CJ and Jake Around the World

Jake and I landed in Islamabad and were immediately greeted with a notice from the US embassy of planned protests in the area and potential blockages of the road. It turns out the blockages were very much real. The government had blocked almost every major road with piles of dirt, shipping containers, and parked 18 wheelers. Our driver Rauf skillfully circumnavigated these blockades by fully driving the wrong way on an interstate. Hello Pakistan. Before I go any further, let me zoom out and explain what Jake and I are doing in Pakistan. There is an amazing woman named Mishka (who happens to be an avid blog viewer and commenter - you should all strive to be like Mishka) who works at Dartmouth and recommended we visit Northern Pakistan. So we did a little research (the little  will become apparent soon enough) and booked an 11 day tour with the company she recommended. And it was an incredible decision. As you will learn throughout the next three blog posts, Pakistan is an amazing co...

A two hour direct flight from Riyadh landed us in the great city of Muscat, Oman. Being our most sporadic stop of the trip (CJ and I still can't remember whose idea it was or why to come here), we were pleasantly surprised to be a 30 minute walk from the beach and five minutes from a strip mall of restaurants. Our flight got in late so after settling into the airbnb, we crashed early. This is the view from the roof of our place.  The next morning, our host Muhammad picked us up bright and early to bring us to an ATM so we could pay him. I was in a groggy haze so CJ did most of the talking. Apparently he is quite the sweet talker because after this brief interaction, our host continued messaging him frequently throughout our stay and even after we left. Below are some highlights. I'll let you be the judge of the subtext on this one.  Our first real stop of the day was an Egyptian restaurant at the aforementioned strip mall where we feasted on some delicious koshary - a mix of l...