Going to Nepal, buying a house & scuba diving!

I typically reserve my blogs for travel and life milestones, nothing major has happened, so I figured I'd combine a few life events.
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If anyone read this blog late last year: Planning to trek through the Himalayas.

Around August last year I had a spontaneous idea to go trekking through the Himalayas in Nepal. The plan was to do it with a friend between Feb-May this year, I was keen as mustard and started researching into it. Since then I had I lost contact with my friend and the idea died down a bit. I finally caught up with him again 2-3 weeks ago, he told me he had received a promotion at work, is moving to another city and won't be able to go to Nepal. I was a little bit frustrated but not really phased, I jumped on the internet and started researching the trip and decided to go ahead and just do it, even if I have to travel by my self. Less than I week ago I booked a 17 day trip to Nepal, hiking to the base of Mount Everest. I fly out May 7th!

Here is the trip I will be doing: http://www.geckosadventures.com/Himalaya/Trip/Overview.html?trip=Everest-Base-Camp&tripid=2856

It's still a good 2-3 months away but I am already going through my gear checklist, I'll need to buy some hiking shoes, sleeping bag etc... I will be travelling alone, I'm a bit nervous but still really excited!

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I'm also in preparation of moving into my own house, paperwork is about 90% complete, once the bank signs off, it'll be all mine! It currently has tenants but they will have 30 days from the time of loan approval to move out. It's a fairly exciting chapter of my life, growing up way too fast! The mortgage is going to take a large portion of my salary each month so I'm going to have to learn to budget a lot better if I want to continue my current adventurous lifestyle. I am also planning on relaxing my output at work. The stress is currently effecting other aspects of my life, which I'm really starting to notice, I love my sports and fitness and lately I have only gone to the gym maybe once a week. Also looking into settling back a bit, perhaps starting a relationship once the dust from the first 6 months of this year settles.

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About 6 weeks ago I completed my Open Water PADI ticket. I plan on going for my advanced shortly. Scuba Diving is great fun; you almost immediately enter a world that most people will never see in their life. I'm currently going diving every 2 weeks. The solitude, the environment and ambiance, it's all an amazing experience. I had a dive last week, it started really average, just reef, no fish and we were only about 8 metres down, about 5 minutes into it my dive buddy and I started to get closer to the mounds of reef around, as we explored and got closer we found a few openings, discussed the safety (As best as you can with hand signals

) and decided to squeeze through into one. We were immediately entranced into a massive cave, huge schools of fish, amazing overhangs and openings with large fish and other marine life. It was such a surreal experience we both just floated there for minutes looking around taking it all in. If you have ever thought about getting into Scuba Diving, I highly recommend it.

I'm in the middle.

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If you read the blogs section, you'd be familiar with Glider, he's an amazing artists who draws portraits. I have a friend’s birthday coming up in April. He has just had a newly born baby and adores him, I decided it would be a good idea to have Glider draw a portrait of kid based on a photo. As Manifesto pointed out with his anniversary photo, Glider is extremely talent and very professional. He had the drawing done in only a few days and will be sending it out soon.

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I think that's pretty much it lately, really inundated with work to do anything.

Oh, I have a whole bunch of SK T1 signed team shirts, including a couple signed by Bisu and one signed by Boxer which I will be auctioning off soon for Childs Play & the Red Cross, stay tuned for details on those, I just need to find some time to sort out the logistics of it.

Thanks for reading!
Energies

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but dont nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight" - Ronnie Coleman.

JohnColtrane Australia. February 14 2010 17:22. Posts 4813

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are you buying a free standing house, or an apartment?

scuba diving gives me the fucking jitters >.<

HEY MEYT

YejinYejin United States. February 14 2010 17:23. Posts 1039

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Your life sounds awesome.

That is all.

안지호

JohnColtrane Australia. February 14 2010 17:24. Posts 4813

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ps would you be interested in giving your countryman a free skt1 shirt?

lol im joking man, gl on your advanced

HEY MEYT

JohannesH Finland. February 14 2010 17:26. Posts 1364

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First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic

If you have to ask, you don't know.

Energies Australia. February 14 2010 17:32. Posts 3225

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On February 14 2010 17:22 JohnColtrane wrote:
are you buying a free standing house, or an apartment?

scuba diving gives me the fucking jitters >.<

A house.

First time I did an open water dive, we had 1 metre visibility, which means all you could see is the fins of the person in front of you. Twice I had someone kick my regulator out of my mouth. 15 metres deep, can't see anything, and you can't breath. Good times!

On February 14 2010 17:26 JohannesH wrote:
First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic

Lol, I should have used full stops.

Last edit: 2010-02-14 17:33:12

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but dont nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight" - Ronnie Coleman.

JohnColtrane Australia. February 14 2010 17:57. Posts 4813

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wow that sounds scary as shit :C

first thing i would do once i got out of the water would be to kick the teeth out of the person that knocked your regulator out of your mouth lol

HEY MEYT

YoonHo Canada. February 14 2010 18:18. Posts 1036

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On February 14 2010 17:26 JohannesH wrote:
First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic

Lol same, but damn I'm jealous.

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thopol Japan. February 14 2010 18:18. Posts 4495

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I love Nepal. I want to go back there so badly. Enjoy your trek and please blog about your visit. I'd really love some photos.

Energies Australia. February 14 2010 18:37. Posts 3225

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On February 14 2010 18:18 thopol wrote:
I love Nepal. I want to go back there so badly. Enjoy your trek and please blog about your visit. I'd really love some photos.

Thanks mate, will definitely blog, I quite enjoy the recap, check out my WCG&China blog as an example.

I'm also planning on taking a camcorder to do a sort of video diary.

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but dont nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight" - Ronnie Coleman.

Energies Australia. February 14 2010 18:40. Posts 3225

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On February 14 2010 18:18 YoonHo wrote:

Show nested quote +

Lol same, but damn I'm jealous.

That's why they require you to have a diving ticket, you learn how to deal with these different situations. I didn't really stress, I just stopped for a moment, waved my arm to trap the reg and continued breathing.

A few times I had thought about diving in South-east Asia because some of those places don't require qualifications. In hindsight, I am really glad I didn't.

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but dont nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight" - Ronnie Coleman.

wfoperational United States. February 14 2010 19:47. Posts 143

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Lol good luck with the trip to Nepal. I went to Tibet last summer, and altitude sickness just knocked the wind out of me for an entire week before I got used to it. But looks like you're definitely more fit than I was, so I guess you're gonna be ok

Last edit: 2010-02-14 19:47:30

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Liquid`Nazgul Administrator February 14 2010 23:38.

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Good to see you doing well. I got my PADI about a year ago on a trip through Vietnam with my girlfriend. We haven't kept up unfortunately (like most people who get one) so this was inspiring to read. I was always hassled by the trouble it took to get on a wetsuit! The underwater experience is so amazing we'll do it again sometime.

niteReloaded Croatia. February 15 2010 02:27. Posts 4863

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Wanna switch lives? plllllllllzzzzz!!

Tenryu United States. February 15 2010 05:25. Posts 564

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Good choice on the Scuba Diving. I recommend taking a trip to Okinawa sometime in your life and dive there. Okinawa is said to be one the top 10 places to dive at in the world and the place i first picked up my license

. Its absolutely beautiful. And seeing your from Australia, a plane ticket shouldnt cost to much

Last edit: 2010-02-15 05:26:15

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Tenryu United States. February 15 2010 05:25. Posts 564

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edit: double post

Last edit: 2010-02-15 05:25:48

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KurtistheTurtle United States. February 15 2010 17:04. Posts 1789

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On February 14 2010 16:55 Energies wrote:
I was keen as mustard and started researching into it.

you've been dead since the moment you were born.

starfries Canada. February 15 2010 17:13. Posts 2617

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How much does it cost to learn how to scuba dive? the reason I ask is my school offers a gym course in it and I'm wondering if it would be better to do it on my own.

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Energies Australia. February 15 2010 23:02. Posts 3225

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I'm not sure about the US or Canada, but I'm fairly certain in order to hire gear or have your tanks filled with air in 90% of the countries in the world you require a PADI diving license. So you should look into the qualifications of your school. I believe the US has their own system of accreditation, whether that is accepted world wide, I wouldn't know.

For me, it cost about $475(AUD) for the course and about $80(AUD) for a compulsory dive medical.

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but dont nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight" - Ronnie Coleman.

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