Vegas, baby!

What is the first thing you see when you step off the plane in Las Vegas?

A luggage carousel? A sniffer dog? A McDonald's store?

Nope -- when you walk off the tarmac and into the gate lounge you are confronted with rows and rows of bright blinging poker machines.

It hardly surprisingly really, given that Vegas is the gambling capital of world, but it was still a strange sight.

However we soon became familar with pokie machines during the three nights we were in Sin City, as you could see -- and hear -- them everywhere. They not only filled the casinos but the hotels, bars and restaurants: there were even pokie machines dotted along the footpaths.

And of course there's something for everyone when it comes to gambling in Vegas -- as well as celebrity impersonators manning the gaming tables there were CSI and Star Wars-themed pokie machines and I even managed to find a Sex and the City slot machine which played the TV show's theme song!!  Bryan was more interested in trying to win a car. But of course we didn't, hence the sad face.

But it wasn't all bad -- we found plenty of casino bars offering $1 beers!