Earlier last month, Sukh and I went to Las Vegas. It was our first trip to Vegas, so I didn’t know what to expect aside from the dozens of reviews I read on TripAdvisor.

Upon our arrival in Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport, I took a whiff of the air and smelled a combination of alcohol and vomit. My boss had warned me of this. It wasn’t a strong smell, but it wasn’t faint either. Thankfully, we didn’t experience much of the dreaded stench as we quickly gathered our luggage and headed towards the shuttle area outside. Our hotel shuttle (ShowTime) was waiting, and a couple of minutes later we were checked in and sitting in the air conditioned shuttle.

Our hotel, MGM Grand, was the first stop of many on the Strip. I thought people were exaggerating when they stated it took 20 minutes to get from the front lobby to their hotel room. They were. It takes ten minutes. I wasn’t speed walking either. On the other hand, walking from the overhead pedestrian walkways to your hotel room does take approximately 20 minutes.

If you go to Vegas, be prepared to do a lot of walking. On our third day there, we walked from the Stratosphere to the MGM Grand. Yeah, crazy. It was good exercise though. After eating a Vegas dinner buffet, walking should be mandatory. Of course, there’s a monorail that runs from the MGM Grand to the Sahara, but it’s another walking adventure just to reach the monorail stations. I quote the monorail station recording at the MGM Grand, “Using this monorail, you get access to the rear of the hotel that no one else usually gets to see.” Trust me, there’s nothing much back there to see.

Don’t quote me on this, but “drink lots of water!”. You might hear that from staff and other employees. Some people appeared to make a living selling bottled water sitting in the pedestrian walkways: “One dolla! Ice cold water!”

Don’t get me started on the Mexicans handing out stripclub cards along the Strip. I almost smacked one. They don’t appear to care if you are a guy or girl, but insist on making a ridiculous flapping noise and handing you a card. Some guy walking in front of us grabbed one from a guy and tried to hand it back to his friend a couple of meters away. The Mexican hid his hand and ignored him. We ignored them too, but they flapped the cards at us all the more. Thankfully, Las Vegas has crews that clean up the cards on the ground every evening. For the record, we didn’t grab any cards, but I’m sure we walked over quite a few.

If the Mexicans weren’t enough, there are plenty of agents trying to sell timeshares. Agents from various timeshare companies are everywhere. Memorize the following line, you’ll need it if you go to Vegas: “We are leaving tomorrow!” Agents will try various lines from, “Are you married?” to “How long are you in Vegas for?” to “I have a free gift for you, follow me!”. They will promise you free shows and dinners, but you have to attend a high pressure timeshare presentation. Of course, if you walk out of the presentation, you get nothing (well, maybe a drink and a cookie).

Come back soon for some more tips!