High Rollers

With a black cloud of disappointment hanging over us from the Halloween Robot fiasco, we decided we would have to leave Vegas before it sapped all of our pitiful remaining funds. With Cashbook temporarily out of the equation, we recklessly decided to go out with a bang. One more night in Vegas to stay in a ridiculous hotel, hit the strip all night, immerse ourselves in the world of gambling and not sleep unless forced to. 

Drunken Homing Beacon

With the plan in place, we booked into the audacious Luxor hotel: a giant glossy black pyramid with the world's brightest light shooting straight up from its peak into the night sky. All the rooms are built on the inside of the pyramid's skin, on balconies overhanging one of the world's largest atriums (the entire interior space of the pyramid). A specially designed lift took us diagonally upwards to our room, we peered over the balcony outside our room before going in. The sheer height above the bustling casino floor below, combined with the bizarre angles of the Pyramid's structure created a nauseating view. Inside the room, the far wall was angled steeply inwards and housed a huge window, affording us a stunning view over the enormous Sphynx in front of the hotel, and beyond out across the desert.

Sticking to the plan, we donned our swankiest attire and headed down into the depths of the pyramid to seek out a lavish Vegas style restaurant, which we found in the form of a cigar/sports bar. Having abused our bodies again by not eating all day, the exquisite soups that comprised our starter were heaven-sent. Some outrageous surf and turf burgers later, we were fully energised and ready to hit the strip. As we hopped from casino to casino, we started ticking off the ones we hadn't yet visited, which soon escalated into a mission to visit every major casino on the strip. 

Along the way and after several beers, we were drawn in by the challenge of riding the 'New York New York' roller-coaster, its track weaving tightly between the skyscrapers of an imitation New York Skyline. From our cursory reconnaissance, it looked like a 'My First Roller-coaster' for kids. We confidently strolled on to the ride, having flippantly ignored all requests to discard cameras (yet safely stowing our beers in a locker) - this was going to be classic footage for the film! The banter was flowing as the ride lurched into life and clicked slowly around the first bend and out into the chilly night air.

We were already high up and could see the bright lights of Vegas twinkling below us, the train lurched to a halt and were faced with the de-facto huge steep incline to get the ride started. The tension was building. After about a minute, with no sign of movement, paranoia started setting in. What was taking so long? Mike had convinced himself that the ride's operators had spotted our stealthy camera and had stopped the ride - an absurd hypothesis instantly laughed off by Tom, who was secretly desperately trying to control his own wildly racing thoughts.

Suddenly we were flanked on both sides by two ride operators, shining intrusive torch beams in our faces. One operator delightfully revealed she had spotted our camera, which we immediately surrendered. Before she marched back to the security office, she used our own camera to film our embarrassment. Busted. To add insult to injury, we still had to endure the ride which, far from its kiddy appearance, turned out to be a gut-wrenching test of endurance and nerves. With the final high-G force spiral behind us, we triumphantly exited the ride - having successfully kept down our meals. 

We continued our tour, ticking off the last few casinos, and discovering the genius of free drinks for people playing the games. We whiled away the hours feeding our meagre gambling budgets into the slot machines and finishing them off in a quick blow-out on the roulette table. Our coach and host for our tragically short roulette careers was Chinese Wayne - an animated and aggressive chap who we nearly wound up into a dangerous frenzy with our systematic and safe betting patterns. Inevitably though we lost everything. 

We collected our last drink at the bar and after being propositioned by a hooker we couldn’t afford, returned to our room.