Cheap Las Vegas Trip

Las Vegas, Nevada

                We are going to switch gears here for a minute and come back from Asia, back to the good ol’ USA. Where else should we start but Las Vegas, Nevada? The player’s playground, Sin City, whatever you want to call it, is a great destination and contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have a lot of money to spend to have a good time here. We will talk about where to stay, where to play, what to play and what else you can do besides gamble while you’re in the city.

                WHERE SHOULD YOU STAY

You can stay on the strip (where most of the casinos are) in a room at the actual casino if you want. I think this is a great idea for your first time in Vegas. You could actually get by without renting a car for the whole vacation because everything is right there; food, drinks, bed, and entertainment. Check out hotels.com or any other hotel website to see the pricing but there are rooms on a budget all the way to glamorous rooms which will cost you a few pennies. If you are on a budget check out the Monte Carlo or the Luxor. Both are in great locations and won’t cost you an arm and leg. If you decide the strip isn’t your thing you can always get a hotel off the strip. There are many hotels that are close to the strip but not actually on it, and will provide you free transport to the strip if you should decide to go (You are in Vegas, why would you not want to go to the casino right?). If this sounds good to you try the Homewood Suites by Hilton – Las Vegas Airport. They will pick you up at the airport, take you to the hotel and provide you transportation to the strip when you want to go. My advice is to call the hotel before you book it and find out if they provide the accommodations that you want before you book.

WHERE YOU SHOULD PLAY

My friends and I decided to walk the strip. It took us 2 hours to walk part of the strip and we never ran out of things to see. When choosing a place to “Play” (gamble) you need to know what you want to play. Why is that? Well, some games have a minimum bet to ante up.  The casinos will decide what the minimum bet is for that game. This is important information for someone on a budget. If a game has a 5 dollar minimum, you might play more than a game with a 25 dollar minimum. Also keep in mind that some, if not all, casinos raise their minimum bet after a certain time in the evening. This is to draw more customers in during the day. I recommend playing during the day if you are on a budget and sightseeing when they raise the minimum bets, unless you hit it big then do what you want! I recommend hitting up some of the smaller casinos on the strip. Don’t miss Casino Royale across from the Mirage casino.

WHAT YOU SHOULD PLAY

What you should play depends on different factors. Do you want to have fun? Are you feeling lucky? Do you want to play it safe? Do you know how to play card games? If you don’t know how to play card games you can hit up the slot machines. Keep in mind that usually you lose your money on slots. Slots are there for one reason, to take your money. I know people have won it big playing slots but it is like winning the lottery. It doesn’t happen often. However, slots are fun, you can play them by yourself and you don’t have to have a bunch of knowledge on how to play. Stick in your quarter, push button. It’s pretty simple. You can also play poker or any other game which has a dealer. These games are a little easier to win but keep in mind you won’t be winning 94,000,000 dollars by playing with a dealer. You might walk away with a few grand though, depends on your knowledge of the game. In my opinion, the best game to play is Craps. Craps is one of the only games you can play when the dealer has NO INTERACTION in the game. Only thing the dealer does is give you the dice and give you the money (and takes the money if you lose). That is it. There are several different ways to play craps and it can get confusing for newbies but there are easy ways to play craps also. Ever hear those guys standing around that table yelling at the top of their lungs because they just won? They are playing craps. Do a little research and you will be playing in no time.

WHAT TO DO BESIDES GAMBLE

Vegas is full of things to do and a lot of them are free. Flamingo casino has a wildlife habitat and MGM Grand has a lion habitat. Both are very cool and free. The Silverton hotel has a free aquarium to check out. Fountains of the Bellagio is a water and music show that plays all throughout the night. Ever see Pawn Stars on History channel? Well don’t miss the opportunity to check out the pawn shop first hand. It’s only a 20 minute drive from the strip. Caesar’s Palace has a great show that they put on for Free. There are many more free things to do in this city. That’s why I said before, you don’t have to have a lot of money to have a good time here!

BEWARE!!!!

Walking down the strip is generally safe because there are thousands of other people walking with you. Don’t get off the beaten path and try to explore a dark road. Hold on to children’s hands or strap them to you better yet. Also, be prepared for hundreds of locals standing on the strip trying to hand you a card. These cards will have a photo of a woman on it and a number to call. This is to try to get you to “dial a prostitute”. These locals don’t care who they hand the card to, men, women, & children. Just ignore them and keep walking.

SUMMARY

Don’t need a car

Get a great hotel at a cheap price

Take advantage of all the free things to do

Research what games you want to play before you get to Vegas

Have fun saving money on your trip!

Sinapore, Malaysia & Indonesia Part 2

In the last blog we talked about Singapore, a beautiful city. Now on to part 2 of this blog and trust me, it won’t be as cheery as the last one. While I am sure there are parts of Malaysia and Indonesia that are great, the cities that I visited were far from that. Do yourself a favor and take in consideration of what I have learned if you are planning to visit these places.

As I said before, this vacation was three countries in less than a week. It is really easy to get to Malaysia from Singapore. After all, it was a 45 minute drive to the border from our hotel. We visited Johor Bahru which is the capital city of Johor in southern Malaysia. Sounds good right? That is what I thought also. However, staying there was quite different. When we arrived at the Singapore/Malaysia border our taxi driver dropped us off and we had to drag all of our bags through customs to get to the Malaysia side. I have no idea why I thought it would be different. This was the first time I have crossed a border on land (usually it was in the air). I guess I assumed the taxi would pull up to a drive through window, pay 50 cents and we would be on our way…. That is not how it happens. We spent a good 2 hours waiting in line to get through to the other side because out of the 10-15 passport processing lanes they had, only a third of them handled visitors, the other 2/3 were for Malaysia nationals. I must say that once we were at the custom agents desk I must admit that it went very smoothly. In about 5 minutes we were on Malaysia’s side with Singapore behind us. Now what? Well, walk outside the building where multiple taxis and busses were waiting to take you to your destination. Here is where you need to put on your poker face and make sure that the taxi’s are using the meter.

                Johor Bahru is the 2^nd largest city in Malaysia so I figured that there was going to be plenty to do. I was sadly mistaken. Maybe some of you have been to this city before and maybe you feel different than I do. Maybe you found plenty of things to do but for someone who has never been there, it is very hard, if not impossible, for someone to find something that would bring in tourist.

                We arrive at our hotel and I must say that the hotel was very nice. It had a huge lobby, friendly staff, and a nice pool on the 2^nd floor. The rooms were nice, not the best I have seen but far from the worst. The hotel was in walking distance to a nice shopping mall, however getting to the shopping mall meant that you had to walk down a dark path full of trees for about a city block. Usually there were other people walking through the same path but sometimes you were alone which gave you a creepy feel to say the least. When asked, the hotel recommended that we visit the city zoo. Being in such a big city, and being a zoo lover, I thought it would be a great idea.

                The hotel called a taxi for us and then we were on our way. I was excited because we had been there a full day and so far had not found anything to do besides the shopping center at the end of the big bad wolf trail. The zoo was about 35-40 minutes away and it seemed like longer because we went from seeing buildings to a long winding road, maybe 10 miles of nothing but trees on both sides. We finally arrived at the zoo entrance and the taxi driver didn’t even pull over, just stopped on the road and let us out which seemed odd. However, we hadn’t seen many cars on this road so it wasn’t a problem. At the entrance there was a small one man building, where I assumed you paid to get in, and a huge fence that was open and wide enough for 2 trucks to get in and out at the same time. We looked inside where the attendant should be but it was empty. I thought about just walking in after waiting for about 5 minutes but decided against it being in a different country and not wanting to deal with the local police. Finally, a small older lady came out from another bigger nearby building and took our money. I’m guessing she was in the bathroom but really have no idea. So, off to the zoo. I was expecting something big, something really nice from this big city and from the way the hotel talked about how great it was. However, it was very much the opposite. It took us a total of 30 minutes to walk the circle and half of the cages were empty. The animals that were there were in very small and dirty cages. Now, I am no animal activist but this was terrible. After seeing the zoos in the U.S., it really bothered me to see tigers in cages that were 10x20 and only thing that separates you and the animal is a cage door and a padlock. You could literally bend over and stick your fingers inside the cage, if you felt like losing a finger that day. I didn’t feel like it so I kept back. For all of you animal rights people out there, you are fighting a war in the wrong spot. Our animals stay at the MGM Grand and their animals stay at a Motel 6. It’s time to leave the zoo.

                We had had enough so it was time to leave. We walked out the same entrance and of course the lady was gone again so we waited on the side of the road for a taxi. After all, this is a zoo and other people will be coming to see the animals right? And when they do, we can take their taxi after they are dropped off. Wrong. We waited for a good 45 minutes and finally I decided, “Hey, we should walk back down this road and eventually there will be a taxi to take us back to the hotel”. We walked and walked, and then we walked some more, all the way back to the city. Cars passed us, some were nice and honked at us waving, some throwing jesters with their hands, I’m sure that they were wanting us to look at a bird in their own way. A couple taxis passed us and wouldn’t stop because they already had passengers. All in all, we had a good time talking but it was a very long walk. Thankfully it wasn’t raining.

                We got back to the hotel and I had had enough of this city. We relaxed by the pool for the remaining time here in Malaysia.

                Our next destination was Batam Island, Indonesia. In order to get there we took a ferry boat from Johor Bahru, around Singapore and landed on the island. The whole trip took 6 hours and was far the best time we had on this trip. When we arrived at Batam Island we of course went through customs and (it’s really my fault for not checking) I, as a U.S. citizen had to get a tourist visa. It wasn’t expensive and didn’t take too long but it was a surprise because I assumed I could travel anywhere in Asia without getting a visa. Stupid American, I know.

                We exchanged money and to my surprise, I walked out a millionaire. Not U.S. dollars of course. The exchange rate is so high; I ended up with millions of rupiah. We took a taxi to the hotel which cost us about 10 dollars, or 60,000-70,000 rupiah, I don’t remember exactly. The hotel was beautiful, if the hotel in Malaysia was a 5, this hotel was a 12. Nice rooms, nice friendly staff, beautiful pool, and nice exercise room. The hotel we stayed at, believe it or not, was a Holiday Inn. Yes, a Holiday Inn.

                We ran into the same situation here as we did in Malaysia, nothing to do. There was one place to eat in walking distance to the hotel and it served mediocre food. There were many abandoned buildings around the hotel and the beach, what can I say about the beach. Well, we never actually made it to the beach, even though the hotel was mere yards from it, very much walking distance. Why would we go to an “exotic” island, stay at a beautiful hotel on the beach and not go to the beach? Because the beach was covered with rocks as big as soccer balls. I’m not talking a few here and there, I’m talking loaded on top of each other stretching from the water all the way back probably 100 feet. There was no way to get to the water without risking your ankle, or life! That wasn’t mentioned on the hotel website. When we left the island, we saw a couple places that had beaches where you can actually get to the water but by this time, this vacation had been so bad, we didn’t want to leave the hotel anymore.

                So, what is the moral to this blog? Visit Singapore, if you want to get your passport stamped with other countries, go to Malaysia and Indonesia. However, either pick a bigger tourist area to stay, or just don’t stay too long. I’m sure there are beautiful cities in both countries however I didn’t see it and will not be returning to either place.

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia Part 1

This is going to be a 3 part blog. We visited three countries on this vacation. Malaysia and Indonesia will be written on a future blog. Sounds like a lot but it was really not a complicated vacation. Singapore is very small. Malaysia is just right over the bridge to the north and Indonesia is a quick boat ride to the south.

Let’s start off with Singapore. Singapore, or Lion City, is made up of 63 islands. The main island is, to me, like a mini USA. I will explain. The majority of Singapore is made up of 3 nationalities, the Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian, but don’t worry, you don’t have to speak any of those languages to get by here. English is the national business language of the country so you won’t have any problem asking for a taxi or asking for a bathroom. Singapore is also a very rich country and it shows in the prices of merchandise. Sure, you can find good deals just like you can find good deals in the United States but if don’t expect to make your money last here if you go on a shopping spree like in other Asian countries.

When we arrived we looked for a taxi to take us to our hotel. The taxi driver was….different. He was from India and didn’t smile. Most Asian countries I have been to, the taxi drivers “light up” when they see an American. This guy didn’t care. Why should he? He gets paid big bucks here. Other places the taxi driver makes most of his/her money on tips. I asked the driver “Do you use the meter?”

EXPLANATION:  Many third world countries do not like to use the meter. They like to keep it turned off and charge you more than what the meter would show. It’s always good to use meter taxis. Just because it says meter taxi on the cab, doesn’t mean they use it so always ask.

The cab driver looked at me and said “Of course I use the meter! This is Singapore, best cab drivers in the world. This is not China!”. He was upset that I asked him. I saw this was not going to go well, I didn’t want to get angry within the first 30 minutes of our vacation so I walked off and got into another taxi.  The streets were like driving on glass and palm trees lined the roads. It looked expensive. I’m sure if I rolled down the window I could smell money.

The hotel was beautiful and expensive compared to other places I have been, but it was worth it because we did not want to find out if Singapore had a “Bronx” area and we certainly didn’t want to have a hotel in one of those areas.

The first night we did what we always do, which is really nothing. Relaxing because I know the rest of the vacation is going to be like a mini workout, walking and walking. We did however; take a short walk around the area just to see what was around the hotel, which wasn’t much, other than other hotels and business offices.

Usually on vacation we just kind of wing it but this time we decided to go with a guided tour so the next day was an early wake up call. I say early but it was really 8 AM. When you’re on vacation, 8 AM is too early. The tour company sent a bus to pick us up at the hotel and took us to the tour office. We had to wait for other buses to arrive with the other guests. My wife and I met up with another couple, a man from the United States who works for Pampers, I’m guessing he was a big shot, not sure and didn’t ask. We hit it off pretty well so us four hung out for the rest of the trip exchanging numbers at the end of the day, but of course we never kept in contact.

The tour took off at 9 AM with a drive around the island showing different statues and buildings. The best part by far was the Merlion statue. It’s the most famous statue of Singapore and is well worth it to see it. The Merlion has a body of a fish and a head of a lion. We all “oohh’d” and “aahh’d” for a while and then it was off to Chinatown. We stayed in Chinatown for a couple hours which was really not enough time. Chinatown was great. This is probably the one and only spot in Singapore where you can get some cheap bring home presents. The food was great and the people there were very friendly. I was laughed at by a few Chinese because I couldn’t eat with chopsticks but it was all in good fun. I’m sure I wasn’t the first and won’t be the last. I really recommend Chinatown to anyone visiting Singapore.

Sometime after Noon we all loaded back up on the tour bus and drove to the next destination which was a cable car area. We were going to go to a smaller island off of the main island named Sentosa Island. Here you have a choice; either take the bridge on the tour bus or take the more scenic route and ride the cable cars across to the other island. We chose the cable cars of course. Hey, I live dangerously sometimes. The cable car sits 6 people and is enclosed by glass so we shared a car with the couple we had met at the tour office. At its highest point, you will be 300 feet above sea level and it takes about 12 minutes to travel from one island to the next.

Sentosa Island has beautiful beaches, five star hotels, golf courses, light and water shows, an underwater sea world, and Universal Studios park. One thing worth mentioning is “Songs of the Sea”. I highly recommend you seeing this show. Songs of the Sea is a show given on the beach right after dark and is fun for all ages.

Bottom line is make sure you visit Singapore, but bring your wallet with you.