Las Vegas, Nevada
Monday, October 26, 2009
Bags were to the coach at the usual time of 7:45am and we were heading for Vegas. Everyone on the bus was pumped and really excited about what vegas had to offer. We stopped on the way at a roadkill café which is on the famous route 66, Lauren was filling us in with all the history associated as we went. We stopped at a Walmart for lunch on route as people wanted to stock up on some cheap drinks for rooms and with Halloween fast approaching Lauren said this would be a good place to get fancy dress outfits for it as its cheap clothing. Went heading to Walmart I was sat next to Bernadette from Sydney who suggested we set a price limit and buy each others costumes, so come Halloween it would be a surprise what we would be wearing. So we set a $15 budget and went shopping for each others costumes! Everyone stocked up on booze as we had been warmed Vegas can be expensive. Once back on the road again Lauren put a film on called 21 that is set in Vegas and about card counting there which got everyone even more excited. In the film whenever he got blackjack he would say 'winner winner chicken dinner', this would proceed to be used a far bit over the next couple of days
! We got into Vegas around 3:30pm, got changed, had afew drinks and met back on the bus for 6pm. Everyone had got dolled up and I was tempted to shave the beard for shock value but there is no way a razor is getting though now and I didn’t have clippers so left it be. We had dinner sorted at a restaurant then did a tour of the strip on the coach with Lauren telling us about it. We went to a chapel where Pat & Kate got married by Elvis (I don’t think binding but never can be too sure in Vegas!) We then headed to a light show at Fremont St which is at the end of the strip where Margaritas were $1! Before heading to a club that Lauren had hooked us up with called XS.XS is apparently the biggest club in the world but Im not convinced, im sure many of the clubs in Ibiza are bigger but anyhow the club was amazing! It had a massive swimming pool in the middle and had a mix of very strange people which made the evening pretty funny. For example drinks were being served by dwarfs dressed as umper lumpers from Willy Wonkers chocolate factory, also people dressed as pirates, cartoon characters and other strange characters. I met Floyd Mayweather (possibly the best boxer in the world at the moment) in there who I wouldn’t have recognized had he not have been pointed out. We partied there until 5am before heading to the MGM Grand to try our luck. Drinks in XS were expensive at $15 a pop so if I could win some back, happy days. Chris and I got straight on the blackjack and my first hand I hit blackjack to which I started whooping shouting ‘winner winner chicken dinner’ and doing chicken movements!!
! And I had only won $5 but it was the best start possible and the rest of the table seemed to be enjoying our enthusiasm. We stayed there for an hour or so before heading to a café for food. Turned in around 8am. We awoke at 10am with room keeping knocking the door so decided to get up and see Vegas by day, so on 2 hours sleep we headed out to tour the casinos. In Vegas you can drink on the street and carry a beer or bottle of spirit or whatever you want in and out of places, pretty much anything goes, and it was common to see people walking along with a bottle of beer at 10am! People were here to party. Ian and I toured almost all of the Casinos and had a little flutter in the Bellagio, New York New York, Caesars Palace, The Venetian and Mandalay Bay. After playing in all of the above I came out pretty even which I was pleased with as it had not looked so good for a while!!! The casinos are amazing and well worth going to even if you don’t want to gamble a dime. They are incredibly lavish, with the MGM have 2 lions by the gaming tables, The Venetian having rivers with gondoliers on and the roof painted like the sky that is so realistic you actually feel like your outside. New York New York has a rollercoaster going through it and all other things associated with NY like the statue of liberty & empire state building. We had an all you can eat lunch at the Luxor casino that offers pretty good value at $14. That evening we headed out around 6pm to a variety show which was really good. There were 6acts and each was good with a couple of them amazing
. Lauren had hooked us all up with a couple of clubs in the Palms that evening. We had to be there at 10pm and it was $15 for blokes and ladies got in for free with 2 free drinks!!! Hardly fair but that’s how it goes. There were 12 of us in our little group so we decided to get a stretch limo there as it was almost the same price as getting cabs, so we rocked up in style. The 2 clubs were Playboy club and Moon bar. Playboy was on the 54th Floor and Moon on the 55th and both had great views of the strip as it was set a little way back from it. Moon also has an open air dance floor that overlooked the strip which was really cool, partying whilst overlooking the strip was awesome and gave you the energy boost when people started flagging as your like, oh yeah im in Vegas, lets party!!! I was walking to the toilet and some old guy walked past who looked familiar and was surrounded by big guys with ear pieces, but I couldn’t think who he was, anyway later on he got the mike and did a speech, it was Joe Jackson (Michael Jacksons dad) then loads of thriller type people jumped out and broke into MJ routines, I think they were promoting a new show that will be in town soon. We were in Moon until 4am then hit the casino on the ground floor. A Swiss girl called Olivia that we were with won 80cent on a slot a started going mental, we thought she had won like a million or something, but was funny. We got back to the hotel around 5:30am and had to be on the coach to leave Vegas at 7:45am, so after 2 hours sleep I woke up having 15minutes to pack and leave which I just about managed, needless to say the trip to Yosemite was pretty quiet.
Las Vegas was brilliant, but after 4hours sleep in 2 days I was ready to get out of there.
