The day finally arrived where I had to pack up and ship out. I had a mental meltdown around 3 am and someone had to talk me off the ledge... hehehe. It was mainly due to lack of sleep as I powered through the night and trying to zip up the suitcase unsuccessfully thrice. Anyway I took the 7 am flight out to Sydney and it was a tad stressful because it was a full flight and AirNZ announced that they will be enforcing the strict rule of a cabin baggage and a handbag per person. I had three bags with me. So i snuck the extra bag on by covering it with my giant winter coat - which I had to wear onboard because I had no space for it in the suitcase. Sigh.
Snoozed the whole way to Sydney so it felt like a 5 minute trip. Damon's sister managed to get us business class tickets to LA with her staff pass so yay her!! We didn't get to sit together because we were on cheap tix but that suited me just fine.
Different setup to Malaysian airlines. I was smart enough to have my iphone cords with me this time around so I could charge my phone up inflight.
There was a chat function so you could chat with fellow passengers.
You could also choose the style of surround sound you wanted which I loved!
Super cute salt and pepper shakers and no, mother I did not take them.
Food was not as good as Malaysian airlines... this was fish of some sort I think.
Duck leg which was ahmazingly soft.
Cheesecake
Not only was the food quality not as good as MAS, the presentation wasn't up to par as well. This was how breakfast was presented.
I only had a bite of the super salty croque monsieur and there was no concerned air hostess asking me if i wanted a different choice. What the!
They did have a female only toilet which was cool as it has a bigger mirror with makeup lights and they have sleepsuits for passengers to change into. Damon took his and it didn't even occur to me that they were free to keep. Darn it! Oh and I was two seats away from Racheal Taylor!!! First time I've seen a celebrity and she is teeny tiny. I spied on her to see if she eats things and she did! Probably didnt have the duck or the cheesecake but meh. I was exhausted so I slept most of the 13 hours that it took to get to LA.
We had to wait 3 hours before our connecting flight to Vegas so we mucked and got lunch. For my first american meal, I was seduced by the soup in a bun concept. It was awful. Seafood chowder in a thick sour and i mean SOUR dough.
Damon had pizza.
We got to the hotel and dumped our bags and headed straight for Rio Casino so that Damon could register for the World Series of Poker!
For the right amount of money, anyone can look like a poker dick from head to toe. I mean poker professional.
They even had a poker newspaper!!!!!!!!!!!!
Serious money was at stake because there were ballrooms after ballrooms of punters hoping to strike it big.
I had to.
We played pokies for a bit in Rio and I had an excellent yoghurt. Lost $4 and decided to try my luck on one of those 777 pokies. Wohooo got my money back!
Our accommodation package came with free tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil show and it was showing at MGM so we headed there to pick up the tickets. It was part of a casino as always so we hopped on blackjack tables for a gamble. Damon lost and I won $60 wohooooooo... $40 was my own money.
We then left MGM and headed back towards our hotel.... landscape around our hotel. This was the facade of New York New York casino - hence, the statue of liberty and the New York skyline. Yay, I have finally been to New York.
The strip
Ducked inside New York New York and there was a candy store at the entrance with a lolly made statue of liberty hehhe. Note the awesome giant boxes of nerds. So wanted to buy them all!
Made of jellybellies.
The famous Coyote Ugly bar.
New York New York casino
We were hungry so went to the first restaurant that we thought looked ok - America, a themed restaurant. There was a giant 3D map of America mounted on the ceiling and it was pretty cool as it showed the different things each state was famous for.
Nevada...
with New York New York and the Sphinx casinos
and the pokies!!!!
Louisiana
with the scary black magic stuff
Kansas
with Dorothy!!!
And the big apple!!
Cheap Cocktails... the one with the girly colors and flag was Damon's but he prefered mine so he stole it.
Cheers, Vegas!!!
My choice - the very American Philly Steak.
It was good... like lots of snitzel cut up in a bun but nice non fatty meat.
Damon's bbq plate
Went past a steakhouse with meat curing in the front glass windows.
Since we were in New York New York, the interiors were all modeled to look like New York streets.
Who else thinks of Pretty Woman whenever they see a balcony with a fire escape ladder? "Big mistake. Big. Huge!"
Brooklyn Bridge!
New York New York was right next to our hotel, Monte Carlo and for some random reason, there were these Greek (??) statues at the entrance. I didn't think they fit the theme of the hotel/casino but what would I know?
Little kiddies look away now!
We went inside and had to go through the casino area to get to the hotel section and saw this lady dancing on top of tables where people were gambling. SO bizarre.
Tad unnecessary and out of place I thought.
