As of August 10th

I bought my plane ticket to Bangkok, Thailand!

Delta Airlines taking off from PDX at 11:45 am. Lay over in Tokyo, Japan for a couple of hours then on to Bangkok!

I also spent a good deal of money at REI (my new favorite place) getting a bunch of awesome travel gear. New backpack for carrying on, organizers, luggage locks, head lamp, rain jacket, water tablets, travel towels, sunscreen, bug spray, clothes, etc.

And then I finally picked up my meds at the pharmacy.

At this point I am one vaccination and a few doo dads away from being ready to go.
Kind of...
Sort of...
Not really.

Next on the agenda: Visas for Vietnam, Ethiopia and Kenya. Hotel/Hostel booking. Couch Surfing.

Immunizations

H1N1, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and something else I can't remember.
Arms: Sore.
Immune system: Dealing. Kind of.
Next step: Rabies vaccination.

After my appointment at the travel clinic, I realized just how dangerous this all could be. Now of course I'm all immunized for everything possible but did you know that there are some vaccinations not even offered in the U.S.? Take for instance Japanese Encephalitis (from Wikipedia):
Severe rigors mark the onset of this disease in humans. Fever, headache and malaise are other non-specific symptoms of this disease which may last for a period of between 1 and 6 days. Signs which develop during the acute encephalitic stage include neck rigidity, cachexia, hemiparesis, convulsions and a raised body temperature between 38 and 41 degrees Celsius. Mental retardation developed from this disease usually leads to coma.

So that sounds like fun.