Kevin's Vegas Trip August 2026

One of the joys of travel is experiencing the way other cultures do things differently than your own. That doesn't stop you being able to criticise of course..... So, American Toilets - especially in public venues (e.g. casino floor) have two bizarre features The seat is U-shaped and sits quite proud/elevated (i.e. with a noticeable gap) from the porcelain rim The water level is extremely high Now I'm not sure what their poo-engineers had in mind, perhaps they want to leave room for a sub-aqua team to launch from the front of the bowl, or the option to retrofit a little padded shelf for gentlemen to rest their equipment. But it really doesn't match the biology. Raised seats with a gap are already a major risk for sniper-wee, but the damnable u-shape makes it like being an archer standing in the turrets of a children's castle. Given that biology dictactes that our sphincter muscles are significantly co-ordinated, a gentleman has little option but to take firm hold of his...

Well, that was a long journey. Left the house at 10:30 am this morning, and it is 3:30am Irish time as I write this. It turned out that my carry-on was oversized, at least for the first leg. Nobody said anything while boarding, but the overhead bin wouldn't close 😉. The stewardess was very nice about it, and simply put it in a storage area at the front. The Dublin leg was a little taking off, and I wasn't best pleased that when we landed, we had to board buses and cross to the other side of Schipol. Nonetheless, I made the gate just after boarding had started, and on the advice of the previous crew made my way to the top of the queue to declare mea culpa on the leviathan travel case. It turned out I had been flagged for some extra checks, but fortunately no latex or back-rooms were involved and a few swaps later I was given the all clear. Good to have that relief - no-one wants to start a holiday with a positive smear test. The baggage bins on the 777 were a good bit big, and ...

And we're off! Arrived at the airport with tons of time to spare, which was just as well - KLM had moved my flight from T2 to T1. So a few extra steps banked! Getting my tickets took longer than expected as the KLM guy had to check my esta, which involved digging through emails and logging into the US site. Security had long queues, and I got some queries about my case, which it appears may be too big for carry on. We'll see when I reach the gate, but hopefully everything is ok! Had time for a quick pint to get into holiday mood, and this update. Flight to Amsterdam takes off in just over 1 hour, and I have less than 1 hour in Schipol, so I hope for no hassle their either! Due to land in Las Vegas at 6:30pm local time (2:30 am Irish). If I get some sleep on the flight, which I expect to, then I'll probably try and stay up till 11pm or so local time to get myself into the run of things. I believe Caesar's Palace has moved their poker room back to its rightful/traditional...