viva las vegas 2026: chapter 1, day 2

LINK: viva las vegas 2026: chapter 1, day 2

I woke up feeling tired. I wanted to sleep more but we didn’t have enough time because we had to check out at 1100.

Luckily, check out was easy breezy. We stored all of our luggage into her car and we hopped into an Uber to go to the Arte Museum. 

The museum was having a collab with BTS through immersive media art. If anyone knows me, I love going to museums. There was a long ass line but thank goodness, Linda bought tickets online beforehand.

Arte Museum x BTS THE CITY ARIRANG exhibit was going to be hosted in various cities all over the world.

Live sketchbook- fans can color animal drawings and scan them, watching them come to life on the digital walls.

The wave room.

Arirang wave.

I’ll eventually get around to posting the museum videos on my YouTube channel.

By this time, I was getting a bit peeved. Alyssa and Linda ventured off, leaving me to stand in line alone to get into the cafe for over an hour. I texted them and they didn’t respond back. I had to call Alyssa (y’all know how much I loathe talking on the phone) and tell her that they needed to come back into line or else they wouldn’t seat us.

When they finally made their way to where I was standing, they just gave me excuses about how they lost track of time and blah blah blah. I’m sure my RBF (resting bitch face) said all that I needed to say.

The three of us got seated shortly after and we all ordered the purple taro latte.

When we left, we were hungry because we haven’t eaten breakfast and only consumed the drink we had at the museum.

We wandered around aimlessly and found different BTS photo ops outside.

We walked over to Proper Eats Food Hall in Aria. I got a Waldorf chicken salad from Happy Leaf.

While we were eating, Linda feverishly tried to get pop up appointments so that we could buy BTS Las Vegas merch. She was able to snag a 1530 slot for Alyssa. We had 15 minutes to get to Caesars Palace which was going to be impossible walking and since my foot was starting to cramp up, we took an Uber there.

While Alyssa was in line, Linda was able to get another slot for me. She said that she’s been to the pop up in Korea already and wanted me to experience it. I was excited to finally see what was in there.

They had a bunch of black and white photos of BTS. NGL, I wanted all the posters but had to restrain myself.

It seems as though most of the clothes were sold out in all sizes long before we even got there. Yikes. I guess it’s just as well. I didn’t need to drop more money, plus we were going to go to two concerts in Vegas anyway.

As we were about to leave Caesars Palace, we noticed an ARIH pop up. We took full advantage of it and got more freebies. They didn’t have samples of the noods or drinks though.

On Instagram, people announced that there would be a meet up in front of the Bellagio fountain to trade freebies. I made so many freebies that I needed to unload them because they were weighing me down. There were hoards of people there and I gave away over 100 freebies and in return, I received just as many.

We walked back to MGM Grand and picked up Alyssa’s car that was parked there.

We hopped in the car and headed to Palms Casino. The guy checking me in was super sweet and offered to give me an upgrade and a room higher up in the tower.

This was our room. We each paid $33 a night. Alyssa didn’t think that was a good enough deal but I had zero fucks left to give. She also complained that the eyes on the wall were creepy but I didn’t mind it. I slept on the right side, while they slept on the other queen bed.

I was tempted to crawl into bed and go to sleep but we had plans for the evening. We had to pick up Maria from Durango Casino, where she was staying with her husband.

Alyssa said that there was another ARIH pop up at Walmart nearby so the four of us went there. Maria’s never been to Walmart because there are only two in Los Angeles but they are far from her home. This was quite the experience for her because the store was massive and the prices were more affordable than other stores.

Inside the ARIH airstream. This location had samples of the noodles and pre/postbiotic drinks. We indulged in samples before heading inside the building.

I bought protein bars and water. They got ARIH instant noodles and energy drinks.

After we had our snack, we figured we’d go eat in Chinatown at Jjamppong Zizon.

A couple of days before, SUGA (BTS member) ate there.

The four of us shared the 탕수육 (tangsuyuk – sweet and sour pork). It’s a must when ordering 짜장면.

I ordered the 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon – noodles with black bean sauce, meat, and veggies).

For dessert, we tried to get BTS banana milk crème brûlée donuts from Saint Honoré but they were sold out of all their donuts. A bunch of guys sitting outside told us that next time, we should go to their other location off Flamingo because it was bigger and they would have more donuts in stock. Thanks dude for the pro tip.

We dropped Maria back at her hotel and we made our way back to the Palm Casino.

I told Alyssa to pull back the curtains so we could see the view. She was mesmerized. “I didn’t think I’d ever have a view like this before.” Then she proceeded to tell us about the shady hotels she’s stayed at because it was cheap.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good deal, I am Asian after all. But I also like being safe and indulging every now and then.

We took turns taking a shower and talked about the concert tomorrow.

The unforgiving heat and lack of sleep drained me physically and mentally.

I turned off the lamp next to my bed and fell asleep within seconds.