The last day

Damn this week has gone fast. It's Monday morning, and this afternoon at 16:35 my flight leaves for London Gatwick...I seriously hope it's not delayed like my flight to Vegas was. Yesterday could have been described as a 'lazy' day, but it was cool nonetheless. I walked around a bit, but didn't go too far. I came back to my hotel room at around 1pm and started to pack. I've purchased a bit too much as my suitcase barely closes (it was pretty much empty when I arrived in Vegas). Still, it has closed...I just hope it's not over the weight limit. I also discovered the monorail yesterday too - oh how I wish I had gone on this earlier...it would have saved my legs the pain and anguish.

I saw the Cirque Du Soleil show 'Mystere' last night, but I almost missed it. Me, being the stupid tosser I am, booked it for the Saturday night by mistake, so I looked like a right tool when I asked to pick up my ticket, and they kindly informed me I was 24 hours late. Luckily, despite the 'no refund' policy, they managed to swap my ticket, and luckily the seat was actually much better (I was now 5 rows back, dead in the centre). I sat next to this girl called Tiffany from Canada who could hardly contain her excitement throughout the show. The show itself was amazing - the strength and skill of the performers was just incredible. It had quite a lot of comedy (including some acts walking through the audience as pre-show entertainment, throwing popcorn etc) and even some of the show took place in the audience too. It was very clever - kind of like the circus but a million times better and more impressive.

So now I'm on the final day - I went downstairs this morning to get some breakfast, being stopped on the way by a prostitute sitting at the slot machines asking me if I wanted some company - I politely declined. It's funny - considering prostitution is actually illegal in Las Vegas (believe it or not), it's right in front of you everywhere you go. There are literally people on the streets handing out flyers and leaflets for them - providing their phone number and the price. I'm kinda guessing that if you phoned them up, the person that comes wouldn't be the person in the leaflet though.

This'll be my last update until I get back to England now - I can't go online with my iPhone here in Vegas, and I am now packing up my laptop so this'll be it. But before I go, here's my list of the best of Vegas...

Best free show - The fountains at the Bellagio

Best paid-for show - It's close, but probably Penn & Teller

Best hotel from the outside - A tie between Caesar's Palace & The Venetian

Best hotel/casino from the inside - Rio

Easiest casino to get lost in - Caesar's Palace

Most impressive shopping mall - The Forum shops at Caesar's Palace

Things I've learnt in Vegas:

I actually really like Mexican food (we need more of it in England!)

Vegas is EXPENSIVE

Americans are very polite

The strip is looooonnnnnng

The 'Welcome to Vegas' sign is actually quite a long way away

Finally learnt the difference between a dime and a nickel

Considering it is illegal, prostitution isn't as subtle as you'd think.

After a whole day's walking, my socks could be considered hazardous material.

Being on your own isn't actually that bad

Friday and Saturday...

It's 9:30 on Sunday morning and despite getting quite a lot of sleep, I am absolutely knackered. I need a holiday to recover! The last couple of days have been pretty extreme - everything from poker to skydiving!

Friday morning was poker time. I entered myself into a poker game - not the type where my life savings could be wiped out in one hand, but everyone paid $50 and were given a set amount (I think $1000) of tournament chips. Therefore the most we would lose was $50. The game went very quickly - for some reason I imagined that I would be playing for hours, but it lasted for just over an hour. Luckily most people were acting like they knew what they were doing, so I just followed suit (I had never played poker like this before). Thanks to a few lucky hands, I came second out of 12 people, and won $100 and a t-shirt. When it was me and the last guy, it was really cool because everyone was gathered round the table and in true American style, were going completely over the top with the shouting, cheering etc. I told the guy who won that it was my first time playing and he said I played like a pro....obviously not good enough to win though :-( The only down side is that I couldn't take any pictures.

With poker finished by around 11am, I had the rest of the day to spend just exploring. I headed to the Hard Rock Hotel, which is actually not on the Vegas strip itself, it's about a mile away (or 2 or 3 miles if you count getting lost...) - it was really cool and the people there were probably the most friendly out of all the casinos. I also learnt that if I wanted to get a poker chip, I just need to go to the cashier and ask for one, and not necessarily have to gamble (before now I had been playing roulette/blackjack, and sneaking a chip into my pocket to keep as a souvenir).

With my winnings, I went to see another(!) show - Lance Burton - Master Magician (apparantly). I was going to see another Cirque du Solei show (I'm seeing one tonight) but they were all sold out, and so it was a choice between Lance Burton (who I had seen on the television a few times) or Carrot Top - a comedian who is big in America, but I didn't really know who he was. Lance Burton represents everything cheesy about Vegas - it didn't have the comedy element of Penn & Teller, and the tricks he did were typically over the top in cheese...but I loved it. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and he interacted with the audience a lot too - he even had about 50 kids on stage at one point to participate in a trick. I wasn't expecting much, but I have to say I was very impressed - everything he did was very slick and even though I was fairly near the front, I couldn't work out how he did it at all. He did one very cool trick where he did a standard trick from behind - he said that he was going to teach us all how to do a trick, and the best way to teach is by showing you from behind. So he basically turned his back on the audience and performed to the back curtain. He did the typical 'enter into a box, put swords through the box' trick, but with a comedy element to it because it showed him leaving the box from behind (but we could all see it because he had his back to us) and sneak into a table. Whilst in there, he was handed a magazine, pizza etc all to add to the comedy. Then, he emerged from the box that the swords were placed in. It was very clever and I can't for the life of me work out how he did it.

Saturday morning, and I had to get up really early for my parachute jump. I had to get to a hotel about a mile away by 7:15am. Once there, I was greeted by a mini-van that took us to a small airport where we all had to watch a video about parachute safety, sign a legal agreement waiving our rights to sue if we died (though how we would sue if we are dead is a mystery to me...). We had to put on these jumpsuits which weren't very comfortable, and then this harness that was very tight. After that, we were taught how to leave the airplane, and how to land. When leaving the airplane, you are on your knees, with your head back on the instructors right shoulder (it was a tandem jump, so you are strapped to someone else). To land, you just stick your legs out and land on your ass - not very easy when your legs are killing due to all the walking you have done. We all boarded the plane, and it just kept going up, and up, and up, and up, and up...it wasn't until the plane doors opened (with a huge alarm sound) that it really started to occur to me what I was putting myself through. I was the last person to jump out, so I had to watch everyone else fall out first. The plane doesn't have seats, but rather benches, so I had to slide myself up the bench towards the door. Then, I was right at the open door looking down, down on my knees. This was probably the most terrified I have ever been in my entire life (and I have been in a situation where there were TWO massive spiders in my kitchen). With my head back, I jumped - and it's the most incredible feeling in the world. After about 5 seconds, the instructor tapped me on my shoulder, which was an indication I could free my arms (they had to be tucked into the harness up to this point). I was free to do whatever I want for about 30 seconds complete freefall. It is difficult to describe the feeling - it's like a rollercoaster, but 100 times more thrilling. After the 30ish seconds, the parachute opens, and you are pulled right up into the air before you start to float. This is the part where he hands you a sickbag as you start to feel really nauseous. The other cool part is that you put your hands in these straps in the parachute, and you can control it by spinning around. Not the nicest feeling in the world when you already feel sick. Landing was actually quite easy and soft - the instructor lands on his legs, and you land on your ass, so he breaks your fall. I don't know how they do it, but all of us landed within very close proximity of each other - I didn't realise how much control you have when landing...very impressive. We all boarded a mini-van back to the airport, and then on a limo back to the Vegas Strip. The whole thing was recorded and put onto DVD. I haven't watched it yet, as for some reason the DVD drive is playing up on my laptop - I'll have to get this fixed by Apple when I get back to England. Also, as it's on DVD, it means that I don't have any pictures to upload yet, but what I'll do is get some screenshots when I am back in England and upload them here. The thought of a skydive is scary, but I think everyone should give it a go - it's such a great feeling.

I got back to my hotel room at about 10am, and actually slept until about 1pm because I was feeling a bit dizzy and tired. This was the first time I had slept during the day and I kind of wish I had done it a bit more, because afterwards I felt great - so much so that I walked the whole length of the strip (again) - amazingly it rained (though only a tiny bit), the weather was sunny but very cool (I was wearing my jacket) and all in all it was a very cool afternoon just walking and soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the sights.

Today is my last full day in Vegas - this afternoon I'll have to start packing (my hotel room looks like a bomb has hit it). I have a show to see at 10pm, called 'Mystere' - it's had great reviews and looks pretty amazing. I don't quite know what I'll do for the rest of the day yet; I'm collecting a shot glass, deck of cards, and a casino chip from every hotel - I only need cards for Caesars Palace and The Venetian to complete my collection, but nowhere seems to sell them. I'll keep my eyes open.

Oh, and I keep bumping into Jerry Springer. It's quite annoying.

JERRY, JERRY, JERRY, JERRY, JERRY, JERRY,

Bear in mind that this is a photograph of another photograph, so the quality isn't the greatest

More pics...

Day 3 & 4

Wowsers...a lot has happened since the last update. I'll try and remember as much as I can.

Day 3 started with a trip to the Grand Canyon. The bus picked me up from the hotel at 8:00am - I didn't have time for breakfast so I bought some Skittles instead (yes, I'm a massive fan) - interestingly enough, the flavors are slightly different over here than they are at home - I think I prefer the English ones to be honest.

The coach took me (and about 10 others - all Japanease/Korean) to an airport in Vegas (not the one I landed in on Monday) and we got on a small private plane and headed off to Arizona. The pilots were really friendly and the flight (about an hour) went pretty quickly - there were some great views on route to Arizona.

The Grand Canyon is something that really has to be seen - we've all seen pics (mine don't do it justice) and videos, but you really need to see it to believe it. It's bigger than you can possibly imagine, and at some points it's a whole mile deep. I'll try and let the pics do the talking because it's difficult to put it into words. All I can say is that you really need to see it to fully appreciate it - it's easy to see why its one of the 7 wonders of the world.

I felt a bit sorry for our tour guide - he was great, but as I was the only English speaking person on the tour, he was only really speaking to me. There was also a Japanese-speaking tour guide (and, obviously, I knew every word he was saying). I took lots of pictures - far too many to put on here, so I've only put up a small sample. I also took a load of video (including the plane taking off and landing) but the file sizes are far too big to put on here.

After the Grand Canyon, I came back to the hotel room to relax and chill out a bit before heading off to the strip again. This is where I got lost. The thing I didn't really realise beforehand is that a lot of the casinios are joined together, so you can walk in to one and walk out another one. I was walking for what seemed like hours trying to find my way out and find something to eat, but it was all a bit hopeless. I eventually found my way back to the strip at about 9pm, and headed to (another) Mexican restaurant - yes, I love food, and we need more of it in England. On the way back to the hotel, I couldn't help stop off at the casino that is part of my hotel. Now, my casino has a little thing called the 'Pleasure Pit'. The Pleasure Pit is basically a part of the casino where the croupiers are strippers. They are wearing clothes no bigger than a teabag, and there are also pole dancers all around them. I'll let the pictures do the talking. (Don't view if you have a weak heart).

Day 4 - Thursday (Thanksgiving)

Today started pretty cool - I managed to locate the 'earthcam' Las Vegas webcam, and so my mum and dad were looking at me on the webcam as I was walking around aimlessly. I also met Jerry Springer - I shook his hand but I didn't get a pic. Oh well...

Today, amongst other things, I saw two magic shows - David Copperfield and Penn & Teller. The day started with breakfast at the same place as Tuesday - a place called 'Spice Market Buffet' which has everything you can think of, and more. The buffet element is kind of wasted on me though, as I only went up once. It kept me going all day too.

The morning mainly consisted of walking slowly towards the MGM Grand (where David Copperfield was), stopping off at several shops and casinos. The shops have a really cool thing in that you can buy second-hand decks of cards from the various casinos - they're basically brand new, but I guess they have a short life-span within the Casinos themselves. Again, I'm going to try and get one from as many casinos as I can (so thats a deck of cards, a poker chip, and a shot-glass now). I'm doing pretty well so far...I'll do a count tomorrow as I'm far too tired to do it now. Before I saw David Copperfield, I went back to the Lion enclosure at the MGM Grand, and I got my picture taken with a baby lioncub. To say she was beautiful is an understatement - she was georgeous, and on the pic she is sticking her tongue out!

I was from row to see David Copperfield. Now, I'm no magic expert, but I can generally tell how a lot of magic tricks are done (or if not the exact method, the general principal of the trick). Having said this, and bearing in mind I was front row with a full view of everything, I was completely blown away. I have no idea how he did the things he did. The most impressive of his tricks was probably his last trick where he made 13 people from the audience disappear and reappear at the back of the theatre. The mind boggles. Interestingly (and here's a bit of trade-secrets), the guy sitting next to me was 'picked' to go on stage. I say 'picked', but it was pre-arranged - but not the way you might think. The seating of the Hollywood Theatre (which is within the MGM Grand) have tables rather than normal theatre seating you might have at theatres in England. So I was sitting with three people; a family from Australia. About 10 minutes before the show started, one of Davids assistants came over and asked if one of us would like to go on stage during one of the tricks. The guy next to me volunteered before I could get a chance to. He disappeared backstage, and reappeared 5 minutes later wearing a newly-acquired red tie. Also, David's assistant put a small bright orange sticker in the shape of an arrow on the stage, presumably so David could tell which person was to be chosen. I thought the tie was to identify the person, but it was actually used for an illusion where he makes the tie dance in the rhythm of the music. He also appeared from nowhere on a motorbike, walked through a giant extractor fan and reappeared in the middle of the audience, passed through a giant plate of steel, made a Derren Brown-style lottery prediction (this was actually pretty impressive), and made a car appear out of nowhere. He also did some close-up magic, including a really cool trick involving a scorpion that picked the spectators card. Very impressive! Right at the end, he was shaking peoples hands just before he went off stage, and he gave me a hi-5.

Penn & Teller were at a hotel called 'The Rio' which isn't actually on the strip - it's about a mile walk off the strip (it's misleading because it looks really close, but because it's so big it's quite deceptive). Before I went there, I ended up in this very posh restaurant for some dinner. Everywhere was extremely busy, presumably because it was thanksgiving. All the hotels were offering Thanksgiving menus, mainly consisting of Turkey and pumpkin pie. This restaurant had lots of things, including caviar costing over $600. Unfortunately I couldn't quite afford that, so I opted for a fixed menu consisting of Caesars Salad for starter (the restaurant was located within Caesars palace, so the name was quite fitting), gourmet burger and chips as a main course, and butterscotch for dessert. This wasn't only the best meal I've had here, it's one of the best meals I've ever had in a restaurant ever. I couldn't fault it, and for what it was, it was very well priced. Beautiful!

I headed to the Rio (a hell of a long walk) but it was well worth it. The Rio is mad! There's loads of stuff going on, and there was a show going on within the casino (free of charge) that consisted of male and female dancers. It was great, especially as it was completely unexpected.

Showtime, and Penn & Teller did not disappoint. They are absolutely mental. The show started before the show started if that makes sense; there was a jazz pianist, alongside Penn on cello to the side of the stage between 8-9 entertaining the audience. Also, there was a wooden box and an envelope on the stage. We were all asked to go on stage and inspect the box, and to sign the envelope (this is before the show started). So I go up there, hit the box a bit, spin it round, make sure nothing is hiding inside it, and then sign the envelope. At 9:00, the show starts, and Penn walks on stage, and Teller climbs out of the box. The only explanation I can think of was that he was in the box the whole time (even though it was open and you could inspect it fully) - you could see underneath it, behind it etc.....I have absolutely no idea how he did that, and that was just the entrance! I can't remember everything they did, but they did some amazing tricks. They did the classic cups and balls trick with clear plastic cups, but even when you see exactly what is going on, you still can't work out how they're doing it. There was a lot of audience participation, and for most of the illusions that involved people going onstage, the entertainment was at their expense - usually a simple trick where they can't work out what is going on, but is obvious to the rest of the audience. There was fire breathing too. They're an acquired taste, but I thought they were great. It ended with the old bullet catch, but it es so carefully done, there's no possible room for them to have switched the bullets, so unless they really are shooting a gun into each otheres mouths, I have no idea how it is done.

After the show, I managed to meet them in the lobby - said hi and got my programme signed, and got a pic with each of them.

All in all, these two days have been great - I'm now about half-way through my holiday and I've still got a poker tournament, and a parachute jump to go. -gulp-

Day 2 (so far)

Wow...my legs are KILLING ME.

The strip beat me - I planned to walk the whole length of it, but I couldn't manage...ok, well I suppose technically I did as I walked over half and back, and coupled with entering every casino and walking round them all, I'm sure I've walked at least 10 miles. I still can't quite get over just how large the casinos are...they are absolutely huge. It's like having the Birmingham Bullring attached to your hotel, plus a massive casino. There's absolutely no expense spared anywhere, but then I guess when they have fields of slot machines, they're making a fortune. I saw one slot machine where the minimum bet was $100.00 - yes, MINIMUM bet. There was also a Blackjack table where the minimum bet was $500.00. These, and I didn't even go into the 'high rollers' areas (I felt a bit under-dressed and under-bankbalanced).

Instead, I walked all the way to the top of the strip; to the Stratosphere hotel. The tower is pretty damn big, and you can feel your ears pop as the elevator takes you to the top. You can see pretty much the whole strip from up there - it's beautiful. What happened after the Stratosphere wasn't so beautiful though. See, what I decided to do was walk down one side of the strip, and then walk back on the other side. Walking back (whilst on the opposite side), there is nothing there, just construction work. This means there is nowhere to go in to enjoy the air-conditioning, and nothing to block the sun. I haven't been that hot since Florida in 2000, and I didn't have any water. Luckily, after walking about a mile, I came across a McDonalds, and purchased a nice cool beverage. Seriously though, it was damn hot (I know my parents are reading this, so I will refrain from using profanities).

Without a doubt, the highlight of the trip so far (yeah, I know I'm only on day two...) is the Mirage hotel, or rather the dolphin, tiger and lion habitat. The animals are incredible. Sure, you had to pay to see them, but in my opinion it was well worth it - a really nice change from the hectic casinos....I literally could have stayed there for the whole day. Such a great experience.

I've taken it upon myself to get a casino chip and shot glass from each casino. So far I have chips from Planet Hollywood, Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, and Sahara. I have shot glasses from Treasure Island, Caesars Palace, and two from Mirage. My list of souvenirs is actually getting quite large now.

I haven't eaten since breakfast - and even then I didn't eat much (I didn't take advantage of the 'all you can eat' buffet). Got to have an early night tonight, as the bus is coming to pick me up at 7:55 to go to the Grand Canyon. Will pop downstairs for a bite to eat and then have an early night I think. I'll try to add as many pictures as possible, but the thing is I have been in Vegas for 24 hours now, and I have already taken over 200 pictures (thats not including the ones I took that were rubbish). I've also taken quite a few movies too - if I work out how to add them, I will.

Next update probably won't be until Thursday night now (Friday morning for you) - between now and then, I will be going to the Grand Canyon, and seeing two Vegas shows, so I'm sure there will be a lot to talk about.

Room props

These are in my room - props from the film 'Lost In Space'.