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-
