Nathan's Insights

World Traveller: 7 Continents, 90 Countries, 871 Days Overseas

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  • India and Japan Trip – Booked and Paid

    Well my 17 April to 16 May India and Japan trip has now been paid for (now to pay off the credit card!!).

    I have a few free days in Japan so I’m currently looking into what to do, but Sumo Wrestling and a Robot Cabaret Show are looking likely (plus high speed trains).
    Tours:
    Highlights of India
    Sunday 19 April to Saturday 2 May 2015

    Highlights:
    Tour of Old Delhi including Jama Masjid Mosque, Chandni Chowk market and Gurduwara Sikh Temple. Walking tour and project visit in Delhi. Tour Taj Mahal, baby Taj and Agra Fort. Visit Fathpur Sikri and Abhaneri Step wells (tank gardens). Explore Jaipur including Amber Fort, Jaipur City Palace and Hawa Mahal. Visit the Village of Sawarda and overnight in a Heritage Home. Explore Kochi including Fort Cochin, the Dutch Palace, the fishing market and Chinese fishing nets. Kathakali cultural show. Visit Tripunithura Hill Palace. Kumarakom canoe ride. Walking tour of the paddy fields and Chempu village. Houseboat day trip along the Kerala backwaters. Homestay with cooking demonstration and meal with a local family.

    Japan Express: Osaka to Tokyo
    Thursday 7 May to Friday 15 May 2015

    Highlights:
    Overnight in a temple on Mt Koya with traditional meals. Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum visit. Miyajima excursion with floating Torii Gate visit. Nijo Castle and gardens visit (Kyoto). Kinaku-ji Golden Pavilion visit. Daisen-in Temple and Zen garden visit. Mt Owakudani cable car ride (Hakone). Lake Ashino-ko boat ride. Traditional ryokan stay with kaiseki meal.

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  • 2015 Australian Open Experience

    2015 Australian Open Experience

    On Friday 23 January I got to undertake one of my annual rituals, attending the first tennis grand slam event of the year The Australian Open. Thanks to a Christmas present from my sister Lana, I got to spend the day with my brother Reagan at Hisense Arena using ground pass tickets.

    (more…)

  • 2014 in review

    The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

    Here’s an excerpt:

    The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,700 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

    Click here to see the complete report.

  • Future Travel Plans Taking Shape (2015 and 2016)

    So next year in April I’ll be heading off on a 5 week trip to India and Japan which replaced the 3 month Africa and South East Asia trip I originally planned.

    The future for me is shorter 4-5 week maximum trips due to work requirements. The upside of this is more regular trips 🙂

    Now a cadet I have mentor, Donna Huynh, heard about my interested in seeing North Korea one day and mentioned that she will be attending the Taekwondo 19th World Championships in North Korea held from 24 August to 1 September 2015 and asked if I’d be interested in attending as a team supporter. Now I think that is hard to say no to, so all things being equal North Korea is in my future.

    Which brings me to one of my future goals, number 28 – see Test Match Cricket in six countries (so far only three). In 2016 Australia will be touring Sri Lanka in April and May so I’m thinking I’ll combine this Test Match with a tour of the country probably this one: Cultural Sri Lanka.

    The road is calling.

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  • 26 Week Challenge: Half Way Mark

    Well I’m not at the 13 week mark as at 13 December and I have to say it’s been a challenge. The weight decline has slowed considerably but I am 17 kilos lighter than the start (the aim was 20 kilos by mid-point).

    When I started I said I had four areas for improvement:
    1) Work-life balance
    2) Health
    3) Fitness
    4) Weight

    The work-life balance has been a struggle and I did end up working one weekend recently after being interstate visiting a client for 3 days but for the most part it’s working. During not to work though lunches and avoiding very late nights or weekends working is better than before the challenge but not where I’d like to be.

    I’d say this is a 6/10 at the half way point.

    Health is trending upwards. Detoxing has been interesting, no fast food in the 13 weeks but I struggled with having ultra-good vegetable juice drinks that a friend kindly provided for a 4 week period. Still not eating totally good food but the worst stuff has been cut. I’m playing around with the idea of chocolate being reduced to nothing or almost nothing, I’m not sure I can go without! I’d say 6.5/10 so far in health.

    Fitness has greatly improved. I’ve played tennis through 35 degree days without too much a loss of energy, and I’m running balls down a lot easier. I finished the Albert Park Monday Night Tennis season well, even walking to the courts (60 minutes) instead of driving. I think I’m probably averaging 18,000 steps per day and recently I managed 40,000 steps or around 29 kms. While I’m not doing has much gym work as I did at the beginning I still do some. This has been the area with the biggest improvement 7.5/10.

    With weight I feel disappointed. Yes I lost weight but that was from an extreme ‘wake up’ high. The downward trend has slowed. The obvious answer is I need to work on what and when I eat. The Christmas period and the multiple birthday events in November haven’t helped either. I’m off work for 2 weeks so I’m really going to though myself into this again and see if I can kick start the weight reductions again especially before my birthday on 9 January. So 6/10 on weight objectives.

    So overall a lot still to do. I’m heartened by the fact I have for the most part stayed the course. Fast food withdraw should hopefully be complete, I’m definitely more active and while I’ve broken the work-life rule a few times at least I know I’m breaking the rule instead of not even having one previously. 13 more weeks to see what I can achieve.

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