Another Vegas adventure with Rex Smith

MANILA, Philippines - I haven’t been to the US in a while and was so excited to visit the city I used to visit on a bi-monthly basis back in the ’90s. For the nth time, Rex Smith volunteered to drive and accompany me to the city that never sleeps.

I didn’t have to rent an SUV for the trip this time because my co-seminarian and compadre Joey Santos lent me his spanking new Porsche Panamera. Rex was delighted that we would drive to Vegas in style. We left L.A. around 12 noon and had a sleepy but leisurely five-hour drive with a brief stop for lunch at an In and Out burger. 

We arrived in Vegas around 6 p.m. Rex’s wife Tracy booked rooms at the luxurious Aria Hotel within City Complex smack on the strip. Our rooms were on the top floor of the exclusive Sky Suites with a breathtaking view of Las Vegas.

The comfy king-size bed made me want to snooze for an hour or two but we had a dinner at 7 p.m. to attend. With barely an hour to freshen up, we dashed to the regal Palazzo Hotel within the Venetian complex for dinner with another compadre I haven’t seen in a while — Amb. King Aguiluz, wife Cielo and youngest daughter Clara.

Dinner was at the fine dining restaurant Morel where we feasted on huge slabs of Angus rib eye basted in butter, fresh Brittany oysters and tangy Caesar salad. Morel has an almost rustic but homey decor.

As expected, there were attentive Pinoy waiters who were at our beck and call. We could hardly touch the yummy desserts after being overfed with several entrees. Two hours later, we said our farewells and declared “Till we eat again.” 

Rex is an early riser and recently embarked on a strict regimen of eating only healthy food and doing morning laps on the pool.

It was clearly evident that it was working. He had a healthy glow on his face. His wife Tracy, who is a doctor, encouraged me to follow suit and have a healthier lifestyle. She revealed that Rex has lost 20 pounds in a few short months and is now an ardent advocate of juicing fresh fruits and vegetables. The juicing craze is sweeping the whole US and has started to gain momentum in the Philippines.

That evening, we dined at the dimly-lit 107th floor of the Stratosphere where bungee jumpers leap outside while diners feast on yummy entrees inside. When dinner was over, we all filed to the theater on the second level to attend the exclusive celebrity roast of movie director and celebrity Duncan Jones a.k.a. Zowie Bowie. Zowie is the only son of superstar David Bowie (David Robert Jones in real life) from his first marriage with model Mary Angela Barnett.

His roasters were mostly Las Vegas performers, comedians and celebrities some of whom took the night off from their regular stints.

I’ve been to a few celebrity roasts in the Philippines but nothing compares to the brashness and vulgarity of this one. Curse words abound and the roasters mince no words and say f--k you to anyone in the audience or the roasters panel. It went on for three hours. I had to leave Rex and Tracy halfway through the roast as my wife was getting shocked from the rowdiness of the audience and the overload of curse words. 

Next day, we had lunch at my former employee and co-DJ at RJ 100.3 FM’s new house. I was beaming with delight and proud like a father of Ron San Agustin’s (a.k.a. Ron Cruise) accomplishment.

A few years ago while living in Manila, he was often in dire straits and struggled to eke a living for his family and now he owns a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool in a gated community just a few hundred meters from the famed Las Vegas strip. Nowadays, Ron works the night shift at the Fremont Street Experience where he programs the light shows and music. My wife and Tracy noticed I was feeling weak and listless which got them worried. They dragged me to a CVS pharmacy on the strip to have a basic check-up. CVS is a giant drugstore chain-cum-mini-market similar to our local mercury that has a mini-clinic where you can have a rudimentary check on blood sugar, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc. Alarm bells rang when the results came out. My blood sugar level was 430 when normal should be below 100 compounded by high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. They wasted no time and rushed me to an urgent care center where I went through further tests.

After three hours, I was given a shot of insulin and the doctor recommended a diet that almost made me cry. Absolutely no dessert, soft drinks, sweets, rice, bread or anything remotely related to carbs. I could ditch my sweet tooth in a heartbeat but avoiding rice is next to impossible. Just the thought that I have to avoid paella, tapsilog or bagoong rice made me cry. Although the shot of insulin made me feel better, the thought of not eating my favorite food got me depressed.

On our last day in Vegas, we indulged once again in the culinary delights of the Aria buffet. Specialty of the house is fresh seafood and all-you-can-eat Alaskan snow crab. I wolfed down two heaping plates of Alaskan snow crab without guilt as seafood is not on my forbidden list. With our bellies bulging to the max, we checked out of our lovely suites then, did some shopping at the high-end Crystals mall within the hotel complex. Prominently featured were shops like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Tiffany, Jimmy Choo, etc.

Before hitting the freeway for the long trip back to L.A., we had one final stop. It was at the new and famous Vegas landmark Gold & Silver pawnshop where three generations of Harrisons consisting of “Old Man,” Rick, Corey (Big Hoss) and Austin Russel a.k.a. Chum Lee conduct business and film the TV series Pawn Stars, which is now on its ninth TV season. There was a long line of tourists waiting to enter when we arrived and took at least half an hour before we got in hallowed ground.

Although the sign says, “Open 24 Hours,” the shop is closed from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next day for filming purposes. Unlike what we see on TV where a myriad of products, curios and memorabilia is on display for sale, half the shop in real life is filled with Pawn Stars merchandise like T-shirts, mugs, pennants and pins.

There must be more income in selling souvenir merchandise than the actual stuff they used to sell. The biggest thrill for us was meeting Chum Lee. He was totally the opposite of the character he portrays on TV — soft spoken, clean looking, smart and very accommodating.

On the way back to L.A., we all rued that there wasn’t enough time to do more in Vegas.