BAM! Rishi's Ridiculous Rampage (7/30-8/1)

[rnjbond]

So I'll try to get this one off to a start while it's still fresh in my mind... As per my habit, I'll provide a soundtrack for reading this. I'll give youtube links this time.

P.S. Warning: I write a lot. I'll probably have to break this down into three parts.

Prologue: So my boy was having his birthday and decided to go to Vegas. Honestly, any details about this plan were given to me about a month prior to going. We ended up going as four guys, which is the perfect number, since we're perfectly mobile (one cab can fit all of us; no separation; etc).

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAFWA7qxC0E"]Music: My Time - Fabolous[/ame]

So we jump in the car from The Bay and head to Vegas, making a pit stop on Thursday night at Birthday Boy's house to celebrate his birthday with his family. Got some rest, had a nice breakfast, and set off to Vegas.

We make an early start and bring with us our clothes, our alcohol, a cooler full of soda and vodka (from his parents), and a bag of snacks (also from his parents). Without the cooler, it is entirely likely we would have kept our vodka cold by filling our bathtub up with ice, high school prom style. This cooler, plus the extra vodka, came through in such clutch.

Stopped by the grocery store, picked up a 12-pack of Miller Chill (essentially Bud Light lime), a ton of chasers and lime juice, and some Sugar Free Rockstar.

I drove the way from LA to Vegas. I volunteered for two reasons -- I didn't want to drive back from Vegas to LA, and I love the drive onto the strip itself. The drive itself was okay, minus some dumb traffic, as well as a phone call from my boss (was taking Friday off), who needed some stuff.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRIU_iO-wek"]Music: Bad Boys For Life - P Diddy[/ame]

So it's been done in movies, over and over again, but the feeling of getting over that long drive and getting onto the Vegas strip for the first time in the trip is just something else. You all get filled with a sense of adrenaline and excitement. This is VEGAS, BABY. Slowly, you can see buildings appear in the distance. You pass Mandalay Bay and everything just pops up out of nowhere. Sure, it makes us look like obnoxious frat boys, but who cares?! We rolled down our windows, blasted Punjabi music, and yelled "VEGASSSSS!!!" out at every single person in earshot.

I can only imagine what this drive in must be like at night. Seriously, I significantly prefer to fly in, but this drive in was worth it.

Rolled into the Mirage with Birthday Boy, left the two guys with all our stuff in the garage, and went to check-in. Spotted a cute chick working the reception, so I went with Birthday boy to check in. Built up his birthday a lot, told her it's his first time in Vegas, etc. He was a little too green to try the $20 sandwich trick, but I had no such qualms. I offered to put my card down for charges, slipped the $20, and in return, we got a 21st floor room and $50 credit for food and drink in the hotel. Completely worth it.

Drag all our stuff to our room, soak in the view, the sunlight, all that is Vegas. We made it here, boys!

Decide to do a celebratory shot while we wait for the bellhop to come up. We unfortunately only have warm vodka, so I grab ice, create a makeshift shaker out of two hotel room glasses, mix in some lime juice (I'm too old to take vodka shots anymore -- vodka + lime juice = instant kamikaze), and toast to the weekend ahead. It's 4 PM on Friday and we're here until Noon on Sunday. We have all we've been looking forward to and working out for for a month right here in front of us now.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEKEjpTzB0Q"]Music: Good Life - Kanye West[/ame]

Finally our bags come in, grab a couple more shots, and jump out the door. Giddy with excitement, we jump out onto the street and head straight to O'Shea's, which is becoming my favourite casino. It has a very "college" atmosphere, which is a ton of fun. We grab yard-long margaritas and split two between the four of us.

We find a $5 blackjack table and grab it immediately, taking over the table. The dealer was nice enough, though she didn't fit our overall criteria of an ideal blackjack dealer. Our criteria? One that we can understand; one that looks like he/she loves being a dealer; one that will laugh with us and make a game of it, instead of patronizing us; one that, whenever one of us breaks a rule, like keeping a camera on the table, will tell us nicely to pick it up. But anyway, we plop down and play and have a generally great time. When the cocktail waitress came by for drinks, we just got tequila shots and added them to our margaritas. Probably one of the best ideas I had this trip.

Head on from here to Bill's casino for a little, for the same $5 blackjack tables. We had some horrible dealers who scowled, and, as expected, we lost money here. Grabbed a drink and went to PlanetHollywood, one of my favourite casinos for ambience and decor. Seriously, the place just feels like a casino out of the movies. It feels like a place where famous people gamble, but without the high roller prices ($10 blackjack?!). Drop some roullette, blackjack, etc, and it's almost seven and time for dinner

Head to dinner at Spago, one of my favourite Vegas restaurants, at Caesar's Palace, enjoy a feast of food between us four, and try to act normal and classy, while already trashed. Our waiter was a good sport, though, and had the same watch as a buddy of ours, which entertained us to no ends.

Okay, enough for now -- I think I hear my boss coming back. Till later!

[Guest]

Alright lots of pre-game work put in. Lets see the good stuff!

[WarreN]

Im ready to see where this went...

[rnjbond]

All right, now it's Friday night... our first night out in Vegas and we're ready to make it happen.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3v0xE9aF6I"]Music: Fancy - Drake [/ame]

So we bump the iPod in our room and toast to the night ahead. The four of us get all decked out in our shirts and vests, pound as many drinks as possible, make some to-go drinks, and jump in the cab to head to the Hard Rock Hotel.

As soon as we jump into the casino, around 11 PM, I text Justen and meet up with him. Five minutes later, we're inside Vanity. Damn, JC gets you hooked up.

I had never been to Body English before and this was my first time at Vanity... damn, the place is fancy, huh. Gorgeous decorations, great lighting, and the club is big enough to have a great dance floor, but not too big as to be a place to get lost. We're all feeling the vibe as we roll through, but the place is just starting up. To ease into the night, we start buying rounds -- mostly Jager bombs, my club drink of choice -- it wakes you up and gets you a quick buzz going. We start dancing, then I suddenly remember that I brought a to-go drink in a water bottle and it's in my back pocket.

So my buddies and I go to a corner and start downing the drink. Apparently, contrary to our impression, being drunk does not make you invisible, so naturally, a bouncer sees what we're doing, so we disperse. I take the water bottle and just march into the bathroom and lock myself up in a stall. The birthday boy pulls into the stall right next to me, and we just pass the bottle back and forth until it's empty. As we walk out, we're confronted by two security guards. On the verge of getting kicked out, we follow the Ronnie strategy -- Deny, Deny, Deny. They let us off with a warning, as they were just happy that we weren't doing lines in the bathroom as they were suspecting. Just think how much easier this could have been in the girl's bathroom... why do they get a gigantic and lavish bathroom anyway?!

Freshly drunker, we meet up with our other buddies, laugh the story off, and head to the dancefloor, which is now getting packed.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUjdiDeJ0xg"]Music: Dynamite - Taio Cruz[/ame]

So this song, Dynamite by Taio Cruz, is one of our group's favourite songs. It's just such an awesome party song. As we were leaving on Thursday night, we were joking about how we had to come up with dance moves to this song and... then the DJ plays this track. Naturally, we run to the middle of the floor and somehow come up with some coordinated moves to show off. It was hilarious.

The DJ then starts to drop some more tracks that we love. First it's Sexy B**** by David Guetta ft. Akon. One of the guys in our group has his own dance steps to this song that we've all learned by now, so we repeat what we did for Dynamite and pull out our coordinated moves. Then comes the kicker: Beware of the Boys by Punjabi MC.

Being a group of four desi guys in a club with almost no Indian people, we start busting out our Bhangra moves. I'm sure you've all seen this (you know, screw in the lightbulb, pat the dog), but it was new to some around us. There were groups of girls taking pictures of us dancing. Sensing an opportunity, after the song ends, we approach them. Turns out to be a bachelorette party. Naturally wanting to play along, I introduce the birthday boy as a bachelor just so he can hit on the bachelorette. We kick it with this group for a little bit until they drift away, then continue dancing.

A couple more Jager bombs later, we see a group of Indian girls on the danceflor. Naturally wanting to leverage our position as the only other Indians in the club, we now approach them and start dancing. There were three Indian girls I remember in that group -- one was cute and had a nice smile (I woke up the next morning to find a picture of her with the birthday boy and me); one was pretty hot and stuck-up; and one was a little older (bear in mind, we're all under 25).

So I introduce the cute and nice one to one friend, who dances with her and gets along nicely. Another buddy starts dancing with the older chick, and I'm not quite sure I remember what my story with the stuck-up one is.

The buddy who is dancing with the older chick is REALLY drunk at this point, but he's into it, so I naturally wingman my best, telling the girl he's a nice guy, etc. Once again, details are fuzzy here, but she ends up showing me her driver's license to show me how old she is... definitely over thirty. Oh well, it's Vegas!

This goes on for a while until the night comes to a crashing end -- a buddy got kicked out for being too drunk. Since we're all bros, we left Vanity (unfortunately, it was completely peaking around that point) and went back to the Mirage to put said buddy into bed.

Now, it's only 3 AM or so at this point, and we're never the type to let our nights end like this, so the remaining three of us soldier up, take a few shots in the room, and head downstairs.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IH8tNQAzSs"]Music: Lollipop - Lil Wayne[/ame]

In our drunken state, we first tried to get into Jet, but the front door people wanted $30 each... at 3 AM, and were not willing to compromise. F That! So we wander into what we somehow thought was Rhumbar, but was actually King Ink, and order, what else, more Jager bombs! (I swear, we're not fratboys or guidos). We use our $50 food and beverage credit we got at check-in on these drinks and chill outside. Our waitress was cute, so we talked to her for a little bit, got some pictures, then hit the strip.

By the time we got onto the street, we were pretty belligerent. It was at this point that I decided I was going to tell every single person I met that it was my friend's birthday. I start shouting this out and these two chicks stop and talk to him, saying that he should be having fun instead of gambling. We were too drunk (oh yeah, we also stopped and picked up two Bud Light Limes from... somewhere) to realise they were pros, so he gives one of them his number. Later on, he sees a text from her saying just the following words: "100 BANGIN THE HEADBOARD". Naturally, this became one of our catchphrases for the rest of the weekend and it's something that we still use.

We jump into O'Sheas because, well, when drunk, playing Blackjack seems like an awesome idea. We get a good dealer and just keep playing through, making jokes, being completely obnoxious. What made it great was that our dealer never once told us to calm down or keep quiet or anything. Best drunken blackjack experience ever. Time flies and it's now Six AM, I'm basically falling asleep at the table (I did the drive into Vegas, so unlike the others, I didn't get any naptime)... and we have to be at Wet Republic at 11 AM. So we make the executive decision to get back to the hotel and crawl into bed.

Will we be able to wake up in four hours? To be continued...

[WarreN]

Lol synchronized dancing in the club...priceless. Wish I coulda seen that!

[VEGAS88]

Haha awesome report man. Dynamite was our trip song as well, along with others. But Dynamite, came on at every club we went to in all 3 states. Awesome song to party to, just puts you in that feel good, party mood.

[rnjbond]

Haha awesome report man. Dynamite was our trip song as well, along with others. But Dynamite, came on at every club we went to in all 3 states. Awesome song to party to, just puts you in that feel good, party mood.

For sure; can't wait till Taio Cruz' next big one to hit the floors.

[rnjbond]

All right, let's hammer this out:

So having just gone to bed, I hear my friend mumble "Rishi... it's 10:30..."

Oh no! We have to be at Wet Republic by 11! So, being the energetic one of the group, I jump out of bed and start waking people up, who are all still groggy from the night before. To get everyone in the mood, I bust out my iPod and put on...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0QzUdjhIg"]Music: I Like It - Enrique Inglesias[/ame]

Yeah, this song really gets it going and makes us want to party. Plus, it's the Jersey Shore song and we had all been working out hard for this trip and specifically for the pool party, so how can we not get up?

I quickly brush my teeth, toss on my trunks, and open up the cooler. Somehow, in my drunken state last night, I remembered to put all the bottles of Miller Chill in there and get them ready for the day. I grab a bottle and start drinking it, then start tossing bottles at other people, making everyone drink. The goal was to down two each in the room, then drink one in the cab on the way to Wet Republic. Somehow, in all of this, we forgot about our brilliant plan to bust out 100 push-ups each before hitting the pool. Oh well.

Somehow stumble downstairs through the Mirage lobby, looking absolutely ridiculous, and hail a cab and get to Wet Republic. The line is fortunately short at this time, so we jump in line to get in. I had e-mailed Erin to get us on the guestlist ahead of time, but they couldn't find our name. So I just showed them the e-mail and that solved everything.

The four of us are pretty damn hungover at this point; one friend ended up puking in line, but we made it through, so naturally, we start drinking some Bud Light Limes as soon as we get in. The place is just warming up, so we make buddies with one of the bartenders there. Naturally, I pull out the "birthday" card for my buddy and he offers to make him free shots later in the day. We jump into the water and talk to some girls there -- turns out another girl is there celebrating her birthday, so I leave the birthday boy to work her and her two hot friends.

At this point, the weather is gorgeous, we're nice and drunk, and the women are getting better and better looking (and not just because we're drunk). The DJ is spinning some great music, and we're having fun.

Remembering the bartender's offer, I grab the birthday boy and his new friend, the birthday girl, and have him make them both shots. Since he's so awesome, he makes me a shot as well, so we down it and get back into the pool and I notice my Indian radar go off -- turns out there's a bachelorette party of Indian girls in the pool next to us. Naturally, I turn my attention that way and we all start talking to them, trying to convince them to come to the Palms with us, but they're really stuck up (seems like a recurring pattern here -- why the hell are desi girls in Vegas so stuck up?).

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBhj-Tv4WHI"]DJ Got Us Falling In Love - Usher Ft. Pitbull[/ame]

I forgot to mention one thing this whole time: there was a stand serving "samples" of sweet tea vodka mixed with lemonade (kinda like an Arnold Palmer shot). These were exceptionally tasty and, more importantly, free, so I stop buying drinks and instead take as many samples of these as I can. In fact, I'd go to girls and offer to buy them a shot, then just grab two samples of these sweet tea shots. Only a few girls realised what I was doing, while the rest were very appreciative of it (except those stuck up Indian girls; seriously, I should have just listened to Royale).

As I'm walking around, I spot this chick (not Indian) holding a popsicle and my curiosity got the best of me, so I asked here what she's having and it turns out they're serving margarita popsicles, which sounds incredible in this hot weather. Man, they were amazing; I need to make these at home some time. So I start chatting her up and she's really cool. Honestly, I was too drunk off the sweet tea shots to remember what the hell we talked about, but she was somehow nice enough to put up with me. As we were hanging, I notice some sunscreen, so I borrow another Royale trick and ask her if she'd help me. Somehow, this works, no clue how. So I give her my number and tell her we're heading to Palms later on in the night, then rejoin my buddies in the pool.

Turns out the birthday boy has hit up the birthday girl and her friends and convinced them to join us tonight as well and gotten their numbers. I remembered there were some JCers at this, so I tried hitting up djvirulent, but to no luck, unfortunately. It's now later afternoon, so we head out of Wet Republic to head back to the hotel and get some rest for tonight.

As we get into Mirage, I realise that we haven't actually eaten anything since... dinner last night, and we've only consumed alcohol since then, save for a few chips in the morning. So one buddy and I head to the Venetian food court to fill our stomachs, while the birthday boy and another buddy head to the Mirage pool, telling us they'll either head to Bare or to the main pool.

At this point, I'm several beers, one alcoholic popsicle, and about twelve sweet tea shots deep, so I'm just stumbling around the Venetian, but gather myself up to chow down some food before we head back to the Mirage pool.

We get to the main pool and just float around for a while, enjoying the sun and the scenery. Now it's obviously not a pool party, but it's a beautiful pool with waterfalls and calm waters for just relaxing, so I love it after the craziness of Wet Republic. We find those floating chair things lying around, so grab those and just relax, almost dozing off in the process. My buddy reminds me we still have no idea where our buddies are, so we get up and figure we may as well see if they somehow got into Bare. I talk to the bouncer there and tell them I need to find my buddies, so he lets me walk in while my friend waits. I wander around and, I know it's around 5 pm, but this place is pretty weak. Plus the big selling point... you know, topless women, isn't that exciting, since it's only the busted chicks doing that. I walk through looking for my friends and give up, but at least I can say I've been to Bare!

Head back to the room to charge up and get an hour-long nap in to get ready for the night ahead -- Palms all-access!

Part IV (Fin) coming soon!

[Bralo20]

Nice report, interesting to read!

[julie]

Nice report, interesting to read!

I agree! Can't wait to read the rest.

[WarreN]

Another day down. Im diggin having the music during the trip report more and more....

[Guest]

As we were hanging, I notice some sunscreen, so I borrow another Royale trick and ask her if she'd help me. Somehow, this works, no clue how. So I give her my number and tell her we're heading to Palms later on in the night, then rejoin my buddies in the pool.

Its battle tested my friend :-) Of course it works.

[ChuckMoney]

Cool report. Everyone needs some theme music. I guess I need to search the boards to find out what Royale's "advice" was. The "100 bangin the headboard" had me in tears. Good shit man.

[rnjbond]

Cool report. Everyone needs some theme music. I guess I need to search the boards to find out what Royale's "advice" was. The "100 bangin the headboard" had me in tears. Good shit man.

Thanks.

Royale's tip was just to innocently ask a girl at the pool party for "help" in putting on sunscreen and a reverse offer.

I'll finish this up soon; if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

[ChuckMoney]

Oh I should have been more precise. I actually meant his advice on stuck up indian girls in vegas. Is there truly no way to break down the resistance my man?