Exploring is part of our blood. Many centuries ago, our ancestors have fought the flat earth theory and discover the beauty on the other side of the earth. Now with the advancement of air travel, we can access the rest of the world within hours. We get to experience different cultures, food and lifestyle, hopefully with that knowledge we can evolve and integrate as simply humans without boundaries or bias. Co-existence is vital for the survival of humanity.
Damien, a little history story
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience and travel to some parts of the world. Born and raised in a small city called Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, at the age of 15, I moved to Melbourne, Australia to complete high school before settling in Auckland, New Zealand where I’m still calling home to this day. I was born into a low income family, with barely any spare expenses to splash, my family travel experience has always been ultra low budget experience. Looking out the window and admiring the marvellous piece of metal tube that goes up above 30000ft in the air is the only thing I was looking forward to when travelling. While flying was mostly a privilege for my childhood, I didn’t miss the action of planes, the golden hour of my hometown airport was prior to sunset when we get 1 wide body Boeing 777-200 flying into our small domestic airport. As an aspiring aviator and traveller, I am excited and looking forward to being able to explore more unique parts of the world, while I was able to train to become a qualified private pilot and was intending to pursue it as a career, medical issues occurred half way through my training have shattered the dream of being able to sit in a cockpit, but aviation is still a passion of mine and I will continue to pursue aviation in a different aspect, which is where I founded PJR to allow me to continue working in this industry. Your continued support will allow me to pursue the journey as a content creator bringing the experience to your screen, providing valuable insights for you as the customer and the industry.
Why did we rebrand?
If you have been a viewer previously, you may have known me by names such as "Travel With Damo" and the more recent "Not Another Travel". While they were names that represented the category of content, those were not unique nor exclusive for me to be able to utilise in a way that would allow me to achieve a goal for this brand.
Why am I choosing a brand name instead of a personal name? My end goal for this "brand" is the ability to grow beyond just a personal channel, think of collaborations with people to make this channel and blog more informative through various perspectives while delivering a better variety of content.
Why have I chosen this name and what do they represent? Firstly it is an unclaimed name which allows me to take advantage of the exclusivity to utilise it in a way that works for the brand and ease of communication. Secondly, the name is still able to convey the category of content in an easy, clear and concise way. I have also broken down in more detail what each of the names represents for me, and how my past and present influence my view of the future, not only for my own life but for this brand.
Pack: Sense of belonging has never been a thing for me, growing up I was made fun of by my extended family for having "Western features" and having a Western diet, while my time living in the West hasn't exactly made me fit in given I'm more of a "migrant" than a citizen born. Being in NZ hasn't been a dream come true for me either, I have always envisioned myself being somewhere else. Having done 3 huge moves in my first 19 years of life, not only that I have a lack of identity in every new place but having to restart my life in a brand new environment.
Jet: Aviation is a huge passion of mine as you may know. As an aspiring aviator, a former Private Pilot and was about to be a Commercial Pilot but with my medical being disqualified by CAA, I had to find something that still involved the aviation industry, or as closely to airplanes as possible. Doing this, as an airline reviewer will give me that access and closeness that I will never be able to achieve otherwise. Regardless of whether this will pan out in the long term, planes will always have a special spot in my heart, the sound of planes will always make me look up, wondering where they are heading, admiring the marvellous engineering that goes into making it fly connecting the world closer than ever before.
Roam: As this channel is also going to feature content outside of aviation, Roam encapsulates the content that you can expect. Regardless of where I end up around the world, I want to be curious and wander around every street corner and find the uniqueness that made the city what it is. Of course, exploring the city or country is only a part of it, there's a lot more that one can learn and experience such as cultures, arts, music, and even attractions. I want to enjoy the city like a local, gaining the experience to live amongst the thousands around me, in turn I hope it will allow me to gain a new perspective in life and adopt some good qualities that I can apply to myself.
| Visited Countries | Lived Countries |
| Fiji | Malaysia |
| United States of America | Australia |
| France | New Zealand |
| Germany | |
| Italy | |
| Spain | |
| Netherlands | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Brunei | |
| *Hong Kong | |
| Japan | |
| Singapore | |
| South Korea | |
| *Taiwan | |
| Thailand | |
| Vietnam | |
| Cambodia |
PackJetRoam 