23rd July 2016 / Saturday
Warning : big day for us equals lots of reading for you.

After a bumpy start to Vegas, we decided to allow ourselves a wee sleep in to try and recover our spirits.

We had a BIG day planned today : so big that we weren’t sure we could do it. We had Calvin Harris at Wet Republic, a day/pool club, and Dillon Francis in the evening at XS, the Encore nightclub.

We headed along the miles of MGM corridors and got to one of the many restaurants, Avenue Cafe, for breakfast. Guess what. There was a massive line outside.

With ants in Ju’s pants, we decided to wait it out, even though we were scared about not getting into Wet Republic on time. All the Vegas tickets warn that if you’re not checked in by a certain time, you’re not guarenteed entry, and you forfeit your ticket (*eyeroll*…Vegas right…the house always wins!).

But it put the fear of Ebenezer Scrooge in us, and we didn’t want to lose out just because we didn’t heed their ridiculously early check in times. Oh, and the liiiiiiines.

We actually managed to get into breakfast fairly fast, and had a delicious…breakfast.

Our plan was to be ready by 11am for doors at Wet Republic, in line for midday, and apparently entry closed off at 1pm.

It kinda all worked to plan, and after waiting in many many lines, we were finally in. It was already heaving, packed and messy.

There was a group of dweeby guys in line in front of us who were already fucked up (remember, it’s only midday)…and we had the pleasure of seeing a shirtless doughy red faced white boy, who looked about twelve years old, dramatically and drunkenly yell to everyone that he’d lost his wallet and then proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes walking around yelling ‘have you seen my wallet’.

Later on, we also had the pleasure of him dancing above us at the pool, trying to do the dab. There was no cool.

And then him and his friends ended up on the dance floor right next to us even later on, barely standing, eyes reduced to slits and unable to drink by themselves. I say it like this, because they still carried on drinking…they just had friends mash their mouth open and pour beer in. Grotesque comes to mind.

Anyway…backing up to the start of Wet Republic. We kinda just did a walk around, figure where things are (next time, a cabana is the only way to go!) and then hit up the bar for drinks. A bottle of water was $12USD and a (big) pina colada was $38USD + taxes. All up, we spent $80 on one round. It was crazy expensive…and we sat on those drinks the entire time.

Next stop was finding a pozzie to dump our stuff and get in the pool…somehow. It was packed already, and we just couldn’t think too hard about what we were all stewing in.

We found a great spot at the front of the pool, right behind the dance floor. What wasn’t so great was the company we were keeping.

It was girls gone wild, up close and personal. We had three girls behind us that spent the entire day rubbing and wiping their bums against each other. They thought they were twerking. We thought they had no self-respect. It’s actually really sad to see a group of girls acting that way, surrounded by guys looking on rubbing their hands appreciatively, and occasionally splashing water over their performing pets. I kid you not, one of them had dollar bills stick into her bikini bottoms before the day was over. And we lost count of how many and which guys they were making out with.

Our problem was that we just wanted to dance, and everyone else was there to have sex.

There was a guy and girl behind us in…downward facing dog shall we say, and we’re still not sure that there wasn’t actual penetration.

However, we were kept thoroughly entertained by how many people totally caned themselves, slipping over. It was carnage.

And, the music was amazing!  Calvin was RIGHT THERE, and we actually had so so so much fun, stomping and splashing and dancing in the pool.

About halfway though his set we left the pool and hit up the actual d-floor. We ended up pretty much front row to the DJ booth, and it was surreal to be that close to Calvin.

And just before his set finished up, some of the baller dance floor tables unleashed the champagne guns and we got showered in it. It sounds way better than it actually was…my eyes just stung and then I smelt like a tavern for the rest of the day. But you know…it’s never happened to me before!

So yeah, he wound up his set after about 2 hours and then we just headed off. Buzzing and exhilarated…the further we walked from the pool, the tireder we got.

We made it back to the room via Johnny Rockets for fries and egg and cheese muffins, and past the passed out bodies in the hallways.

DISCO NAP TIME!!

So now we had to prepare ourselves for Party Part Two! Dillon Francis at XS.

Neither of us were sure if we’d make it, as we were SOOOOOO tired, and our entire dinner conversation was convincing ourselves we should carry on and do it. Even if we just got there, checked out the club and then came home…we should just get there for a bit.

After a delicious dinner at Crush, we headed all the way to the other end of The Strip, to XS at Encore. (Lines for the taxi’s of course!)

Sidenote : dinner didn’t want to be left out of the drama and we discovered our morning flights from Vegas to LAX had been cancelled. Because we had still been tossing up about driving or flying from Vegas, we took the cancelled flight as the coin toss and figured driving it was! Of course, this meant I wouldn’t be able to drink to XS (hahaha get it…) because who knows what wrong side of the road I’d end up on?!

Back to it…so, Encore and Wynn are beauuuuuutiful…if we were to go back to Vegas, it’d be a contender for where we’d stay.

We ended up walking quite a few corridors and trying lots of different doors and asking multiple attendants, and finally we got to our line. It was moving okay and we were probably only waiting 20 minutes or so.

At this point we were handed a very flattering but bitter pill to swallow, and a promoter for Wynn gave us his card and we got Guest Listed for the Major Lazer Night Swim at XS on the Sunday night. We were burning up inside about heading off to Palm Springs Sunday afternoon and missing out. (We’re so glad Palms Springs surpassed our expectations, and when Diplo posted an amazing IG pic calling the night a lituation, we were only mildly upset. Maybe the plus sized cousin of mild.)

But back to OUR epic night. With a little glitch.

We tried to get our tickets scanned, and realised they were for Dillon but playing at Surrender, the other nightclub at Encore.

This ensued a half hour on tenterhooks as we sussed out the issue with the XS manager. We had bought our tickets several months prior and several things seem to have changed since then.  Turns out DF was supposed to play with RL Grime at Surrender and Avicii was doing XS. Then Avicii cancelled, so RL Grime did Surrender and DF moved to XS. We defs wanted to see DF/Encore, so we stuck to our guns and made sure it happened.

Guys, Encore is the most beautiful amazing mind blowing club we’ve ever been too.

You enter through the garden and pool area, and it’s stunning! Luxy, beautiful…and did we mention gardens and pools?!?!

We hit up one of the bars and got drinks (expensive booze and beautiful bar girls) and walked about 10m and decided to sit by one of the gardens and just drink it all in.

Ten seconds later, I got approached by a guy doing the Chatting Up thing. His friend awkwardly hung out on the path, and then a minute later cautiously approached Ju. She will tell you about her experience here…

Ju interlude starts NOW: ok so awkwardly when the guys saw two girls alone the more confident one swooped down on Tashy and the friend just stood on his own about 2 meters away. Finally after about 2-5 minutes he came and sat next to me and said ‘hey I’m XXX (I can’t remember his name or I’ve blocked it out – either one is valid) and it’s my friend talking to your friend’.

Duh.

Then he attempted to chat with me but he was just a f**king awkward mess of hell no. One real sign that it wasn’t going to go well was when he was asking why we choose to come to XS and when I replied ‘we’re here for Dillon Francis’ he responded with ‘who’s that?’

What the actual fuck? What THE ACTUAL FUCK?

When I said he’s the one who is headlining the night he was like ‘oh I knew that, I was just trying to be funny and say it like I didn’t know who it was’. I didn’t buy that for a second. Loser!

Then it proceeded on in that vein and I actually don’t even want to talk more about it as it makes me furious.

He kept saying he was from LA but Vegas is where he lives and the only place people really know how to party. Trust me when I say he didn’t look like someone who was skilled in partying – more like an IT kid who was trying really hard to be ‘cool’. You know what’s cool, kid? Knowing who your djs are.

Anyway finally I couldn’t take it any longer and decided to boost so told Tashy I was going to the toilet and she came with. Ugh all I ask if you are going to attempt to pick someone up then please please please don’t act like it’s weird to know who the headliner DJ is. He had already tried to sound cool by saying Dillon wasn’t as big name as Calvin Harris or kaskade or Skrillex. Ugh!!!  Get a clue you basic bitch. Anyway – Juita interlude out. Tashy can continue now – Ju xx

After racing off to the bathroom, we found a lovely little spot to chill and people watch on the other side of the pool. But the DJ was playing such a good set, we decided to head inside to the dance floor and see if anything was happening there yet.

Ummmmm…so the party was PUMPING and the dance floor was PACKED. We waded in and started our three hour dance marathon.

The music was so so so good, everyone was dancing, and the only downside was all the male attention. Seriously…so. many. hands. Everywhere, from all angles and at multiple times!

We found a good spot beside some gay guys which was great while it lasted. But otherwise we kinda ended up doing circuits around the dance floor, staying on the move, away from guys.

And then DF came on. OMFG, it was chills.

They put up a white sheet while he set up, and then he did a big build up, the scrim swooped down, lasers danced and then full white out with dry ice pumping across the whole club. It was a totally magical moment, and out of all the white surrounding us I saw Ju’s face slowly emerge out of the fog and it totally mirrored how I was feeling. Total wonder. It was such a moment.

The set was crazy amazing, the club was crazy amazing, and I can’t even express how fucking cool it was. Like nothing either of us have seen or done, and far far surpassed any expectation we had of partying in Vegas.

We danced danced danced and danced. It was the best time ever!!

We had to do a couple loo breaks, and then we had to wait to get back on the dance floor, because it was so packed. There were girls dancing on tables, champagne bottles with firecrackers and so much bumping and grinding.

The bathrooms were amazing, with full makeup mirrors, lovely attendants, perfumes and lotions and plenty of convenience things on sale from plasters to flat sandals.

We called it a night around 2.30, waiting in line for a taxi, waited in line for some Johnny Rockets and then slunk barefooted back to our room to pack.

So yeah, it was a BIG day, so much fun and we didn’t make it into bed until 4.30am with the alarm on for 7.15am start to check out, get to the airport and pick up the rental car for our road trip to Palm Springs.

Holy shit, Vegas can paaaarty.

Tashy xx