viva las vegas 2026: chapter 1, day 3

LINK: viva las vegas 2026: chapter 1, day 3

We slept in until 1000. I opened my eyes and immediately went back to sleep again. I just couldn’t do it. I woke up an hour later because they were rustling around in the hotel room. But for real, I could have slept more but we had places to go and people to see.

I got up and didn’t even bother doing my hair. I tossed it up in a claw clip. I was feeling hella lazy and I couldn’t muster the energy to get dolled up like my friends. At least I was dripped out with Arirang merch and representing. I wore layers because I didn’t want to get sunburnt either.

We were famished and were in the mood for Thai food but we noticed that restaurants were jacking up their prices because there was such a great influx of ARMY in town that they were trying to capitalize on it. Food in Las Vegas shouldn’t be more expensive than Los Angeles (unless it’s a Michelin-starred restaurant), I’m sorry but that’s just how I feel.

Instead, we went to China town and ate at Noodle Pot. I seem to only go to Taiwanese restaurants whenever I’m with friends who speak Mandarin or Taiwanese.

The three of us shared the beef rolls. It was so good and I love the pickled veggies too.

For my main dish, I had Liang Mian, cold noods with peanut sauce and chicken. It really hit the spot because it was getting hot in Vegas and it cooled me down.

By the time we were finished, I was stuffed. Like stick a fork in me cause I was done.

We happily drove over to park the car at Excalibur for $20.

From Excalibur, we walked to Luxor.

We also spotted other ARMY (BTS fandom) to pass out freebies to and took photo ops whenever we saw anything BTS related. Borahae (보라해) = I purple you, a phrase that V said to ARMY. Purple is the last color in the rainbow and it symbolizes loyalty, trust, and loving someone until the end of time. It’s also the official BTS color.

We took the tram to Mandalay Bay and found a table to hang out because we still have about two hours before we needed to walk over to the Allegiant stadium to see the concert.

I went to Starbucks and got an Americano with creamer, not decaf. I was starting to get tired and bloated from eating all those carbs filled with gluten. While Linda and Alyssa went to check out the hotel, I chilled at our table and waited for Maria’s husband to drop her off so we could go to the concert together.

It seemed like a lot of people had the same idea because when we finally headed towards the venue, which was 0.7 miles, there was a huge swarm of people walking along the Hacienda Avenue bridge.

We were situated in the club section, a premium VIP seating area on the lower level. We had access to the Twitch Lounge that had private bars, luxury seating, upgraded bathrooms, VIP entry, upscale food and beverage options.

I could have gotten fancy food to eat for dinner but instead, I got nachos with ground beef. Have I told you how much I love cheese?

Alyssa and Linda went to go check out the merch line, while Maria and I found a table to eat our food, but everything was sold out before they even got there. I guess that saved us money in a way but we were still bummed about not getting Las Vegas specific BTS merch.

Side note: The last time we went to see J-Hope (one of the BTS members) sing in Los Angeles, she ended up having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) during the concert. Maggie and I had to rush her to the first aid office and then later she went to the hospital, where she stayed inpatient for several days. Since then, I’ve been watching her like a hawk and monitoring her adherence to her medications.

We were pretty happy with our seats. This was even closer than when we were at Stanford.

I took some pics with my Meta glasses. The snaps are so much better when it’s not as dark.

I’m still amazed every time I go to K-pop concerts. A majority of the fans are NOT Korean but they’re singing the lyrics in Korean and having the time of their lives. It’s trippy as fuck because growing up, I never thought anything Korean would be mainstream. Chinese and Japanese? Sure. But Korean? I’ve been proven wrong time and time again and I think it’s beautiful.

I was able to upload a few of my fan cam videos to my YouTube account. You can hear my friends screaming their heads off. I don’t sing or yell because I don’t want to ruin the video for everyone else. They’ve appointed me as the videographer for the trip.

I’ll post more on YT as time goes on.

The concert was almost three hours and I swear the vibe here was way more massive than Stanford. It’s like BTS was newly energized because of the crowd. My friends lost their voices from all the hootin’ and hollerin’ they were doing.

The surprise songs for the night were: Anpanman and Attack on Bangtan. The members seemed pretty excited about it.

This was us leaving the stadium with about 65,000 people, everyone was walking over the bridge and headed towards Mandalay Bay then to the parking lot by Excalibur. It was just hoards and hoards of people and we were packed like sardines. The police blocked off the road so that cars couldn’t get on the bridge and all the pedestrians could walk over safely.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw a few hotels welcoming BTS on their marquees. It was so cool to see all the love Vegas was giving to BTS and their fans.

We got back to our hotel and Maria’s hubby picked her up. Alyssa asked if we were going to gamble. I figured, why not? Since we were in Vegas.

I went straight to that genie machine, similar to the one I played at MGM Grand. I knew things weren’t going well but I still stayed and played anyway. I was up $225 but I ended up losing $140 at the end. I should have quit while I was ahead but I got too greedy. Ugh. The only bright side to me losing is that I would be able to get more rooms comp’d at the hotel in the future.

We got back to the hotel and I headed to the bathroom and took a shower. I was feeling pretty gross from walking in the heat, squished with so many people around me. Afterward, I slipped into my pajamas, airdropped the videos to my friends, and quickly fell asleep. I was going to need all the sleep I could get because we had a long today tomorrow.