I drove south on the 95 and hit Vegas. The freeways were numberous, fast and with really bad holes. I feared for the tanks tyres. I eventually made it to the visitors centre which is near the main Convention Centre, a huge building. Parking proved to be somewhat problematic as they were changing/setting up some sort of structure in the carpark. The lady behind the desk was very helpful & pointed me to the free phones to enquire about accommodation. I decided to go with the Paris Las Vegas - kitsche I know but this is Vegas!!! As I drove down the strip to the hotel, I felt like a star... apart from the fact I had few clean clothes, not much cash & certainly no limousine. No matter, the mind is a powerful tool...

Since it was still fairly early, I decided to get onto the Deuce bus - $5 for a 24 hour ticket & the route is up & down the Strip. You can get on & off whenever you like. So, I jumped on & headed downtown, passing the various wedding chapels - some of them themed... I bet Elvis is a regular. At the downtown bus terminal, we had to get off whilst the bus turned around, and then could get straight back on. This appears to be a relatively painless way of seeing the strip. It seems rather odd to be seeing these large building & hotels after seeing them for years on the telly.

As the bus filled up, a young Indian lad sat himself down next to me and we got chatting. His name is Ram - he has a very strong accent which makes it difficult to understand him at times - he lives in Germany, is in Vegas on business & is something to do with an IT company. Since we were both at a loose end that evening, we decided to meet up later on.

I went back to my hotel after wandering through some of the shopping malls & had a drink in the bar. There I got chatting to David who lives in Fresno & is a pecan nut trader... very specialised trading I believe. He was fairly drunk, full of himself & bored me senseless.

I went to meet Ram who was staying in the MGM Grand. We had dinner in the buffet and then he wanted to buy a bottle of gin & take it to his room. No! We had a drink in a noisy bar & I wandered back to my hotel.