Early in October, Conrad emailed the Lambdas telling us that he has a suite in the Bellagio and that we are invited to hang out in Vegas with him. Seeing as I am close and it was only for a few days, I jumped on a flight to meet up with a few Columbia Lambdas and Yi-Chung.

The flight was extremely short. Before I even got comfortable with my drink and book, we were already descending to our destination. After arriving, I met up with everyone at the Bellagio. We all explored around a bit and looked for a place to eat.

Look what I spotted on the way!

I tried taking a self portrait from the hotel, but failed.

We had a suite in the Spa Tower with a view of the Rio, where Penn and Teller have their show.

I didn’t take too many photos of the suite, but I did get a few. Here we are about to leave for lunch after a night clubbing.

We took a walk around the strip to find lunch.

The pictures can’t capture the weather. It was sweltering. I’m glad the bay area doesn’t get this hot.

Eventually, we found a nice Italian place to eat at, the Trattoria Reggiano. Surprisingly, the food was good and the prices were reasonable too. Who would have thought?

In the evening, we attended the Taste of Tao event at the Tao Beach club.

The Lucky Beer was not very good, but I loved the bottle enough to bring one home with me.

The event featured all you can eat Asian hor d’oeuvres and food and all you can drink cocktails and beer. The food wasn’t exactly authentic, but it was delicious.

The club is nestled beneath the Venetian.

The Japan section was my favorite and always had the longest line.

I ate quite a few of the thai bass skewers.

They had plenty of refreshing Taotinis to go around.

The entertainment was exciting, but to me, the food still took the center stage.

There was an artist doing spray tattoos. Jin got one. Though, I’m pretty sure he just wanted a reason to take his shirt off.

Yi-Chung got a much more conservative tattoo.

I spy another dragon!

We all had a great time and went home satisfied.

Andy even filled up the bento box from his goodie bag on the way out.

The next day, we tried out the Bellagio’s buffet for breakfast.

The food was decent, but not particularly memorable.

On the last day, while the others were either at the spa or gambling, Yi-Chung and I explored the City Center mall.

Once I saw the shape of the building and the design of the windows and holes for lighting, I knew that we were in a Daniel Libeskind designed building.

The mall was very bright and spacious, but peculiarly empty o.O. Maybe it is too high-end for the average Las Vegas visitor.

Ice sculptures in the mall.

Although the trip was short, I had a lot of fun. It was mostly due to who I was with. I’m not sure I really like Las Vegas. It seems a bit too artificial and extravagant for my liking. I’d go again, but only if in good company like this trip.