The Book of Ashes

Fringe festival... 5:43PM

Its windy and sunny today in Wellington and I'm going a little slowly. It was Jamie's birthday yesterday and Laurens as well. We went to Jamie's for a few beers in the sun then off to Cafe Istanbul for dinner with Lauren. After that we headed out and did a few Zambuca shots.

Fringe festival is on in Wellington at the moment. Theres a huge big dome near Chaffers park and they've opened the park now as Waitangi park. Its still not finished but pretty cool and they have set up an exhibition in the park of aerial photos from around the world. Very cool.

Vegas... 6:10PM

Words cannot describe the experience that was Las Vegas. Every day in Vegas was the same. Clear blue sky. Not a cloud in the sky. It would start off cool then warm up over the day to a comfortable 20 degrees. In the shade it was cool, in the sun warm. Why you would go there in summer I don't know, I got hot and sweaty everyday from walking around, I wouldn't have liked it any hotter. And it was dry. My lips dried up every couple of hours. One day I forgot my chapstick and licked my lips all day. By the end of the day they were pink and sore. It was also staticie. Every time you hopped out of a car you got a shock. Every time you went to play a slot machine it zapped you. Sometimes even your friends turned against you and gave you shocks. I got used to getting out of the car then touching my knee to the side of the car. Rather the zap on my knee than on my hand. So heres a few brief snapshots of what we got up to...

Driving into Vegas that first afternoon...

The view out towards Paris from my room at the Barbary coast hotel. It was cheap ($75 a night) for two queen beds (very comfy) and it had a giant plasma on the wall. All good.

The first night the Londoners all stayed in the same room at the Flamingo. They ordered room service, a huge banana spllit and a bottle of tequila along with some fries. Then being on London time they all crashed in bed by 10pm. I was excited so walked the strip down to the Stratosphere. It was only a couple of blocks on the map but I ended up walking for two hours (checking out the sights on the way).

Treasure Island. It had a lagoon out front with a bridge over it. 4 times a night, every night of the year (except for one night in the year) they had a production on that you watched from the street. It was the Sirens of TI where these chicks kidnapped a pirate and his friends came to save him. They danced round in hot pants and sang and blew up the pirates ship with fireworks and giant explosions. It was fairly extravagant.

The Flamingo hotel from the back. This was where Crispy was staying. Nice pink building. They had penguins and pink flamingos as well as some giant gold fish.

The old Aladans lamp. Now moved down town to the old part of Vegas.

Downtown. It was bright and tacky looking (lots of lights) but to attract people back they had built this massive screen over the length of the entire street and once a night it lit up with patterns and a show. Very impressive. Apparently the biggest screen in the world.

This was downtown under the big screen. As I said lots of lights. We went to a $10 all you can eat buffet here. There are all you can eat buffets everywhere. The cheapest we found was $7 and they are pretty good. Lots of food and choice and as many drinks as you want. No wonder the Americans are overweight.

This was the screen going overhead. Not a very good picture but I have a movie as well. It was very impressive.

Barbary Coast Hotel/Casino where we stayed for the first 3 nights. It just has the basics but was a good location and great value for money.

Me at the Eifel tower at Paris. Apparently 1/3 the size of the real thing but still quite impressive. They also had lots of little shops inside and a sky painted roof.

The fountains outside Beliago. These went off every 15 minutes to music and were very impressive. The fountains went up as high as the hotel almost. They were different most times.

Out front of Paris hotel/casino. Lots of the casinos have replica's of famous buildings/places.

The Monte Carlo Hotel/Casino.

New York, New York. Impressively the buildings here are the actual hotel that guests stay in a room in. There is the statue of Liberty, a rollercoaster and a bridge. Pretty cool. We went to see a show there called Zumanity which was excellent.

The guys walking around Vegas.

New York, New York sign showing the Zumanity show we went to see.

Crispy had wanted a wedding in Vegas and he got one, but not these two.

Luxor was a giant black pyramid and at night a beam of light came out of the top of it. It was very cool. Inside you could see up the whole structure of it. We had a yardie margarita there that three of us could hardly finish, went on a magic carpet ride and Tom made $10 as a porter, carrying some luggage for some lady.

The Spynx out front of Luxor.

The Mirage has a huge lake and waterfalls along with lushous trees out front. Remember its a desert out here and very dry. You can feel the moisure in the air when you walk near the water. Every hour or so they have a volcanic erruption (shown above).

Great sign out front of one of the casinos. We went and saw the bikini bull riding. It wasn't all that good and was followed by some square dancing but one of those things you had to go see.

The Stratosphere is the tallest building in Vegas. We went up to the top to see the view and because I hadn't done a rollercoaster before and the guys thought that for my first one I should do the highest one (theres one on the top of the tower). However it was closed and there were 3 other rides so I did one of those instead.

The views from up top were cool. Vegas is big and flat. It expands out quite far. This is a photo of the strip from above. The cool parts are just round the corner at the end of the road.

This is the ride that we went on. You strap yourselves in to a seat at the bottom and it swings out over the edge then spins round faster and faster till your tilted outwards and looking down at the ground and the tower spinning past. Pretty freaky but glad I did it. After that we headed out to Prim valley on the border to do a rollercoaster. It was pretty damn tall and fast and chucked you around a little but I did that too (my first rollercoaster!).

Oh yeah. We did all these things on Crispy's birthday (Vegas time). It had been another perfect dry day and I had left my chapstick at home. I tried to combat the eternal dryness by licking my lips but by the end of the night I had swollen red lips. Not good. After the rollercoaster it was time to go home (around 5pm) as the sun was soon to set. We headed up to Crispy's room for pre-drinks before the limo ride. Up there we gave Crispin his present. A white veil, some sparkly shoes, some stockings, a white dress and of course Mr Stud the inflatable doll. He kinda looked like an alien but Crispy isn't picky so we took them down to the Wedding Chappel in the hotel (most hotels have them) and had a fake wedding ceramony. It was pretty funny...

What a pretty bride...

Then it was back up to the room to cut the cake and do the deed with Mr Stud. After getting changed out of his wedding clothes we headed downstairs for the 2 hour limo ride around town. My camera went flat here so I've only got 1 limo photo (getting more soon) and I had to doctor that one quite a lot to reduce the juju lips I'd acquired during the day. The limo ride rocked! I rate it highly on the list of things we did that night. Driving out into the desert, all us guys getting out and pissing against some random wall. Driving back in, then heading into the Barbary Coast to go to a fancy nightclub Drai's. I reckon it was the money look that helped Steve win $80 from $20 on the roulette table and me win $60 from $20. Of course we spent it pretty quickly within the club but it was our biggest win at the tables.

It got a little hazy after that. I managed to make it home somehow and was quite subdued the next day. Made it down for all you can eat buffet then back to bed to rest till around 5pm. No spewing or headache tho, just tired.

We went out that night to see a show called Zumanity. It was excellent. Acrobats, people in the crowd telling jokes, narators singing, an asian woman bending herself into unnatural positions. It was a show to celebrate the diversity of the human body and there was just a little flesh in it, but classy like. Best show I've ever been too.

Here is a photo of inside Caesars. They have walkways with sky painted roofs. Pretty cool. Also marble statues that get up and move about and an expensive car show.

So many things to see and we only just scratched the surface of it all. I was extremely happy with what I crammed in. Got to see everything on my list plus more but could still go back as theres always more to see. I thoroughly recommend Vegas to anyone who wants to go. An excellent trip.

Our last day saw off Susan and the end of the Vegas part of our trip. Steve picked up his hire car which was upgraded to a red convertable and we drove out towards the Hoover dam and then the Grand Canyon.