My First (and only) Full Day in Las Vegas This Trip!

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009 – My Only Full Day in Las Vegas

I am up at the California hotel and out at 7:00 am.  I am exhausted and would go right back to bed, except that I never checked out of Harrahs when I moved yesterday.  I realize I don’t HAVE to check out (the hotel will eventually figure out you are gone and check  you out) but I use this as an excuse to get moving and get OUT and experience my only full day in Las Vegas.

I eat breakfast at the California coffee shop.  Cheddar omelet. It’s delicious.

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Leaving Las Vegas (See Also: Returning to Las Vegas)

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Friday, July 31, 2009:  Day (Something) of (Something)

[If you would like to start from the beginning, the first day of this trip report can be found here.]

Today is a weird day.  I am checked into Harrahs in Las Vegas but I am leaving for California – the state – not the downtown hotel.  I will be leaving my stuff in my Las Vegas room while I am gone for three days.

My time in California is actually the intended purpose of this trip.  I just decided to book some Vegas days around it since I have the vacation time and I’m right here.

[2014 called, it wants you to know I have no freaking clue why I kept a booked room in Vegas when I was going to be in California for a weekend?]

Monday, August 3, 2009 – Day Two (Three? Four? ) of (I DON’T KNOW ANYMORE)

My flight from Oxnard back to Las Vegas is pretty empty and we land at 8:30 am.   I have to switch planes at LAX. I cannot believe the security lines at LAX.   They wrapped around outside and hit the next terminal.   But it did move fast.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: The Time My Flight Was Cancelled!

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009:  Day One

Oh wait, my flight is cancelled?   Never mind…….

Thursday, July 30, 2009: New Day One!

My flight is supposed to leave at 10:18 am  It doesn’t.  I’m following up on my new tradition of taking a picture of the departures screen so you can see mine is the only flight on this board that is delayed.

flight delayed

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Booking a Trip to China? Here Are Some Helpful Hints

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CHINA!  I love China!  Look at China!  Yes, this is CHINA!

Tibet ChinaBooking my trip to China turned out to be Hell.   Looking back though, I can see that there were so many things that would have been easier if I had just known what I can and what I cannot do, and how to get around the cannot part.  Every single time I tried to book something, I just kept hitting road blocks.  Then I would figure it out and hit another one.  Then another one.  To the point I could not take it anymore and I hated myself for ever wanting to go to China in the first place.

This is a guideline of sorts for anyone who needs help in booking a trip to China.   If you follow everything below, you will be absolutely fine and suffer no pain.  I promise.

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Day Trip From Xian to Mount Huashan, China

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Mount Huashan is famous for some horrifying things, including the steps so steep you are basically hiking straight up (see here), and also for the plank walk which you can see here, which is just NO NEVER.

The mountain is located just outside of Xi’an, China.  To get here, you can take a bus from the Xi’an train station.  The bus takes about three hours and costs  22 Yuan ($3.52 USD)  You can also opt for a high speed train that leaves from Xian North train station (not the same one the bus leaves from.)  It takes 35 minutes, for 55 Yuan ($8.79 USD.)  You can also take a regular train, but there is really no logic in that.

Going to Huashan from the Xian train station:  the buses are located all the way to the right of the train station if you are facing it. You cannot miss them, there are a bunch.  The the destination is written on the bus in English (read the destination as buses to the Terra Cotta Warriors also leave from here!)
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Arrival in Xi’an China: The Day Nothing Went My Way

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I flew to Xi’an from Guilin.   At the airport, I was doing a combination of trying to stop sweating and silently willing everyone who was staring at me to STOP STARING AT ME.

We had a meal served to us on the plane.  I could not identify it so I did not eat it.   As we were about halfway through our flight, there was an announcement that I had never heard in real life before:  “Is there a doctor on board?”   YIKES.   The very young looking woman in front of me stood up to help. If she is old enough to be a doctor, then I am old enough to live in a nursing home.  I don’t really know what was going on because other than the initial announcement, there was no English spoken regarding what was going on.

Arrival in Xi’an.  UGH.  I need to buy a lighter (yes, smoking is gross) and there is nothing open in the airport.  I go outside to take a cab to my hotel.  No cabs will let me get in.  There are about eleventy billion cabs outside.  Approximately five lanes worth of cabs, all going back way so far that I cannot see the end of the lanes.   Every cab I tried to get in told me “NO.”  What do you mean, NO?  I’ll show YOU no.

I basically just stood in the middle of traffic (all cabs mind you) screaming about how “I NEED A FREAKING CAB.  I AM FROM NEW YORK, YOU CAN’T GET AWAY WITH THIS” and “I WILL STAND HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAFFIC FLAILING MY ARMS UNTIL ONE OF YOU LETS ME GET IN YOUR CAB.  LET ME SEE YOU STARE AT THAT, MOTHER FUCKERS!”

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Guilin, China: Fubo Hill

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My last stop in Guilin is going to be Fubo Hill.   Making it here will be an accomplishment as I have tried a couple of times now and ended up lost.  By now I can kind of figure out how to walk here from my hotel, but I am not leaving from my hotel.  Nope, I am leaving from Yao Mountain.  Boy was this a production.

I want to take a cab to Fubo Hill from Yao Mountain.  There are lots of drivers in the parking lot, none of whom will pay attention to me when I approach them.  A couple walked away, one was sitting in his car and rolled up the window.   I find a group of cab drivers all together.  One keeps putting out a huge wad of cash and flashing hundreds at me to the point I wondered if maybe “taxi” or “Fubo Hill” sounded like “hooker” in Mandarin.

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January 1, 2011: Last Day of An Epic Trip

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Saturday, January 1, 2011 – Day Nineteen of Nineteen: Last Day

[This is the last part of a nineteen day trip report.  If you would like to start at the beginning, go here.]

One last morning waking up at the Riviera.  Sigh.  I am up at 7:30 and out at 8:30.  No no no no noooooooooooooooooo I DON’T WANNA GOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH.

I play quarter Double Double Bonus video poker:

$20-$0
$20-$75 – four of a kind fives

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Las Vegas: Last Aces of 2010

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Friday, December 31, 2010: Day Eighteen of Nineteen. Last Full Day 🙁

[This is day eighteen of a nineteen day trip report.  If  you want to start at the beginning, you can go here.]

Oh how I hate going home.

I am still at the Riviera.  I wake up at 10:00 and am out at 11:00.

Whoa what the hell is going on here?  The Riviera is PACKED.  Damn, all these people must have piled in for New Year’s Eve.  Yesterday I had the casino to myself. Today I am unable to play MY Double Double Bonus video poker game because there is a couple on it playing one quarter at a time and holding all the wrong cards.  Oh hey look – let’s drop a pair of Jacks because you have a Jack and a Queen that are the same color but not the same suit.  Sure, that is the correct play!  I am so happy for you that you are on MY machine because with skills like that, you are just running up the progressives without any chance in hell of hitting one yourself!

That said, I lost $40 on Double Double Bonus video poker.

I walked down the Strip to catch the 119 bus to Ellis Island.   It stops right on the side of Palazzo, across from Treasure Island.

Treasure Island Las Vegas Nevada

The restaurant at Ellis Island is PACKED.  Being solo, I got in right away though.  Take THAT all you people with your big fancy party of twos and threes.

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