Yeah… another miscellaneous gadgets and gear post.

A lot of people commented on the little double-walled glass tea bottle I brought back from China. After I broke it, I was looking for a replacement and finally found one — naturally, just a few days before I go back to China. I’m thinking I’ll wait till I get back to buy a new one, since they cost like $4 there.

But anyway.

It’s pretty handy, especially for tea drinkers, but I used it just as much for plain water as anything else.

The only problems I had with it were that there’s no easy way to attach it to something for easy carrying — like a Nalgene bottle’s lid loop thingy — and of course, since it’s made of glass, there’s that whole “shattering into millions of deadly shards upon impact” issue.

Quick write-up of my new wallet(s), mostly for Adam’s benefit:

I received my All-Ett nylon travel wallet, my All-Ett leather ’sport’ wallet, and my MoneyClamp. I really dig them all.

The All-Ett nylon travel wallet is incredibly thin, and will be perfect for storing my passport, extra cash, cards, and IDs in an inside jacket pocket or a front pocket in my jeans while traveling. It’s far too big for everyday use, but for its intended purpose I like it way better than my old hideaway money pouch, which I never used properly anyway.

The All-Ett leather ’sport’ wallet is a fantastic everyday wallet. It’s sized for US currency, so its thinness becomes questionable when you have to start folding international currency in half lengthwise to fit in the cash pocket. But it’s still pretty damn thin, and it has my old Fossil bifold beat all to hell. It’ll be my go-to wallet here in the States and while traveling, when I’m carrying more cards and random slips of paper than usual. The only problem I have with it is that I need about 3 cards in each card pocket before I start feeling confident about them not sliding out as soon as I open the wallet.

The MoneyClamp is awesome, despite the douche factor. I’m going to dispense with the leather card holder, and just wrap cash around cards. Since I’ll mostly be carrying cash and maybe 4 cards — ATM, emergency credit, passport copy, health insurance info — on a daily basis in China, this is the perfect solution. The only problem is that I’ll have to be a little more careful about where and when I pull out the money clip, since it’d be an open invitation for pickpockets if you have a neat little package of bills out in the open like that. At least with a wallet, your money’s kind of hidden when you have it out. It’s also surprisingly heavy, but I suppose it’ll be a little reassuring to have that weight to remind me where my money is.

This one, but black.

Well, it’s once again time for me to change wallets. And while my current wallet is fairly thin by most standards, it could be better.

That, and it’s falling apart.

I usually just go down to the closest Target/Macy’s/etc and pick up something cheap and reasonable, but this time I figured hell, I may as well try to find an interesting wallet to hold my lack of money.

In the end, I ordered two wallets from All-Ett — a big spinnaker one to hold my passport and spare cards (it was on sale for half price), and a small leather hybrid one to use as a wallet – and a Geneva money clip.

I’m not too sure about the money clip, but I’ve always wanted to try one and by all appearances this one looks pretty good. Plus it comes with a lifetime replacement guarantee, which is just spiffy. I’ve looked for money clips before, but all of the money clips I’ve seen in stores so far:

a) Are flimsy and easily bendable, so they’re not secure
b) Are bulky and heavy, missing the point of using a clip in the first place, and/or
c) Use a magnet. Whose bright idea was it to put a giant magnet right next to their customers’ ATM/credit cards and cell phones all day?

I guarantee this guy uses a money clip.

The only thing I don’t like about money clips is that they strike me as somewhat ostentatious. If you pull out your wallet at the end of dinner it’s a fairly neutral move. If you whip out a clipped wad of cash, it has more of a “Check THIS out, motherfuckers!” kind of feel to it. And the way you peeeeeel money off a money clip, instead of plucking it out of a wallet; it all just seems slightly douchebaggy.

Maybe I think about this stuff too much.

Boom.

Say hello to the Vasque Aether Tech SS, the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn.

After a long and arduous search, I’ve decided to use these on my Asia trip. They’re somewhat water-resistant yet breathable, quick-drying, light (12 ounces apiece), convenient, and did I mention they’re the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn?

There’s only one problem, aside from the 130 problems they cost. Because they’re so light, they’re not all that tough. After two weeks of hard use, the uppers on one of the shoes is shredding, and those little plasto-rubber-whatever gills you see on the side are starting to peel away.

I figure one pair of these will last me 3 months of hard use before starting to really fall apart. This poses a problem, since my trip to Asia will last 3.5 months, and will end with a hike up Mt. Fuji, which I think can suitably be described as hard use. So I tried on other shoes.

God dammit, did I try on other shoes.

I bought and returned 6 or 7 pairs of trail runners and light hikers to REI and other stores, without finding any that I liked. I even took my old Merrell light hikers out for 30 miles or so on the local workout trail, just to make sure I wasn’t deluding myself about how comfortable the Aether Tech is.

I wasn’t.

So I went in to REI and exchanged the beat-up pair for a new pair, hoping that I just got a lemon. After inspecting the new pair for a while, it looks like this could just be how they work. The price you pay for that lightweight is durability. Sad.

But the fact remains that after wearing these things, I don’t really want to spend 3.5 months tooling around in a less comfortable pair of similarly priced shoes, or my old light hikers, which would never, ever dry out properly where I’m going, and weigh twice as much.

So I went back to REI and tried to buy back the old ones at full price; “un-return them” is what I said to the confused customer service girl. That way, I’d have a kind of ratty pair to wear, which would probably last me most of the trip, and I’d just take the new pair along with me as a backup. I’m willing to carry an extra 1.5lbs for a couple months if it means I don’t have to worry about foot pain, blisters, or trench foot. The extra $130 in price would suck, but hey. I’m probably never going to have another chance at a trip like this, so I may as well splurge a bit.

The weird thing is, they wouldn’t let me buy the shoes back. They’d already gone into some giant bin meant for the REI used gear sale, where used/returned gear is sold at a huge markdown.

That was yesterday; the sale started this morning at 8am. So I rolled out of bed around 6am, drove up to REI and got in line. I was the only person there without a tent or a sleeping bag. I was also one of maybe three non-Caucasians I saw all morning, but that’s not relevant. I’m kind of a twinkie anyway, so we’ll make that two and a half.

I waited around for a while, chatting idly with my new honky chums, and when the sale opened at 8am, watched and laughed as people sprinted over to the piles of gear. Yuppies bundled up in fleece caps and fur-lined moccasins sprinted and shoved past each other to get to piles of used goods, followed by the staffers’ vain cries of “No running!”

There were shrieks of delight and dismay, as some found what they were looking for, and others had theirs plucked from before their very eyes. I walked over to the shoes, had my feet trodden on a few times, and ferreted out the very same pair of shoes I’d returned a week ago.

I checked the price tag.

$16.

Wow. A full morning’s entertainment, AND I saved $100.