WE'RE BACK!!!! More instalments from the (now) Smith's as we embark on another epic journey. Safely arrived in Bangkok this morning just so you all know.

So let's take it back a couple of weeks & sum up Las Vegas, from there we'll dive into Thailand.

Las Vegas, Nevada

So this was our 4th time in Vegas in 4 years, I know, a little bit ridiculous! This was our pre-travels holiday to prematurely celebrate Matt's 30th which isn't until May. As we are away for 2 years, we thought we might as well, it would be rude not to.

We went with Kate and Mark (Sister & brother in-law, for those of you that don't know) our Vegas buddies for the last 3 years. The boys surprised us at the airport by booking us a limo to the hotel. It was so nice, especially after a 10 hour flight and the 3 hours it took us to check in. We were staying at the Gold Coast Hotel this year as it was a lot cheaper than the strip and the rooms were lovely.

So in summary this was our week.

Saturday - Once we had checked in we had a gander around the hotel and then headed to Palms to abuse our buffet pass that we had brought through travel zoo before we left. It was seafood night. Yum. The buffets in Vegas are ridiculous they definitely put our Cosmo and ZaZa Bazaar to shame. So basically the food was lush. We had a few beers & checked out some of the slot machines, but it was an early night for us.

Sunday - We got up early and sunbathed by the pool. It was baking in the early 40's. This was supposed to be Matt's 30th night out, so we had booked to go and see Penn and Teller at the Rio and then the roof top bar on the 52nd floor, overlooking the strip. Penn and Teller were really good we all thoroughly enjoyed it. The Jet Lag was definitely starting to kick in though and Matt wasn't feeling to great, so we headed to the bar and asked the manager if we could come back tomorrow instead and abuse our all inclusive bar package we had booked. Luckily he agreed so we headed back to our hotel.

Monday - We checked out the strip and barely sunbathed as it was scorching. On the evening we got all glammed up and headed back to the Rio to the rooftop bar. Luckily the manager let us in J the views were incredible, you could see the whole of the strip from the stratosphere to Mandalay Bay, it was epic. We spent our whole time outside dancing the night away and admiring the view. The all inclusive bar tab definitely got abused. I think me and Kate drank a bottle of vodka between us and we definitely paid for it the next day (well I did). The boys both left a bit earlier than us, but me and Kate were the last ones there dancing with our bar man friend, 'Asian Will I Am' who was a legend, until 5am.

Tuesday - This day was a write off for me, I was very poorly all self inflicted though of course so I can't complain. I timed it well though as we had torrential rain and storms for most of the day, there was flash flooding and it was all over the news. Kate was also not feeling great; I think she was still drunk in the morning. Lol. The others went to 'Hash House a Go Go' in the evening for dinner at Imperial Palace apparently the portions were huge and the food was amazing. Matt also won $150 on one of his old school slot machines that he loves.

Wednesday -Today we had an epic casino day, I think we pretty much went into every casino on the strip and we finally checked out Hooters and Tropicana which were ones we have never been to before. We also went to the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign which is just down from Mandalay Bay, another first for us. After that we headed to the House of Blues for a breakfast Burrito. We then worked our way back up the strip, MGM was being re-furbished and they had moved the lions which was a bit sad as they are always good to go and see. For Lunch we went to BLT Burger in the Mirage which is amazing. I had food envy; Matt's burger was the best burger I had ever tasted. So good. We carried on up the strip and then got a taxi to Freemont Street. This was good as usual and a lot of the casinos were being re-furbished and re-vamped. The pool at the Golden Nugget looked amazing; it's built around a massive aquarium tank which housed everything up to reef sharks! We also saw some random street dancing which was ace.

Thursday - We went back to the strip again abusing the free shuttle from our hotel and spent most of our time checking out Bellagio's, Caesars and the shopping mall. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and had more amazing food. Honestly, I would be the fattest woman in the world if I lived in America. At least I could eat for free on Freemont Street, they had a sign saying 'Eat for free if you weigh over 350lbs' ridic! In the afternoon we chilled by the pool before getting ready to go see 'O' a Cirque de Soleil at Bellagio. Wow, it was amazing. My favourite is still 'Ka' at the MGM but it was way better than Zumanity or Mystere. All of the Cirque de Soleil's are amazing though and I would definitely recommend checking one out if you go. Afterwards we headed to Cheese Cake Factory and got some dinner. Once again awesome food and we all took some cheesecake back with us for later, the Carrot Cake one is epic and the Reece's Peanut Butter cup.

Friday- This was our full last day, so we were all starting to feel slightly sad. Mark did another poker tournament in the morning so we went to Excalibur with him while he played and we had a look around and went over to Tropicana. It has just been renovated and I love it, its really light and fresh, I would definitely stay there if we ever go again and want somewhere cheap but nice. In the evening I had booked a table for us at the Pub in Monte Carlo to watch the Duelling Pianos. They were awesome, basically there are 2 pianists facing each other and they take it in turns to play and sing songs. You can also get up and do some Karaoke. It was crazy though, the first 3 people to get up were absolutely amazing way better than anyone on our X Factor. We watched them for a few hours whilst taking advantage of the raspberry cider J We got back late to the hotel and had our last TGI's, Me, Kate and Mark all got steak and Matt had the biggest Fajitas known to Man.

Saturday - Our last day L so we got up early and sunbathed for a few hours. We then checked out and headed into our Casino, we thought it would be wrong not to have a last little flutter. Kate and I must have rubbed the lucky Buddha in the right way as I won $100 on a slot machine and Kate won $270 on another one. Just a shame it was on the last day. We headed to the noodle exchange for lunch, which is amazing and abused the lunch time deal. Our Limo arrived shortly after to take us to the airport. The Limo was so nice, definitely the nicest Limo I have ever been in. When we got to the airport we did 'curb-side check in' there was literally a booth there as we got out of the limo, very bizarre. It turned out being a nightmare though as they somehow mistakenly checked me in as a bloke called 'Callum Smith' sat 3 rows behind us. Mark found it hilarious when we got to passport control and the security guy was trying to work out if I was dude or not. Ha ha it was funny. We then had to go back and sort it out and get the luggage re-tagged. I felt sorry for Callum though as he would have been checked in already. Then it was time to leave one of our favourite cities 'Las Vegas' hopefully we will get the chance to stop by on our way home from our travels, if not roll on Kate's 30th

Best tramp signs;

· 'Smile if you touch yourself'

· 'Why lie, Elmo needs a beer' & yes he was wearing an Elmo costume

· 'Working my way through college' this dude was about 80 and toothless.

Much love to everyone back home - back with Bangkok tales soon. xxx