Viva Las Vegas.....the final fling!

We arrived in Vegas on the Sunday night at about 10pm with the plane landing, as far as we could make out, actually on the main strip. We didn't know it but the airport was extremely close to the proceedings, giving you that instantaneous surge of excitement rather than being transplanted to some obscure periphery surrounded by industrial estates that you usually encounter at a major airport.


After about two minutes we encountered our first slot machines. Hundreds of them lay side by side, even before you have the opportunity to claim your baggage, waiting for you to whack out your wallet like a child who can't wait till Christmas morning to find his presents. Still, it gave some indication of what was to come.


After a swift shuttle journey we arrived late at our hotel, the instantly likeable Bills Gambling Hall. Despite the ominous sounding name it was, in every respect, perfect. The decor, resembling a turn of the century gambling hall had a slight grittiness which gave the whole 'I'm actually in Vegas' feeling even greater meaning. Our room, which was incredibly cheap, was just spectacular. Beautifully, they had put us on the top floor which gave us incredible views of the strip and in particular the Bellagio fountains, the ones made famous from the end of the Oceans Eleven movie. As giving us something magical to end our trip goes, we got everything and more. In the room we had two huge double beds, the ultimate indulgence for a bloke who's night sleeps are mostly spent working around his fiancés ridiculous sleeping position. We also managed to wangle a huge plasma tv, great for the early morning euro kick offs due to time difference!


Once downstairs we walked past our first experience of the many different game tables and made our way to the bar..$2 margaritas! From there we sat taking in the scene surrounding us and started to get excited. Our Vegas virginity had been broken.




After listening to the worlds worst collection of karaoke singers (think large American women singing Alabama country hits) we hit the road, walking over a grand bridge to the other side and into the Bellagio. I think now, with hindsight in mind, that we definitely picked the most luxurious casino first. It was full to the brim with high stakes gambling tables, designer shops and lots and lots of marble. The lobby was huge and next to it sat another big room, this time a conservatory filled with thousands of flowers, it's hard to describe but every inch of the room was taken up with something colourful and expensive. After finishing with yet more two dollar margaritas we stumbled back to our room. It was, amazingly, 4am. Time had vanished.


The next morning we were up and raring to go, eager to get started and hunt down some deals. It wasn't long before we found 1 dollar beers and margaritas!



We had, amazingly, through our accommodation at Bills, free use of the pool next door at the Flamingo. A huge pink edifice bankrolled and built in the early fifties by the New York mafioso. Despite the pool area being populated by the complete antithesis of the New York mob it was still the perfect place to some impressions of a rotisserie chicken as the thermometer quickly headed towards forty degrees, in the shade. The people who were packed into the pool, mainly screechy groups of forty something women from New Jersey or Pheonix lounged around drinking spirit mixtures out of a large plastic soft drinks container which made the whole thing, blokes included, resemble a very large adult theme park. It was great, in a way, to see people genuinely drunk at 11am as you didn't feel bad for substituting breakfast for a bucket of beers.


We tried to last the day around the pool but we were eventually beaten by the incredible heat. By 4pm it had reached 42 degrees in the shade which, added to our already consumed beers, left us feeling decidedly dodgy. Despite it being the last chance to top up our tans we would have to forfeit it all to make sure we didn't melt. The heat was, in every sense, insane.




Fortunately, by spending our day around the pool we managed to score free tickets to a show that evening. The performance, a comedy entitled 'defending the caveman' essentially centred around a comedian talking about relationships and how when all is said and done, women will just get their own way, it's just a fact of life. It was, for free anyway, a top show in one of those theatres where you get to sit with tables and served cocktails by a smoky waitress.


This would essentially be our time here for the next few days. The great thing about Vegas is that despite it's status as a city of frivolity and temptation it can be done on a budget. In fact, even without really trying you could spend so little that you would wonder, in the twilight hours at the end of the night, whether you really did put your last remaining ten dollars on red.


The next day, after a huge breakfast, we took the incredibly cheap deuce bus to the northern end of the strip to the real origins of the Vegas experience, Fremont Street. It was here many years ago that the gaudy Vegas we know today formed it's everlasting roots. We went inside some very old casinos here, mostly frequented by the Jackie and Britney types clad in nylon with their buckets of quarters. We even got our prize number called out with the chance to win $10,000 but in the end we only managed 2. Still, it's better than a slap in the face, at least we invested it wisely on another game of roulette..




That night we managed to get extremely cheap tickets for another show, this time a comedy hypnotist called Mark Savard. We'd never seen a hypnotic show before but after this, I cannot wait to see the next one! It was truly amazing. He got around thirty people up from the crowd and through a variation of differing techniques whittled those thirty down to around eight, the ones who had mostly taken to the hypnotism. I can't go through what happened in fine detail but era just say we have never in our 28 years of life, ever laughed as much as we did throughout that show.


It was a great last night in Vegas. Afterwards we went for monstrously expensive cocktails sat above the strip, having a great time people watching and playing 'spot the Brit', I think with great success. After a quick mooch around the infinite space of the MGM Grand we bought some alcohol soaking pizza before heading back to the room, the time, yet again, was nearly 4am. In hindsight, knowing we had to contend with two consecutive night flights we may not have been so stupid!




The next day was our final day in Vegas and on a way the final day of the trip. It was one of those days where we were more tired than we thought it was ever possible to be. We wandered around the last of the mega casinos, Excalibur and Luxor before heading back to Bills to sit in the dark for a few hours until it was time to leave this momentously insane city. On the way to the airport, driven in a bus by a very inquisitive guy called Tony we had one of those epiphany moments that seem to highlight the very nature of your experience. There has been that thinking, everywhere we have been that it is all very normal, something even that most people get to do. After speaking to this friendly bus driver, we could not be any further from that kind of thinking. this guy was speechless at the nature of our trip, the fact that two people experienced so much, visited so many countries and did it all independently, it's just something, he explained, that Americans just can't grasp.


Frankly, I find this amazing. A country so rich, full of people who revel in foreign food and culture within their national boundaries but who are just so scared of experiencing the real world outside.


So there we go, nearly ten months completed and 16 countries visited. We battled through our consecutive night flights in a sleep induced haze passing through nine timezones in the process. When we touched down in London things started to get very surreal. So much time away had almost institutionalised us into thinking that what we were doing was normal and that 'home', that place we left all those months ago, was just an imaginary place you pushed to the back of your mind.




Upon seeing our families though, smiling emotionally with tears in their eyes, things started to become very clear. We had done it, we had circumnavigated the world. It was, for the both of us, an indescribable feeling.


I know some people have neither the time, money or inclination to go travelling and its definitely not for everyone. Financial responsibility, children, careers all have to have their place and i understand that. However, it is in one breath the most beautiful, frustrating, life affirming, exciting, tiresome and unique experience you could ever wish to acquire and we will miss it like a lost friend. We've visited 16 countries, rode 23 forms of transport and met some truly incredible people. We have had the best ten months of our lives and despite the onset of reality just around the corner, I hope the rest of our lives are just as memorable. For the last time, for now,

Tommo and Shell - over and out x

Did someone say LA???

We were, as mentioned in the last blog, supposed to be leaving Fiji at 10pm but as expected, for this was Fiji after all, we would be delayed. It was 2am before our flight left Nadi which meant sitting around in the airport for seven frustrating and in my case anyway, horrific hours. After spending the day with stomach cramps my seven hours was spent in the airport toilets keeled over a bin that I had dragged into the cubicle. The epitome of class. Anyway, before we knew it we were in the sky. Due to the tiredness factor the ten hour flight seemed like a veritable breeze, whizzing by in a tiredness induced haze until some time later we landed in a sunny LA, intent on getting to our hostel as soon as was humanly possible. Unfortunately the shuttle bus we eventually found took an hour and a half to get to our hostel, winding its way through a literal maze of interstate freeways, gridlocked traffic and block upon block of fast food joints, asian takeaways and apartments. It was indescribably huge. 

The next day, after a feeble attempt to recover from accumulated jetlag, we set out from our hotel and wandered down Hollywood Boulevard, the street we were based. Now I know what everyone's idea of Hollywood is mostly based upon. Gleaming mansions, movie premieres and beautiful people- to a certain extent that is true, I'll explain about it shortly. The reality though is that we have never come across as many freaks as we have done in the past four days, not even in Fratton. I know we were based on Hollyword Boulevard, an area known for it's depravity, but it's almost as if all of the freaks of the world meet there for their annual convention. We passed one guy, amongst many others, who was stark bollock naked apart from a sign covering his modesty that read, 'I'm the naked ghetto prince, spank my ass for a dollar'. Unfortunately he had one of those walks that suggested the he accepted much more...

Unfortunately it isn't just Hollywood boulevard that monopolises the down and outs. In a striking lament of the US social model it is the gap between rich and poor, the grave area between the haves and the have nots that is so abundantly shocking. In one moment you could be nearly mowed down by an idiot in a Ferrari whilst witnessing a homeless guy sucking the meat of a chicken drumstick he found at the bottom of a bin. There is, not just in Hollywood, a huge population of homeless people. Ten or fifteen times the amount you would find in London. 




On our first full day there I think we instantly got a good idea of what it was all about. We checked out the avenue of stars and found all the best names and wondered as we walked in what particular order they put the names? some, like the Sammy Davis Jnr's and the  guys that landed on the moon, were really far from the centre, the sight of most of the tourists. Weirdly, some of the names that featured so prominently, Shakira, the Jonas Brothers, had ultimate positions right in the centre. is this indicative of American culture that recent manufactured pop artists take centre stage over scientific and musical pioneers?? Whichever way you look at it, Sammy Davis Jnr must be turning in his grave knowing his star stinks of piss while Justin Bieber's gets a weekly touch up. 

Later on that day we noticed quite a large crowd gathering outside the Kodak theatre, the site of the Oscars. After a while the police closed the road but we still had no idea why? We then noticed a few people who had been waiting were carrying posters of Tom Cruise, things started to fall into place. After a while long black cars started to arrive. All of a sudden a cacophony of noise started from a hundred metres down the street. Whisperings through the crowd suggested it was the king of Hollywood himself, we weren't too sure. They were right. To be fair to Mr Cruise he worked his way through the crowd talking to absolutely everyone. You gotta hand it to the guy.



After a while he made it up to our way where, with shello holding on to my legs, I managed to get a papparazzi-quality photo atop a bicycle stand, I think there's a future there somewhere... From there we stopped for traditional food and beer at a small back street place run by a quartet of cheerful Mexicans where we gorged on packed burritos and guacamole. The prices, like all of the food we had since leaving Fiji, was incredibly cheap. Plus the quality (and size!) where infinitely better which made these two hungry backpackers extremely happy! After a night of trying to ignore the distant sound of gunfire, engines the size of Panzer tanks and nonsensical homeless noises we were up the next morning for the start of our LA 'tour'.



The tour would take us as close to the famous Hollywood sign as was possible then through the Avenue of Stars, Beverley Hills and Bell Air for all those star homes and then through West LA to the beach neighbourhoods of Santa Monica and Venice Beach.  It was a great day for the tour, cloudless a skies and warm sun and we had an absolute blast. Like on any tour we never really got enough time in any one place but then hey, we definitely saw the highlights. The star homes were in the most part, secluded away behind large high gates but at least it gave you a tantalising glimpse of the exclusive lifestyles these aliens lead. I.e completely closed off from the real world.

After making our way yet again through endless streets we made our way to Santa Monica beach, home of Baywatch which was actually a really clean and expansively attractive beach. From there we travelled onwards towards Venice Beach, probably one of the most insane stretches of beach anywhere in the world. We compared it to the most strangely weird sides of Brighton or Camden but on reality it was on a different planet. We passed a guy who didn't talk but meowed, a very old black guy dressed only in tight leather y-fronts carrying a ghetto blaster....you get the picture. It was fantastic to see plus we had the greatest 'slice' of pizza we have ever had, shell was in heaven!! Oh and 'slice' being a quarter of a pizza!...




Before we were dropped back at the hotel we stopped for an hour on Rodeo Drive, LA's most exclusive shopping district. Looking like two people who had been on the road for two months (in fact shell looked amazing as usual-damn her!!) we didn't try on any Gucci or Prada but we did have a toilet stop in the famous hotel where Richard Gere met Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Sone things you have to do...     

The day after, with our flight to Vegas not till 9pm we had the day to explore as we wished. We started walking from the hotel and within a few minutes we had stumbled upon a huge side street farmers Market. We love farmers markets, they are essentially one of the greatest creations modern human beings can muster. Happy weekend people with a deep love of locally sourced and nutritious food at cheap prices. Fantastic. We strolled around for what seemed like hours. We feasted on a hot sausage quesadilla which, after ordering a half size, fed the two of us completely. From there we strolled around West Hollywoods backstreets and stumbled upon a glitch of pubs selling delicious micro-brewed local ales. The girl behind the bar gave us a free tasting of most before we plumped for a couple and whiled away the day sat in the beautiful sunshine. It was the perfect end to a sublime four days in LA, a place which I was convinced I would dislike but in the end was one of the highlights of our trip.

It is, in most senses, both beautiful and hideous in equal measure but I guess that's what makes it so unique. The best bit...watching every bloke stare at shell slack-jawed. She's still got it...x Anyway, Vegas baby!!!! Tommo and shello xxxx 

Fiji on a budget! Round two...

So the second half of our Fijian escape came and went. Due to the secluded nature of where we were staying our chances of getting out and exploring were severely limited. Despite this we booked a minibus and driver to take seven of us about 100km further east to Suva, the Fijian capital.

We were prepared really, through what the guidebooks and websites had to say about Suva that we would encounter a scruffy and overcrowded city. Well, they weren't wrong. It had no major problems per se from what we could see other than the fact it looked about as far removed from the South Pacific ideal than it was possible to get. In short it looked like the offspring of a generic Malaysian city and Fratton. I don't know what goes through developers minds when they meet with architects or designers when planning a new large building? It's almost as if the conversation goes something like, 'I think what this city really needs is a momentously huge and ugly multistorey car park', 'what colour shall we paint it sir?', 'I'm thinking something innocuous, how about bright red?', 'oh and while your at it, put it right on the seafront so all of the incoming tourists coming in on cruise ships can see it'. Idiots.

What it is also surprising to see is how large the Indian community is in Fiji. After a huge migration in the 1960s Fiji's population is now uniquely split around 60-40 in the Fijians favour but as the Indians own most of the businesses their population is mostly spread in the urban centres, with most of them in Suva. Walking around in the humidity, amongst curry houses and blaring Bollywood soundtracks, it could have been Mumbai. Even so, they all still shout Bula! to you as you walk down the street, something uniquely Fijian.

Suva did have some cool architecture and was, despite our moans, a cheap place to eat. Three hours was more than enough though so we hopped back on the minibus for the long drive back. On the outskirts of the city we happened to pass a police officer with three prisoners chained together in front of him genially waving to us as we passed without a care in the world. Apparently these guys had escaped and were in the process of being retrieved. Apparently this happens a lot in Fiji, prisoners just leisurely 'sneak-out' for a day or two. Brilliant. Imagine the furore it would create elsewhere. Just as a side-note, we passed the prison further down the road which was, much like the multi-storey car-parks I mentioned, painted bright red. This time though sponsored by vodafone which was painted in huge White letters. It must be, I reckon, the worlds first jail to be sponsored by a telephone company. I hope the irony isn't lost on the prisoners.

Our remaining days at the beachouse were golden. Although we had kind of outstayed our time there, eventually staying 9 days, I think we knew we were on to a good thing. The three guys from Manchester, Max, Luke and Greg, were a top bunch. Plus we also met a large group from Sweden who were mental. We spent most of our time with them making the most of the beautiful weather by day and the nuclear fuelled rum by night. The beachouse was also full of lots of different people of all ages which gave the whole place a really good vibe. We will really miss it, a beautiful place.

But alas, after nearly a week and a half if was time to move on. To be honest we didn't really have a clue where to go. It seems, frustratingly, that Fiji is much more expensive than we originally thought. In fact, when compared to NZ and Australia, in terms of accommodation anyway, it is really similar. In the end we trawled the Internet and found a place not too far from where we were, about half an hour west along the Coral Coast. When we got there I think we both panicked at how quiet it was. Our bungalow was awesome, we couldn't complain about that-it was probably the nicest place we had stayed in the whole way around the world but what the Internet 'deal' didn't state was two glaring discrepancies. One, we were pretty much the only people there as the resort was 'under construction'. Two, the food was so expensive it made our heads wobble as we sat down for dinner on the first night. after ordering two appetisers we went back to the room to try to sleep on an empty stomach.

The next day we waited outside the hotel for a bus into Sigatoka, the nearest largish town. We waited an eternity until a really nice Indian couple pulled up and offered to take us into town for the same price as the bus. They were really nice and before you (mum and linda!) start fretting about getting into cars with strangers, it really is different out here.

We'd gone into town to buy enough food for the next few days as we just couldn't face paying the prices in the hotel restaurant. In the room we had a kettle and a fridge so if we could find something that could be cooked via kettle then we would be well away. It wasn't to be. We thought about buying tins of baked beans but just couldn't stoop down to eating cold baked beans out of the tin. In the end we came away with milk, bread, weetabix and fruit. Our meals for the next two days. Depressing, not really a notch above cold baked beans when you think about it.

The day after was like mental torture. The weather had turned to produce a grey, windy and wet day with nothing but soggy weetabix and bananas for company. Suffice to say, it was a long day.... The next day our abstention from the hotel food broke as we were in desperate need of something that wasn't either weetabix or a crisp sandwich. We both plucked for the chicken as it looked decent on the menu. What we got was a deep fried slab of tough meat on the biggest plate of greasy chips we've ever had. We ate it of course but it really was fucking vile. The kind of food that leaves you feeling just disgusting to the core. It was, depressingly, the most expensive meal of our trip. We had to move on.




The next day we said our goodbyes to the staff and our beach bungalow and hailed a passing minibus to take us the 80kms around the island to Nadi. The frustrating thing is, being on a tight budget just doesn't work in Fiji. We had these grand visions of island hopping from one deserted paradise to another but just to get to the first island out there costs about seventy pounds for the both of us. Fiji, on our budget anyway, would be restricted to the mainland.

In the end we arrived at a little backpacker district a little bit out of town. The beach wasn't great, in fact it was pretty gruesome, but all of the hotels had a great backpacker vibe and were, compared to our last stop anyway, cheap enough so we could actually eat.

Our first stop was a place called the Aquarius where we spotted they had a two person dorm which would be much cheaper than what we'd been paying lately. Unfortunately the room was just terrible. In the middle of two store rooms on the ground floor next to the bar it was just underneath the level of a prison cell. Shell's face said it all. A mix of being petrified and wanting to be sick. To complete the feeling an Indian guy sat directly under our only window smoking and chuckling down his mobile phone for what seemed like hours. If only he knew how close shell was to wrapping my belt around his neck.




Anyway, despite that awful room we had an awesome time in this area before we left. The weather was startlingly beautiful. Clear blue skies and hot days meant that we had a good few days on the beach and in the pools. We even caught up with a few of the Swedes we had met in the Beachouse. Our tans, shell is happy to report, are well and truly back.

So, we fly to LA tonight. It's a ten hour flight which I am obviously petrified about but which shell is looking forward to! I don't know how she does it! The weird thing is we leave at 10pm on 7th June, fly for ten hours as mentioned then arrive in LA at 1pm on the 7th June. We will go back in time!

We are really looking forward to the States. The food in Fiji has been well below average and the portions so tiny. In fact a couple of nights ago we ordered the special of beef kebab skewers only to be presented with beef and veg on cocktail sticks. We are constantly hungry. America, if you can, feed us the food that makes your people so fat!!

Speak to you all in LA. Much love, Tommo and shell xxx