Woke up at 6am and had a shower. Apparently they infuse the water with vitamin C - oo-er! I was at the pool by 8am, chilling out and then shopping. Checked out at 10am using my TV - what?! Then went to the bell desk so they could look after my luggage whilst I partied. I bought a huge piña colada at 10:30am, without realising it needed to be finished by 11am or admission would be denied. It was $25! But it came in the souvenir cup which is mine forever. Hurrah.
I met a guy in the queue called Jeremy - he was drinking jaeger and diet red bull topped up with water. Mmm? He's from Canada and has been to Vegas 4 times! He's on his own too. He got in for free too, with my room key, so he bought me a drink in there.
It was lovely to be in the pool in that heat but people weren't going as crazy as I thought they would be. I was quite tipsy and wanted to cool myself down more so I went to the toilets to splash really cold water on me and to use my travel fan. Well, my hair got caught in it. So there I was for 10 minutes trying to tease it out again and now I have a fan that doesn't work and an impromptu trim. I left the pool party shortly afterwards.
I took the monorail northbound but the 2 stops at the top are pretty desolate so stayed on to go back southbound and got off where Harrah's and the Linq is. I went to Caesar's Palace, Paris, the Mirage, the Harley Davidson cafe, the Hard Rock, basically anywhere and everywhere as it was too hot to be outside! At the Venetian, I followed Jordan Crossland's recommendation of going on a gondola ride- it was pretty cool! I ate a big tofu rice salad thingy which was a crazily excessive $12.
In the evening I went to the Vegas sign and watched the Bellagio fountains before heading downtown on the bus to my new accommodation. I met a guy called James who sold me a $5 ticket for the bus (or I would have been fined - should have read the signs!) and told me his life story. So he lives in Vegas, is originally from Chicago and is an avid gambler. He was keen to find out info about me but I tried to limit the info I gave him without being too rude. I asked him whereabouts he lived to which he gingerly replied that he was 'in between places....' Which rang homeless alarm bells. He said he was on his way to get dinner and I kept saying to him i'll be fine to get to my hostel but he insisted that he walk me to my hostel so I just let him because I couldn't find a way out of the situation at that point! I am however impressed with how I did get out of the situation. So it was blindingly obvious the whole time that he was after my money which I was heavily hinting I didn't have. I thought if I said thank you at the door with nobody around, I could be in a potentially uncomfortable or dangerous situation. So after he insisted it was the right place I said I would 'just go and check at the desk' at which point he would have just left if he didn't want money. He was hanging around sitting in the waiting area. The guy at the desk explained how I could get to my room and I asked if he could show me. So we went and I said bye to James who tentatively waved. I gave the guy who was showing me to my room, a quick-fire version of the story and he comfortingly told me not to worry and that he would sort it out. Phew. I unpacked and told Swedish Louise the story - a girl staying in the all-girl dorm I was booked into. She made me feel instantly better although I wasn't all that shaken up, just a bit annoyed at James for wasting his life away and being silly. Sort your life out, James.
Anyway, I slept from 12am-9am and awoke with fresh, beady eyes ready to explore Vegas Day II.