Vegas: Day 3

As mentioned, Damon finished with his poker tournament earlier than expected so we had an extra day up our sleeves. We started the day with breakkie at Denny's because we had a $5 off voucher bahaha.

Grape jelly!!! Such an american thing and always remind me of one of my favourites - peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The fresher the bread, the better.

I got the potato skillet.

and a side of hash brown

Damon got one of the cooked breakfasts.

After that, we got another one of the slushies - tropical margarita I think. Not that nice.

 We bought tickets at the Half Tix booth for tonight's entertainment - more on that later. After that, we decided to go explore the area around Paris. 

 Inside of Paris is all french-related obviously.

 Each casino/bar had their own special tacky cup which you could buy and refill with cocktails. This was Paris's.

Las Vegas was crazy for Hello Kitty for some reason, must be the tacky factor... hehe like Ah Here.

We came across a big group of asian tourists. So I took a photo. Just because.

We saw this giant 777 pokies machine and I was gagging to play so we waited around for a long time for this couple to finish. They won $50 so we gave up. Everyone knows a pokies machine won't be lucky anymore after a payout. It's common knowledge, people. No????

Damon licked his wounds by playing The Hangover pokies machine since he identified with the crazy Asian man in the movie.

 He may have won a pitiful amount from this... can't remember.

After that we went shopping in the neighbouring Planet Hollywood shopping centre. Wohooo Stripper Bar. Calm down, I didn't go in!

This was weird. Oxygen Bar & Spa shop. So you can go and suck pure oxygen for X number of minutes or lie in the capsule and water pounds between the layers that envelopes you and "massages" you. Like I said, weird. 

So anyway we got cheap tickets to see David Copperfield!!!!!!!!!!! and also paid $3 for a 50% voucher at a steak restaurant.

The show was at MGM Grand so we walked through New York New York to get to it. Hellloooooo roller coaster, see you in a few days!

What's missing from this photo? Answer: King Kong.

That lion always remind me of Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Dinner was at Biscayne at the Tropicana Casino, apparently voted best steak house on the strip.

Free bread!!! - rolls and pretzel bread. Pretzel bread was yum!

Damon looking surprisingly happy despite losing his tournament... too soon?

Watermelon sugarcane mojito...

Side 1 - Lobster macaroni and cheese. SO sinful.

 Gooey yumminess.

Side 2 - Asparagus with lemon butter.

Trio of steak sauces -  something or other ,bernaise, red wine.

My New York cut. I had no idea what New York cut is, never heard of it so decided to be adventurous. Our waiter said it was his favourite cut. Just taste like normal steak to me but it's yum. Also, note the spoonful of veges in the background. The menu stated that the steak came with veges. Luckily I insisted on sides. Pitiful!

Damon got the more expensive aged rib-eye. He couldn't taste the difference. We left a tip of 10% because Damon said that was the norm. I read the next day that it should be 15%. Luckily we didn't tip at the beginning of the meal or they would have spat in it. Heheheh.

Time to see David Copperfield.

Our seats were quite far from the stage so I couldn't see David's face. He is still the rock star of magic though, with soft lighting and rock n roll music of course... haha. He still does illusions like no one else can. Ah David, you will always have a special spot in my 80's heart.

Vegas: Day 2

We started our second day in Vegas by getting breakfast in the foodcourt next to our hotel lobby.

I decided to have good o' Mackers and obviously I had to choose something that was completely new to me - McGriddles. I nearly chose biscuits but the mcgriddles won. Funny story - when we were young, we had a highly anticipated family holiday in Singapore. Back then we were country mice. I know, hard to believe huh? So we were super excited about the big smoke AND McDonalds because Sibu didn't have McDonalds back then. They already had the breakfast menu back then and biscuits were on the menu. I remembered waking up late one morning and Mum and Dad had gone out but before they left, they bought us takeaway McDonalds brekkie. By the time I woke up, breakfast menu was over so I ate my biscuit and my hash brown. I wanted more hash brown so I jumped up and down on the hotel bed chanting I want hashbrown.. over and over again. Charming, I know.

Anyway back to the mcgriddles.... the only thing good about it was the M tattooed onto it. Basically it is a sweet and salty version of the sausage mcmuffin. 

See those bits in the bread? That's maple syrup.

There were pokies even in the food area.

Damon got seduced by the deal or no deal pokies. Settle down, Ray Ray!

He got to the point where he could choose a case and he chose 7.

He got down to only 3 cases and the banker offered him 445 cents, i.e $4.45.

He didn't back himself and took the deal. It turned out that he did have the 1,000. Bahahah. Anyway there was then a chance to double or nothing his winnings. He tried to double and lose it all. Ok, it was my advice. Shuddup.

We discovered a free tram that shuttled between our hotel, Aria and Bellagio so we went to try it out. Damon was enroute to Rio for his day of poker tournaments so he wanted to get out at Bellagio and hail a taxi to Rio to minimise the taxi fare.

Shot of our hotel's pool from the rooftop tram stop.

We got to Bellagio and it was obvious a more expensive hotel than ours because we were greeted by this amazing patisserie.

These were cakes!!!!!

Check out the ceiling to floor chocolation fountain....

Certainly took the phrase Dark, Milk or White to another level.

There was also a garden in the middle with over the top amazing flowers and decorations.

This was the lobby... we walked past here a few times during our stay and every single time there were many many long queues waiting to either check in or out. Ah the life of the rich and famous.

We then headed outside as the queue of people waiting to hail a taxi was very long at Bellagio so we thought we would try our luck at the nearby Caesar Palace. We were in time for Bellagio's famous musical fountain display

 Random ugly Hello Kitty standing near the fountain.

Right opposite Bellagio - Paris.

Such an amazing day... every day was like this.

 Gordon Ramsey just opened a steak restaurant in Paris.

We walked to Caesar Palace in the sweltering heat and Damon left in a taxi.

 Is this meant to be a replica of the Trevi fountain?? If so, I didn't throw a coin in which meant I won't be returning to Vegas.. heheh.

Fake David...

Vegas is full of these structures. I concluded that everything has to involve flowing water.

Anyway the shops in Caesar was good and I spent 1.5 hours in Sephora going mental trying on and buying makeup.

After that, I walked back towards my hotel and walked past Harrah's casino.

 I also walked past Flamingo which is where Donny and Marie were holding their nightly concerts. Damon did not want to go see them. Funny that.

Typical Vegas fashion.

Loads of impersonators of famous actors or movie characters lined the streets in Vegas. You have to tip them to take their photos. Just for you Ah Here. 

I jumped back on the tram but got off at Aria, the newest mall in Vegas. It was full of branded designers.. none of which I could buy so I left pretty quickly.

My hotel..

I then wandered along the strip opposite my hotel.

Went to the coke store where all things coke were sold.

 Anything you can think of, had the coke icon slapped onto it.

Coke handbags?

Same thing at the M&M store.

Andrew would love these.

WALLS OF M&MS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the humour of M&M's ads.

 Daytime shots of the strip

Damon unfortunately lost and came back early. So we went to Aria in search of food. The restaurants there were expensive so we didn't eat there... but I did come across another expensive patisserie with awesome displays of sweets.

This dragon made entirely of chocolate was AMAZING.

On the way back to the foodcourt at our hotel, we saw this lady. I kept wanting to take her photos but she ended up behind us so I couldn't do it. But she decided to speed ahead of us, therefore basically begging me to take her photo. So I did. Enjoy.

Dinner was one of these omnipresent alcoholic slushie - Mango Mojito... except the thing is all ice so there was no alcoholic taste at all. Just the way I like them.

 Shop behind me sold all things candy-related. Sigh.... my kind of shop.

I rounded off dinner with a slice of pizza. I like my pizza plain where possible.