Find the beauty within. Travel from snowcapped mountains to the depths of the sea.

I work the front office at a hotel made solely with authentic teak, in a destination many may not be aware of on a crater-like mountain range in Indonesia. In other words, I am a receptionist at a hotel but I like to say the words “going to the office now” to my girlfriend and associates to hide the truth of wasted potential. “Stop hiding the fact that you’re a receptionist at a hotel Jem” would be the final conversation after my look of evil eyes to the comment and some laughs, followed by me driving 80 km/hour on my bike getting to work early rather than late thinking ‘how did I end up here?’.

I do love life; I live it driven primarily by curiosity with a pinch of clumsiness. Thankfully I have had my fair share of experiences getting involved in the worst of situations, living through all that I stumble upon – one of them being; dropping my GoPro camera in a den of wild dogs! “Oh James not again” was the reaction on the occasion when we were enjoying the African Safari as I almost got everyone in the Jeep mauled to death! There is no such thing as coincidence in my belief, everything has a reason, wild dogs are a very hard find during safari gaming; I was lucky enough to get an up close and personal upside down ‘selfie’ of one in particular during our exploits! The ranger ‘Promise’ got my camera back and he is forever a hero in my eyes. I motivate all travelers to experience the safari games in South Africa at least once in their lifetime; I must also say that the Amarula is the choice of beverage. I am a traveler myself; starting this year I can honestly say that I have been to 6 continents of the globe. I now currently rest my head on a rock called Batu, which ironically does mean a rock in my language. My heart is where I call home, I am where I belong; my favorite country of which is my own, called Indonesia. There are 17,000 islands to visit; some parts are not even explored yet! Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world and our dream is to sail the islands finding the beauty within, taking all travelers from around the world as guests on our future Phinisi schooner. To realize this dream we recently founded a company ‘Archipelago Encounter’ A.K.A ‘Archer’ to help travel seekers worldwide, encounter the beauty of Indonesia.

From snow capped mountains to the depths of sea floors, this will not be my last log in our book of travels. How did I end up here? I’ll be more than happy to tell, to show. I’ll give a hint, I followed my passion.