now they loose my bags?! Damn it! Made a report at the United counter and they rest assured that my bags will be delivered to my hotel tomorrow morning.

Hertz provided me with this car and I was like "wow" when I saw it. Hmm...but I went back and told them that I do not need such a big car! Bummer me huh?

This was what I exchanged for in the end - Mazda 6. It's not a bad car at all. VERY good on petrol consumption. To date, I've driven more than 100 miles (1 round trip out to Chicago city and daily stop and go drive in Oak Brook). BTW, Oak Brook is about 20 mins away from Chicago city center. And guess what, I've only consumed up 1/4 of the petrol tank!

When I reached the hotel car park, I just noticed that I had an unwanted guest in my car! I had to remove it out from the car else who knows where it'll move on to and I'll end up with a bad itch.

Valley of Fire

500 millian years ago, this desert was a sea, warm and shallow. Full with life. For 400 million years, marine animals and plants thrived in the sun-lit depths of this valley.

Valley of Fire is a geological park, that derived its name from red standstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs. The present landscape that we see today have been created by complexed geologic process that have been operating on this earth since the beginning of time.

The park is full of rocks of many colors - white, grey, brown, purple, and red. All of them are forms of the same type of rocks - sedimentary. They tell a story of ancient seas & beaches, of times when heat from deep in the earth changed the mantle at the surface.

This park is about 1 hrs drive away from Las Vegas, which was what my adventure of the day was. It was hot! We get to drive around the valley, viewing the scenic route. Stopping by for picture taking at assigned rest areas. Below are some pictures of the Valley. Will post more up once I get home and setup another site as my original site @ myphotoalbum.com has been closed down!

My Lucky Day

It was my lucky day...came across the below shop unexpectedly while finding Babies R Us. I was on fifth heaven. How can I not stop by to have a bite? I've heard so much about it and finally today's my lucky day. I had a chocolate iced creme filled donut. It was SO soft and nice!!

Right after that, RIBS as my dinner...slup!

Vegas

Seating comfortably here on the beanbags while waiting for the next session to start. Just to make sure I dont fall asleep here. :) How's Vegas so far if you may ask...HOT! HOT! HOT! Even when it's 7 something in the evening, you can still feel the heat and it's so dry here, not forgetting it's a concreate jungle here with so many hotels on The Strip.

Have received a Pontiac G6 car this week. Pretty good a car...at first I thought there was something wrong with the fuel needle as it wasn't dropping. But alas it dropped a little today.

It was a bummer that my new luggage got damaged on the LAX-LAS sector on United Airlines. One of the luggage feet came out. UA does not insure that damaged feet and it seems that our travel desk insurance does not either! They only cover for flight delays and lost luggage! Logged a case with UA to complain and see what they can do for me. Furthermore it's a brand new luggage! Ughh...

Breakfast and lunch are provided daily by the conference. We pick up packed breakfast every morning at the foyer before start of sessions. Have snapped a few pictures and the night shots turned out not too bad this time after some pointers from Lee Botak. :D Will post them up later.

Walked around a few hotels here, and the very first thing that greats you when you enter the main door is not the front lobby/reception area, but the casino!! Mine you, each and every hotel that I went in so far, the casinos are packed with ppl! Didn't like it as it was filled with smoke as there's so many ppl smoking. No wonder it's called Sin City.

Journey to Las Vegas

Nothing really special about the trip though...just that I bum-ed into the ex-PG Chief Minister lining up in the SIA economy class queue! Aiya I thought it was he and his wife travelling in economy class and checking in themselves, but it was just sending their daughter off. To US I suppose so..And also my company's MD was at the airport, sending off his wife to somewhere.

Snapped the below pictures in Changi Airport T3. Guess what places are they? Even the guy angmo was so amused with this place and came running in taking photographs!

Yeah...it's the ladies toilet! The men's toilet not like this one ka? Or maybe I should also run in and look see and snap pictures at the men's toilet to see if it's like that too? Wahahaha...

Weather is so dry here in Vegas. Don't like it at all and don't feel like going outside also. I am now pondering if do I really want to go visit the national parks or not as it's so HOT & DRY! Practically need to douse myself in lotion. But a bit sim tia la...pour so much of my expensive lotion, so I ended up using the hotel lotion...I wonder one bottle can last me how many days?