More expenses

The small things for the trip are slowly adding up:

• $15.00 - office visit to my regular doctor to get a Td booster shot
• $144.00 - Northwestern travel clinic for a Typhoid Fever shot (they only take BC/BS, not Aetna--some of this may be reimbursable, but I'll certainly be paying at least $50 since they are out of network)
• $53.39 - Best Buy for a camera case and some MiniDV tapes for my video camera
• $16.88 - Best Buy for some universal screen protectors to put over the LCD of my camera (and it turns out that Aaron already has some of these....)
  
• $49.03 - Recently published versions of Lonely Planet guidebooks for Beijing and Thailand
• $20.00 - Walgreens for Azitrhomycin and a partial malaria pill prescription (I guess I ran them out of stock on the Malarone)
• $7.99 - Walgreens for Immodium AD (because you can't predict when a little bout of "food poisoning" strikes)
• $145.71 - REI for two pairs of jungle pants and an REI membership (one of the pairs of pants will be returned--online purchase and I just couldn't decide) and overnight shipping because getting to REI in the suburbs without owning a car is quite impossible
  
• $141.53 - Half-Moon Outfitters for a pair of Chacos Z/2's and overnight shipping (which is really where they make their money)

So an interesting story about the Chacos: I checked their website for the list of local retailers, and found three that were reasonably easy for me to get to: Hanig's Footware at Clark and Diversey, Patagonia near North and Clybourn, and Active Endeavors on Armitage. I checked out Hanig's on Saturday, but they didn't have any Chacos in stock. The person that helped me out probably thought it was a little odd that I was carrying around a DSW Shoe Warehouse bag. (I just bought a new pair of Sketchers to replace my blown out Nike's.) Today after work, I stopped at North and Clybourn to hit up Patagonia (and made a convenient second visit to Best Buy in just a couple days). I took a quick glance around, but it's a small store and it didn't look promising. I asked if they had any Chocos in stock, and again, no luck. Since they also carry clothing, I asked about jungle pants. I got quite a look when I described them by saying "oh they're great for hiking and riding elephants." The story would be more interesting if I left it at that, but seeing as how I really do want to buy some jungle pants, I explained what they are a bit further. They didn't have anything in stock. Finally, I walked from Patagonia to Armitage to pay a quick visit to Active Endeavors. Indeed my visit was quick. The store had closed permanently, and some time ago, by the looks of the interior of the building.

So I struck out by trying to shop locally. Granted, I didn't hit up The North Face store at the John Hancock building, but shopping online is just easier, especially when there's overnight shipping. Since I made these purchases pretty late in the day and REI and Half-Moon are not 24-hour shops, I don't expect to receive anything until Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how long it takes for them to process the order.

Other semi-interesting progress: I received the paper tickets for PEK-BKK from Fedex today and contacted my credit card companies to notify them of my trip. I'll be travelling on directly to Chiang Mai from Bangkok, but I haven't made those arrangements yet.

I'm also thinking about packing--specifically, how do I fit these two locations into one bag? Beijing is cold right now, right around the freezing mark, and Thailand is generally in the 70s - 90s depending on whether you are in the north or south.