Pretty Vegas

Just got back from a mini-getaway to Las Vegas. The last time I was in Vegas was about two years ago, and a number of things have changed:

• There are now three lanes throughout most of the 15. Yay! This has improved the traffic immensely. Except, of course, when a couple of cars decide to slow down or even stop to watch a military convoy training in the desert. It took us four hours to get to Vegas at night, and nearly six hours to get back home on Sunday.
  
• Aladdin/Desert Passage are out, Planet Hollywood is in. Planet Hollywood hotel, complete with new logo. The Desert Passage was renamed "Miracle Mile". Funny, I thought Planet Hollywood had gone the way of the dodo. Huh, guess not. I will say this, though--the Spice Market buffet rivals the Rio. Just don't eat the sushi.
  
• Monorail, monorail, monorail! I used to ride this for free. Now they've extended it all the way to Sahara, and you have to pay five bucks to ride it one-way. Sucks.
  

Of course, the traffic on the Strip hasn't changed, along with the bad drivers (there was this one van who cut me off while I was making a left turn. Of course, it was a Pinoy driving. Le sigh). There are the crowds of people (although there weren't that many people on a weekend; I expect that to change once school is out), the people handing out "flyers", and of course the talent. Best talent I saw was dancing on top of a bar, Coyote Ugly style, in front of a club near Imperial Palace. She drew quite a crowd.