Back from Vegas
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2008
1
5
22
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Las Vegas,
Nevada,
United States
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday 17th November
Well, I made it back from Vegas without getting married to a complete stranger or losing my life savings in the casino. It was a long weekend and I'm still pretty tired - the fact that it's almost 4pm and still 86f/30c isn't helping, but I'm having a pretty chilled week to recover before I head off for a weekend in Hollywood on Saturday.
The drive to Vegas with Paul and Amanda took around 3-4 hours, mainly through the Mojave desert, which wasn't what I expected a desert to look like - the land was rugged and there weren't many cacti. It was getting dark by the time we crossed the state border to Nevada and followed the neon lights in the city of Las Vegas.
We parked up in Luxor, our hotel (the one shaped like a huge pyramid) and walked what seemed like miles to the check-in. The hotel/casino was *massive*, like a city in itself with loads of restaurants, bars, countless slotmachines/roulette wheels/poker tables as well as the imax cinema, spa, pool and lots more. After checking in, we got changed and met up with Chris & Elizabeth and headed down to the Cathouse, a great restaurant in Luxor with cool furnishing and a delicious celebrity chef menu of contemporary dishes. I had a lamb curry, arranged beautifully on a long thin plate. The lamb was so tender, nothing like the chewy stuff you'd normally get in a curry. We had a selection of deserts (I had peanut butter mousse, delicious) and drinks then headed to the casino. I gambled one dollar on a fruit machine and lost, oh well. The people inside Luxor (and Vegas on the whole) were a mixed bag - tourists in casual clothes lounging around drinking and smoking as they gambled away, alongside well-dressed rich businessmen spending and winning who knows how much... Vegas was so tacky yet so glamourous at the same time.
Later in the evening, we headed to LAX, a cool club run by the same company as the Hollywood club of the same name. The queue was long but we made it in around 11pm and had tequilla shots before heading to the crowded dance floor. The music was great - a mix of old and new R&B with some oldies mixed in. I was wearing my 4 inch heels so by the end of the evening my feet were throbbing, but it was a fun night so I didn't care too much!
Saturday was a long day. We met Chris and Elizabeth at the Bellagio and had brunch in a lovely Mediterannean restaurant that based their menu on olives. I had a great chicken and goats cheese dish, served on a wooden chopping board. After lunch we watched the spectacular fountain display outside the hotel, then walked along the strip checking out the various hotel/casinos. The Bellagio and the Venitian were two of the classiest, with nice shopping parades inside and lots to look at, although the Venitian smelled a bit too perfumy me and Amanda agreed (grandma wouldn't like it!) We passed Excalibar and New York New York which were both pretty tacky and old-looking. The strip was really hot and sunny, although indoors everywhere the aircon was on high, so I was actually pretty cold most of the time, despite it being so hot outside. Towards the end of the afternoon, we stopped in the Coke shop and sampled different coke products from around the world (16 small glasses)... I loved the one from Honduras that tasted of bubblegum but the Japenese veggie juice tasted plain weird.
After chilling in the hotel for an hour, we walked around to find somewhere to eat. As Paul is so picky (sorry Paul) it took some time but we eventually found an upscale celebrity chef burger restaurant in Mandalay Bay. I had a buffalo burger - it was sooo delicious - very lean and tender and tasty - and you could select what sides/toppings/buns etc you wanted, so I had wholeweat with blue cheese and sweet bacon... I'm not normally into burgers as I don't like junk food, but it was all so well cooked and delicious!
After dinner, we went to the casino for a while then Amanda, Elizabeth and I went to see the Cirque de Solei show 'Believe' starring the magician/illusionist Criss Angel. It's newly-opened the the reviews have been mixed, but we really enjoyed it. The concept was a surreal look at Criss's magic mixed with dance, visual effects and drama. Criss disappeared from stage and appeared in the audience at one stage, and did various other unbelieable tricks I couldn't quite figure out how he did them. The dancers and actors were amazing too, although by the time the show ended at midnight I was falling asleep.
Sunday morning we went to the Wynn, one of the newest and classiest hotels/casinos on the strip to have a buffet brunch. For around $30 you could eat as much as you wanted - dad would love it! The food was so well cooked and the choice was massive, there were at least 100 things you could have, from traditional breakfasts to Italian to seafood to asian cuisene. I tried a little of everything and was completely full by the time we left. We set off home early-afternoon, concerned some of the highways might be closed due to forest fires around LA, but our route was fine and don't worry, the fires aren't all that close to us here!
Last night I was sooo tired from the long weekend (in fact, long week) so I chilled out watching MTV (the last TRL finale) then got a good nights sleep. I haven't done tooo much today, just checked stuff online, did some laundry and tried - and failed - to connect my laptop to broadband. There's something wrong with my configurations but I've googled it and seems other people have had the same issue so hopefully I'll be able to find out how to fix it so I can upload all my photos!!
Paul's just got home from work so we're gonna go eat soon, and tomorrow I'm thinking of heading to Laguna beach as it's only a few miles away and the weather is gorgeous. Once my laptops working I'll start researching my next trips - San Francisco and Seattle - to book my next adventure...
