Vegas, Baby!

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I arrived in Vegas at about 8am after my overnight bus from Flagstaff. At some point on the journey I realised I'd misplaced Joey's expired passport that I'd been using as ID for the first 6 weeks of the trip, which sucks. On the way to Vegas was such a cruel time to lose it.. Anyway, the bus pulled up at the very un-famous end of the strip and I headed to the hostel. There were a load of tattoo parlours and liquor stores (and wedding chapels?) but not much else, but I guess I can't complain for $18 a night accommodation. After taking a quick nap I headed down to the casinos and although I couldn't actually play I enjoyed just wondering around and exploring all the famous ones. After a while I discovered the annual 2+2 poker forum party in the Aria casino, so I pretty much just hung out there for the entire evening. Took a short break to watch the stunning 4th July firework show put on by Caesar's Palace. Independence Day is huge here, it's like our Bonfire night but celebrated by pretty much everyone and 5 times the scale (especially in Vegas, where everything is over the top).

I definitely will come back to Vegas when I'm 21 (or maybe just when I'm finished with University), and perhaps stay there for a few months over the summer and possibly play in some World Series of Poker events (the biggest poker tournaments in the world). I actually attempted to go and watch the first day of the WSOP Main Event (I think 1st place is close to $10 million), and I kinda succeeded but I couldn't stay for long. I went to the Greyhound station at about 10:30 am to book a ticket for the 2:40 bus, but there was a huge queue and I didn't actually leave till about noon. Then the bus got stuck in traffic and the casino turned about to be really far to walk and I only got there at like 1:30. I stayed for about 10 minutes then I had to catch a cab back to the strip just to make my bus in time. Either way, at least I saw the WSOP (albeit very briefly). Left the following morning, and that was Vegas!

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