Las Vegas P.1

Sept 27 - Oct 02nd (Day 207 - 212)

We all arrived in Las Vegas early in the afternoon and jump in a taxi to be dropped off at our respective hotels. Rachel and Alex were staying at the MGM and Tina and I were slumming it at the Excalibur.

From the outside the Excalibur looks like a fairy tale castle. From the inside it looks pretty worn out and tired and smelt pretty funky of a mixture of smoke, cleaning products and food. Our room was not too bad and quite big but it smelt of McDonalds hamburger relish, which was a little odd and not very pleasant.´

After we were settled in we headed over to meet the girls so that Rachel, (A Vegas veteran) could give us a few tips on how to play the slots.

As soon as we arrived I could see Tina eyeing up the slot machines with excitement, I could almost see her Chinese gambling genes clicking into gear! We had a go on the slots with limited success but I could see that it had wetted Tina´s appetite for the week ahead…I could almost feel my wallet trembling in my pocket.

During our second day in Vegas we all hit the pool at the MGM to soak up some of the desert sun before heading out in the evening for some more slot machine related fun. We took a cab to the Caesar´s Palace to take in some of the fake rustic Italian charm and to have dinner at the cheesecake factory. We finished the meal by all sharing a piece of fudge cake that was bigger than Tina´s head….it was a huge.

After dinner we went to the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard to some of the smaller casinos. We were all playing on our own machines when we heard a voice next to us saying, Oh my god I´ve just won $1000! We all turned round to so Rachel with a beaming smile which told us she was $1000 richer. We were all very excited for her, especially as she promised to take us all out the Bellagio buffet the following night!

As it turns out Rachel is actually the luckiest person I have ever met. Aside from the $1000, it seemed every time we hit the slots she would end up $30 or $40 dollars up while the rest of us came out with nothing. It got to the point where I was convinced it was a better strategy to invest our money in Rachel, rather than play ourselves, although Tina insisted this wasn´t as much fun.

The following evening as Rachel had promised she took us all to the Bellagio buffet and it was fantastic, some of the best food I have tasted for a long time, thanks again Rachel! After dinner we went outside to see the famous Bellagio fountains, which were really impressive.

During the last couple of days we spent together we visited some more of the casinos on the strip, taking in the sights, sounds and slot machines! We spent some time at the Venetian, the Stratosphere and Paris. But the casino where we spent most of our time was New York New York. We eat lunch here quite a few times and also went to a few of the bars in the evenings, our favourites being the Irish bar and the Piano bar. We spent some really good nights in both of these, having a dance and chatting to some of the other people visiting Vegas.

We had a great time in Vegas with Alex and Rachel and at the end of it we were really disappointed to see them leave. But happily for us, although we had to say good bye to the girls, my parents were arriving in Vegas on the same day to spend a week with us.

xxxx