cali-vegas day 9 vegas to cleveland

Saturday, September 23, 2006

So it was time to go back to cleveland.. For me, to go back to work but for pb, is go there and holiday summore bleahh. After the 'o' show the night b4 we were supposed to go gamble [notice we hafn't gambled yet] but we fell asleep as usual.. only wakin up at 5+. Haha.. go vegas never gamble very loser right, so we hurriedly washed up and packed our stuff, leaving one hour to go hit the tables!

I didn't dare to play at the table cos dunno the rules man so I happily wasted $12 on jackpot machines. I hate slot machines cos its like throwing your money away but oh well, at least i can say i gambled in vegas!!! pb was smarter, he played blackjack and was winning until he lost at the last game [doesnt that sound familiar] but at least he didn't lose any money over all..

We managed to catch 1 hour of play, b4 rushing down to the airport which was very near lah.

pb says bye to his ford taurus

Haha, never play enough. I love the effect of this photo, with the pple behind blurred! Btw this photo was taken in the airport!! Crazy right, scared never gamble enough ah, come airport still gamble.. tsk! The airport must be pretty rich!

I had a bk omelette something sandwich which was fabulous, and pb had a pizza hut pizza which was boring. Oh, the dustbins at the airport are quite cool as well, as you go near, they swing open for your rubbish, and after you throw your rubbish, it closes shut and says thank you! So cute lah!

our first flight together! JY and ameek were there to fetch us with my champagne gold taurus!

Well after putting our things down and having our ribs welcome-back dinner prepared by YL, we drove downtown.. it got really dark though and well, downtown was just boring.. so i just made him see the rock n roll hall of fame just for the sake of it.

cali-vegas day 8 at vegas

Friday, September 22, 2006

Nearing the end of our first overseas trip together (m'sia is not overSEAs, right). After ren3ing for so long, finally is time to go shopping at the outlets! Turned out that the outlets were very very near our place. In fact, in our search for Mac donald's breakfast (haha, still craving for it but very loserishly couldn't find a macs with proper parking) we actually passed by the outlets without knowing it.

Well, most of the shopping was for pb to bring back.. So I helped him shop.. which is fun cos I dont have to pay and I get to shop! I like!

About everyone there was carrying a coach paperbag.. but I still can't seem to find something i like.. I feel that it is overrated lah, can't bring myself to pay so much for a bag. But to save my own backside shld i buy one in the future, yes i still might buy one before going back to spore so that i can use it! whee!

We shopped so much that we were late for our dinner reservations at 7.15. Haha. Had to rush back to change and then rush down to the Bellagio.

tried to dress up a little, for the fun of it and so that as sahi says, people would treat you better

Todd's English Olives, even the bread also give you olives to eat with.. too bad i'm not a fan of olives. Picture taken with no flash cos paiseh.. machiam never go restaurant and eat before. haha. Actually the place was pretty casual, it was very dark and very noisy cos evryone had had a cocktail or 2. Dress code was business casual but if u wear berms or what they don't really care I think. I'd reserved a table, preferably with a view of the Bellagio fountains [which is one of the main reasons i wanted to eat there]. But so dumb dunno why the reservations screwed up and somehow the waitress cldn't find our reservation, but thank goodness she gave us a table anyway. It was very packed! Didn't get a view of the fountains though.

Foie gras. Actually I came here cos this place was mentioned by xiaxue, so I am a total copycat. eat the same thing summore haha. Never tried this b4, and I can't say I love it. It's pretty nice the way it melts in your mouth, but it tastes very much just like lots of fat to me.

beef with carrot sauce, stewed to tender perfection.

pasta with lamb. water for both of us, bolui to buy alcohol. Also freaked out by the hard rock steak incident.

After a nice but expensive dinner, we walked out to enjoy the Bellagio fountains. I loved it! It's definitely another of the highlights of my tour. They play every 15 minutes or so, and each time they play a different song.. Well initially I thought they couldn't be all that great, cos they don't have like those bright laser lights and fireballs and stuff [as compared to sentosa] plus its free so probably nothing much right.. But I was wrong, I really enjoyed it. I really felt like the fountains were dancing to the music with emotions, and it was so, so romantic. Loads of kissing couples by the fountains haha! pb was like, 'huh they cannot stop kissing one ah'. heehee. It was freezing cold that night, however, and over my white blazer, i still wore pb's coat which he gentlemanly draped across my shoulders.. haha.. so cliche hor, but i rike. =)

Our 'O' show by Cirque Du Soleil was at 10.30pm so we managed to catch about 3 songs at the fountain before we trotted into the warmth of the Bellagio.

The ceiling of the theatre at the beginning of the show, taken before I got chastised by a lady on duty. I hate it when they say no flash photography and they don't even let you take photos without flash. Can't they just say 'no photography at all allowed! none at all!!'. See the structure in the middle? A girl was lowered from there..

The show was beautiful.. very arty farty, dunno what the hell was going on, but it was very enjoyable, especially the pool in the middle which could transform between a diving pool and a stage.. Quite worried that the acrobat may dive in and find that it was a hard stage!! Read that there are like lots of little holes in the platform such that it could shift up and down while allowing the water to stay there. The temperature of the water is also kept constant, and the actors' costumes are changed quite often due to wear and tear!

The 'O' (which is, a play on the french word for water, eau) show was fantastic, very special and wuhua (haha!) cos you get to see acrobats in the air, gymnastics, dancing, synchronized swimming, diving stunts, interesting hair and makeup, and clowns all in one show!

My favourite scene was when these men in red trenchcoats circled down from the ceiling on carousel like horses and then they reached the water, after which they circled with the horses floating on the water.. so beautiful. My least favourite part of the show were the 2 silly clowns who weren't funny at all, I actually almost fell asleep at one point where the 2 clowns were around and taking quite a lot of time [while the rest of the acrobats were changing and getting ready for the next scene I suppose].

cali-vegas day 7 at grand canyon

Time for one of the 7 wonders of da world.. The main highlight of the trip! I had booked a day tour to the Grand Canyon so that we don't have to drive until so tired [5~6 hours journey!]. We were supposed to meet up at what, 6am at the Golden Nugget, which is within walkable distance from our hotel.. And being us, we reached at 6.15 after running all the way down to see a lil van labeled 'Vision Air' waiting around. I had assumed there would be a big tour bus with 'Look Tours' printed on it cos that's who I booked my tickets from. A little while later the Vision Air van left and I fished out my e-ticket and realised that... we had just missed our van. Poor pawsieboy ran after the van but er, unlike in the movies, he couldn't catch up with the van obviously.

So... our trip was cancelled and we went back to the hotel room to sleep.

Heh heh, of course not lah. Thanks to wonders of technology we called up the Look Tours hotline and they got the Vision air van to come back for us.. i hate being late especially in US cos evryone is usually effortlessly punctual. sigh.

I sat in between an african american guy in a diver suit (?!) and pb.. and I realised how squeezy it was.. I was wondering how we were gonna endure such a long trip in such a small van, when it stopped at the vision air office.

yuan lai it only took us to the office to settle our bills.. haha. At which i bought our coffees, and then finally loaded up a nice normal tour bus after they handed us our tour stickers and a lil box of snacks (apple, bread, drink)

The driver was damnnn funny and brimming with lame jokes. He just couldn't stop and it was hilarious hahaha.

the white sticker sooo touristy right. haha. but it was very helpful in determining whether ur fellow tour pple are still hanging around in the toilet/souvenir shops and whether u should be bolting back to the bus or it will leave soon. we stopped at some gas station where pb happily bought a subway meatball sandwich which was rapidly gulped down.

pb-who-likes-to-take-with-signs

We first stopped at hoover dam. The route here is kinda scary.. windy roads and high cliffs and the driver had to go really slowly. see pb's brand new a&f shirt-which-looks-like-townbear's-old-old-polo

On the way to lunch, the bus driver played the phantom of the opera [the movie] for us. My first time watching the show, i found it really weird man. but i enjoyed most of the songs and they were stuck in my head for a week after that day.

After a long long time, it was what, 12+ when we finally stopped at some inn at Tusyan for a buffet lunch. The lunch was damn crappy but oh well it filled our tummies.

at 1+...

awesome.

we stopped at 2 points for an hour each. At the first point, we heard a couple speaking in mandarin. It sounded kinda familiar, like you know it wasn't prc chinese. and we listened a bit more, and realised they also mixed english in. and then we knew.. confirm sporean. haha. It feels good to hear sporean voices after so long. and it is so distinctive, cos their english cannot make it, chinese also cannot make it. haha!! When they offered to help take photos for us, I asked them if they were sporean and they were like, ya. but i was quite sian diao cos they weren't as friendly as i would have expected them to be. i mean, make some small talk what i so excited. haha. when i offered to help them take photo the guy was like 'no, we're just colleagues'. like wth colleagues cannot take photo meh.. full of shit.

at the 2nd point, the view looked very much the same after a while so we spent some time buying souvenirs. pb really wanted to eat the dreyers icecream but luckily the queue was too long and we didn't have time.

=)

On the way back, they played 50 first dates. Even though I've watched it b4, I still thoroughly enjoyed the whole show.. and this is stupid but i sobbed at the end of the show. dunno what is wrong with me nowadays watch movies always cry. fever pitch, 50 first dates, and others la. and it's the sobbing kind of crying.. either im watching too much cable or i must be crazy.

the most beautiful cotton candy skies i've ever seen my whole life.

i wished i could just get out of the bus and lie on the grass and watch these clouds roll by.

cali-vegas day 6 at vegas

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Wednesday was reserved for visiting all the hotels! Even though we were craving for some shopping-action, we forced ourselves to go check out some hotels first, if not later they all very nice and then we regret when there's not enough time to see them all.. We were desperately looking for a McDonalds for breakfast [i was that impressed by their mcGriddle] but we cldn't find one with proper parking =(

New York New York Hotel

We drove to the middle of the strip this time, and parked at New York New York hotel. This was a cute place, it had the skyline of NYC, even had statue of liberty and a rollercoaster! too bad the rollrecoaster was 'closed due to high winds' dunno real or not.. doesn't seem like any of these hotel roller coasters are really open at all.

The little foodcourt inside is like a lil street in NYC.. cute!

our macs breakfast was replaced by his msg-filled crappy 'chinese food' and my southern catfish served with fries and hush puppies. Well, at least i learnt what hush puppies were. I never knew they were edible. Actually i still dunno what they are but at least I can say I ate them!

Unfortunately, pb lost his raybans here.. We went to the security and they had a box for lost sunglasses, but it was empty. =( When we came back later to get our car, we checked by the security again, it was another guard, who slowly pulled out the box and put his hand in... And then told us it was empty. Bloody hell cheat us I actually thought it was actually there! boo.

We then crossed over the bridge to MGM Grand to have a better view of the NYNY hotel...

nice hor?

MGM Grand Hotel

grand anot?

cutest cubs!! sleepy like their parents.

more sleepy lions. they are the laziest animals ever. sleep in san diego, sleep in vegas.

The Meadows

By then, we were done with hotels. There were a few more, but ah heck it. Maybe later. It was time for some shopping! We drove quite a distance to a mall called The Meadows, which had hollister so that i could pick up stuff for bubbles and my jacket as well, since the Fashion Show hollister didn't have everything she wanted. did you know that las Vegas means The meadows? heh heh. anyway the mall was quite crappy, and they didn't have my jacket in my size. And I didn't write down the item numbers for bubble's stuff, only the item names, but the tags didn't have the names so i made the guy at the counter search for them for me.. He took a pretty long time searching 'at the back'! So bubbles, precious time was spent searching for your stuff ok?

After the silly trip there, we drove back to the Fashion Show mall to get my jacket.. haha.. i lurrrve it! thanks pb. heehee..

brownie!! keeping me warm right now in cleveland. Speaking of jackets, it is freaking cold in Cleveland already. I thought fall just started, and I thought fall was time for like, you know, normal jackets/windbreakers? I was wrong. We are jumping right into furry, padded jackets already. I dunno why it is so cold. I wonder what will happen when the snow comes. I am so gonna freeze. I think i need to shop for more winter wear. heehee.

Caesar's Palace Hotel

After my very happy purchase [happy - me, purchase - pb] we headed back to the hotels.. Parked at Caesar's Palace.

pretty!

The Bellagio Hotel

And we also headed toward the Bellagio.. this is the lobby. They have a conservatory with pretty display but it was a pity it was closed for reconstruction [must change to trees of fall color!] In one of the casinos [Bellagio i think] I was waiting for pb-in-washroom and I plonked down at one of the jackpot machines. Nope, I didn't play, but this ang moh middle aged guy came up to me and talked to me..

ammag: 'Any luck?'

paw: 'er, nah, i'm just waiting for someone'

ammag: 'Is he your husband?'

paw-sensing-he-is-weird-and-i-should-try-to-brush-him-off : 'hmm, almost'

ammag: 'he's a lucky guy. Tell him I said that ok?'

paw: 'er.. ok'

And then he walked off.. heehee. Why no cute angmoh tell me that? only old man.. boo.

Paris hotel across the Bellagio fountains. Eiffel tower leh! It was a nice walk back to our car across the sidewalk outside the bellagio towards Caesars Palace, cos they had speakers playing nice music.. =) Our next stop was Hard Rock Hotel, to try their steak and shrimp special for $7.77!

Hard Rock Hotel Steak and Shrimp special

When we got to the hotel, i panicked a lil cos well, i should have known, it was mainly a casino and i realised that i forgot/didn't know which restaurant it was! I had expected a hotel lobby and a restaurant plop in the middle of the lobby, like normal hotels yknow.. We walked a little past a few restaurants and almost asked the information counter when I saw 'Mr Lucky's 24/7' and it rang a bell.. haha, luckily I saw it b4 asking if not so paiseh.

we had 2 different cups of merlot, and i don't know whose is what. wonder how pple can tell the diff. can't remember the name, can't remember the taste.

Anyway, I ordered a medium rare steak cos the medium at buggy whip was kinda tough for my in-need-of-crowning-teeth. It was kinda rare [haha huo2 gai1] but i really enjoyed it.. Very nice, affordable dinner in a pleasant environment. [minus the tipping sigh]

Treasure Island - The Sirens

After our dinner, we headed back to the strip and parked in treasure island, nicely early for their Sirens show to secure a pretty good spot. Free show again haha! By this time I was feeling pukey, probably the wine and rich food. So I went to the washroom to burp and felt ok enough. The show was quite fun, lots of singing, dancing, sliding down ropes from high places, jumping here and there, they even had a pirate 'ship' which rowed down the pond, and there were explosions and stuff.

Halfway through the show I started to feel sick. Like, really sick.. bleah. I started to superbly need to puke and also started feeling very cold.. I tried to curb it cos there were so many pple around and if i puked i'd probably get diaoed to death or something, can just imagine them saying 'eew these chinese! puke everywhere!' hurhur. i mean i dun blame them, im sure all yellow skinned asians look the same to them and they probably associate all of us with rude loudmouthed prcs who spit everywhere. So anyway pb tried to get us out but there was such a crowd. Luckily we were next to the information counter, and they were really nice, asked me 'are you ok?' ('No, i'm feeling nauseous can i have a paper bag pls') and then they handed me this bag for wet umbrellas and i promptly did a merlion.

all the while the guy was like, looking at me and i had to apologise to him for making him see all that.. so paiseh lah. and he was like, it's ok.. and he opened a path for me to go back into the hotel.. 'Go back into the hotel and you'll feel much better!'. So nice lah. thank god i was near the information counter or if not i sure puke on the spot.

I did feel much better after going back into the hotel to clean up [puke in hair kinda gross.. no girlfriends to hold back/tie up ur hair when clubbing heh]. Well I suppose the steak was too raw for my own good. coupled with wine.. its a nono. better order 'medium' next time, dun geh kiang order medium rare.. i hereby realise that i have a rather weak stomach/digestive system.

Well which means we missed half of the show which was ok cos it was getting kinda cheesy, and also meant we could go to fremont street earlier, in case we go too late and everything is closed or something!

Fremont Street Experience

pretty street with pretty lights! with lil carts and buskers. Remember the talented spray paint artist from NYC? I saw another guy here, and he did even more designs than the NYC guy who had only like, 2 designs. But also more expensive here.

playing the piano on a lorry! beautiful, romantic music. =) There were many pple wearing those shiny metallic beads, apparently for good luck in casinos, and we also noticed many people drinking out of colourful long tubed plastic cups.. kind alike those paopaocha ones.. but im quite sure it isn't just paopaocha in them heh. shld be margaritas if i'm not wrong.

After checking out the golden nugget hotel [we were to meet the grand canyon tour bus there the nxt day] we picked up a couple of krispy kremes and headed back to snooze.