Mandalay Bay’s Shark Reef Aquarium
The walk from the concierge desk all the way to the aquarium was quite lengthy. And to make matters worse, there was some conference going on inside Mandalay Bay, not far from the aquarium. I kid you not when I say I was basically walking in a sea of pedestrian traffic. Not fun whatsoever.
Fortunately for me, though, the line to buy tickets to the aquarium was minimal.
The aquarium was spectacular. As mentioned earlier, it truly was the best $20 I spent in Vegas.
The moment I entered the aquarium, the ambiance changed and that was one of the things I liked most about this aquarium. It enabled me to be in another world while still being in Vegas.
The first out of this world art/architecture I was greeted with inside the aquarium was what resembled ancient Khmer Buddhist art. I loved it because in general, I am an avid fan of Buddhist art. One puzzling question I had however was why the aquarium designers had chosen Khmer Buddhist art over Burmese Buddhist art. I pondered this because I felt that it would make more sense to utilize Burmese Buddhist art if Mandalay Bay is supposed to be based off of Myanmar. Hmm… 🤔 The second thing I noticed was how warm/humid the aquarium was. I certainly didn’t need to be wearing my warm winter clothing inside there. (FYI: Vegas in the winter is pretty cold.) But the warmth made sense since the reptiles living inside the aquarium probably needed to be in a tropical environment.
