Spent a few days in Las Vegas aka Sin City. That explains my absence for those of you who didn't know. I normally wouldn't choose Vegas in July for the mere fact that it hovers around 110 degrees daily, but I guess we gotta take advantage of the time while we can.

[long entry on the trip ahead - you've been warned]

Day 1

I got to Vegas around 11:00am on Monday the 2nd and promptly checked into the Treasure Island. It's been about 7 years since I've stayed at TI but obviously the $65 million spent in renovations has upped its so-called prestige. I quickly unpacked and hopped onto the tram to Mirage, where I then took the people mover into Forum Shops. Forum Shops hasn't changed much since 1999 (my last time in Vegas) and I made my way to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Yes, I know we have Cheesecake Factory here in LA, but I was craving for something really tasty and good. Afterall, this was the first day I'm going off the WOE. Let's be realistic, how can I possibly eat like I do at home when I'm traveling? Any little thing that goes in my mouth won't meet the criteria, so I might as well enjoy this "setback" while I can. But I'm sure I'll pay for it later. I guess that's the price when you're traveling to the city of gluttony.

After lunch, I cruised through the Forum Shops and surprisingly didn't buy a thing. In fact, I didn't buy one thing during this entire trip. I suppose I didn't need any Mirage tshirts, Bellagio keychain or Paris magnet. I went back to the hotel and went down to the pool for a swim. Bad choice. Their pool was not really small but it was packed. Packed with people drinking beer in the pool. Packed with people smoking cigarettes in the pool. Packed with kids who probably didn't hold any bodily fluids in either. It was murky to put it lightly. Dreading any unsanitary contaminants touching my body -- I chose to lay out for a bit before heading back up.

I stopped off at the spa to make an appointment for a massage and facial. The fake blonde with bad blue eyeshadow (in her 20's) didn't give me the time of day. She didn't even want to offer any information to me, nor give me any input on their services. She just wanted to get my appointment in and get rid of me asap. I made the appointment anyway but felt wrong about it. I got back to the room and called up the Asst. Hotel Manager and expressed how disappointed (to put it lightly) I was with the type of service I received at the Spa. Fuck, this was only the receptionist and she already pissed me off. The Asst. Hotel Manager sounded like one of those people who listen to you but in their mind they are already laughing at you. He told me he would look into it but I doubt that he did. I asked him to cancel the appointments for me because I shouldn't have to deal with attitudes like that while I'm a guest in their hotel. I think all hotel staff go through some sort of training where they remain calm when dealing with irate guests. But their calmness comes across as indifference to me. They are emotionless, expressionless and fake. Anyway, do me a favor and ban Treasure Island's Spa from your list if you're even thinking of going.

Number of Spa Treatments on this trip: 0

[hiss]

I was really beat that night and didn't want to go far, so I went downstairs for dinner at their buffet. They advertised a $12.50 Prime Rib and Shrimp Dinner buffet that sounded too good to be true. It partially was. Everything they had was less than satisfactory with the exception of their bread pudding. Maybe I was too overwhelmed with actually eating dessert for the first time in 8 weeks. ;P

Dinner Rating at the TI Buffet: 2

Day 2

Took a cab this morning over to Mandalay Bay. It's my goal today to make my way down the strip and back to the hotel. Yeah, I know I'm nuts in this hot weather. It's my first time to most of the hotels on this side of the Strip. In the past, I never made the effort to visit them because they are far away and I was too cheap to pay for cab fare. The Mandalay was really nice though -- their casino area reminded me of Venetian's. I took a stroll through their mini streets inside where a lot of the restaurants were at: Aureole (with their 4 story wine rack), 3950, China Grill, etc. Unfortunately for me, all the restaurants only opened for dinner and it was only 11:00am then. Boo. So I made my way towards the Shark Reef and saw the $12.95 entrance fee. I gawked at the price and promptly turned back and looked out the windows onto their pool area. I eyed with envy at the wave pool, the lazy river and the other general swimming pools. Everything looked so.....clean. And everyone was so spread out -- unlike the mass of sea lions sharing a communal pool yesterday. I made a vow there and then to stay at the Mandalay next time. At least I can spend some time playing in the water.

But do note that the Wave Pool and the Lazy River (a simulated river you can ride in an innertube on) are closed for maintenance from October thru April.

I tried out their lunch buffet at the Mandalay. At $12.95 for lunch, it was a much better deal than the dinner last night at the TI. The downside is that the didn't have any shrimp cocktail or seafood at the Mandalay lunch buffet. Everything else though was fairly edible.

Lunch Rating at the Mandalay Bay Buffet: 5

Took the shuttle from the Mandalay Bay to Luxor next door. I've never been to Luxor either so it was a nice treat to see the magnificent Egyptian decor inside and out. The pyramid ceilings were really spectacular and the reception area was one of the better ones I've seen. But I didn't really like the way the hotel rooms opened out into the casino. They reminded me of motels. Snapped a good number of pictures inside before heading to their arcade and playing some games.

[Author's note: Since Chinese people are extremely superstitious when it comes to gambling, they normally try every means to prevent any sort of bad luck from happening. Now, I'm not a gambler and I really don't like gambling but I've been surrounded by gamblers all my life so I know their thinking. Many of the hotels in Vegas aren't bad luck proof -- such as the Luxor -- Chinese people would not really like to stay there because it's the house of the dead. In fact, the whole connotation to death surrounds you since you're in that damn pyramid. Chinese people also wouldn't like Excalibur because when you walk through their entrance, you encounter those medieval gates that have pointy sharp swordlike tips that can spear you as you go in -- another bad thing for superstitious Chinese gamblers. At the MGM, they used to have that big lion's head at the entrance. I don't see it there anymore. Most likely it's because in the past, the Chinese would think that you'd get eaten up by the lion as you enter -- thereby causing them to lose once they set foot in there. Well, I could go on and on but I think you get the gist. Next time, go and check out why there's more Chinese in some casinos than others. Perhaps you'll notice a difference too.]

With Luxor behind me, I then took their walkway to Excalibur because that's the closest to get to NYNY. The last time I was at Excalibur, I think I was 20. I was there with some college friends. It's changed quite a bit upstairs with their new food areas and shops. There's lots to do and see there if you're a kid but I was ready to move on.

Thank goodness for the pedestrian bridges that link hotels to hotels now. Even out in the bright hot sun at 110 degrees, the walkway made it much more bearable. New York New York was next on the list. It's my first time there too and the decor on the outside was much better than what's on the inside. I have to give them credit though for having one of the largest arcades in a Vegas hotel. I spent a good deal of time there looking at people play. I also can't help notice but it seems like Nathan's Hot Dogs and Haagen Daaz has infiltrated almost every hotel in Vegas. Oh yes, and let's not forget Starbucks either. After pretending to pay a visit to NYC, I said goodbye to the Big Apple.

[Author's note: Nathan's Hot Dogs aren't that great. Way too much hype. I think the ones at the small roadside stands in Coney Island are the best.]

Took another pedestrian bridge over to the MGM and hung around inside watching some Elvis impersonator sing a slew of songs. It was cool that they had live entertainment for free in the middle of the casino. I then made my way over to the Lion Habitat. Three young lions were playing inside with their trainers. It was definitely giving Siegfried and Roy a run for their money. I stayed at the MGM when they first opened many years ago and it seems like the Emerald Castle is now gone? It was pretty useless anyway but it's funny how things disappear so quickly when it's not making money for them. The underground shops and food stands were interesting to stroll around in but it was time to deal with the heat.

I made my way out of MGM and onto the Strip where I passed by the one of three Sephoras I'll see on this trip. Sephoras are as prevalent here as ABC Stores are in Waiks. ;P And I'm sure they make a helluva lot of money being situated where they are: next to MGM, at the Venetian and at the Aladdin. The mid day heat was pretty unbearable. With the sun burning down on you and the hot winds swirling around you, you're pretty much ready to melt into the sidewalk. But I finally got into the M&Ms World to get some much needed A/C. Everything in the M&Ms store was cute, colorful and happy. The part I really enjoyed was the Colorworks display where you can mix and match your bag of M&Ms from 21 colors to choose from. They had a lot of tempting stuff to buy but I refrained.

Next door to M&MS was the Coca Cola Store. You can pretty much figure out what's in here.

A taxi back to the hotel sounded really nice at this time but you need to get to a hotel to find one easily. So I made my way across to Monte Carlo to find some mode of transportation. Luckily for me, they had a monorail going from Monte Carlo to Bellagio. I guess I saved a few bucks on that alone. But the walk from the Bellagio required me to cut through Caesar's Forum Shops through to Mirage and then the tram back to TI.

After a bit of a respite, I took a cab to Bellagio for dinner. Had to get a buffet meal from them in the trip somehow. Before I went in though, I caught the fountain show as the hot winds whipped around me. They were almost going to cancel the fountain shows since the winds were really kicking up. I stood in line for the buffet for nearly an hour. It was worse than being at Disneyland. And since I'm no gambler, I didn't get any comp meals or vip meal passes either. The buffet dinner was priced at $22.95 but worth every cent I think. Loads of crab legs (that I don't eat because they're way too salty) and tons of jumbo shrimp cocktails. They also had a vast array of food. But it was the quality of food that made it worthwhile.

Dinner Buffet Rating at Bellagio: 9

After dinner, I made my way back via The Strip and watched the exploding volcano outside of The Mirage. And then I caught the Buccaneer Bay show outside of Treasure Island. The crowds were building up as I'm sure many people came to Vegas on that day to take advantage of the July 4th holiday.

Day 3

Yesterday wore me out. I didn't have the same energy to go about my day in the same way today. So I got over to Paris and took a number for the buffet. I had an hour to kill before I was supposed to check back in for the buffet. In my opinion, Paris doesn't have much for me to do. I don't gamble. There are hardly any shops and it's rather small. Plus, I didn't want to blow $9 on the ride up the Eiffel Tower. So I begrudgingly exchanged my $10 for 5 rolls of nickels and parked my ass at some nickel slots. You gotta love them nickel slot machines. They make the time go by faster and you don't really feel bad about losing those nickels.

The time finally rolled around to head to Le Village Buffet. And even then, I had to wait a good 25 minutes before being seated. The buffet ran $17.95 a pop for lunch but it too was worth every cent. I had an absolutely great time eating all those things I shouldn't be eating: crepes, banana foster, various french dishes I don't pretend to even know etc.

Lunch Rating at the Paris Le Village Buffet: 9

After Paris, I headed next door to Aladdin and its many many shops. I was actually surprised to see so many shops already in place but it surprised me somewhat to see all those bath product shops all in one quad: L'Occitane, Aveda, Origins, Body Shop, Crabtree and Evelyn, Bath and Body Works. Talk about competition. I was surprised to see Honolua Surf Co. and Tommy Bahama there also. Needless to say, I had to drop in to take a look around. Perhaps I was expecting a little too much from Aladdin but I couldn't believe their hotel lobby and taxi/valet were underground. It was confusing in there.

Rested for a bit back at the hotel and got ready for the Mystere Show downstairs. It was my first time seeing anything from Cirque Du Soleil. I initially wanted to see O but all the remaining seats had a blocked view. And why the hell should I pay good money to have a big pole in front of me, unless you're at a strip joint? So I settled on Mystere since anything I haven't seen yet is still new to me. I got some really good seats and words can't quite explain how great the show was. It's really something left to experience firsthand.

And that's pretty much the highlights of the trip. The rest of the days were generally the same and no need to reiterate mundane facts here.

Places I missed out on eating at this trip:
Emeril's at the MGM - I really wanted to eat there but they were closed for a whole fucking week due to renovations. Just my luck eh?
China Grill at the Mandalay Bay - Didn't quite make it back to this place either. I thought they opened for lunch but they didn't.
Commander's Palace at the Aladdin - Wanted to try this place because I've heard about it on FoodTv but ended up not going.

Thanks to Ms. X for all her Vegas travel advice. :)

I'm out.