Farewell Jake

- November 22, 2025

On November 3rd Jake left Bangkok to head to London and then home to America. He starts his job in early December.

Jake and I joined forces back in Boston on September 1st. But our planning goes back to over a year ago when Jake landed a job offer that would enable him to have a flexible start date. Let the planning begin. Senior year he took a fantastic Middle Eastern Studies class that inspired him to explore the Middle East. Spoiler alert that consistent blog readers already know: exploring the Middle East is exactly what we did.

Since then we have battled hail storms, illness, windowless rooms, 17 hour car rides, more illness, landslides, and so much more. It has been my dream for quite a while to take time off before starting work and travel the world. I've been saving for years to make it possible. Jake made it a reality. I know for a fact I would not have adventure'd as hard if it weren't for Jake, let alone laughed and had as much fun as I did. Beyond the day to day laughs, Jake was an incredible travel partner. There were many days where aside from bathroom breaks we spent literally every single waking minute together. For weeks and weeks. Many people go their entire life without spending that much prolonged intense one on one time with a person, not even their spouse. The fact that we finished our journey not only not at each other's throats but actively sad to part ways is a testament to how much of a blessing Jake was as a travel partner. We alternated booking hotels, tours, taxis, you name it. We went through countless highs and lows, micro and macro decisions. It was all better with Jake along for the ride.

Now let me walk you through a highly abbreviated version of our journey. We started in Boston.

We flew overnight to Paris and did some sight seeing during our layover.

Our first stop of the trip was Marrakesh, Morocco with our good friend and fellow Dartmouth '25, Logan Dailey.

Jake got this haircut.

And then fell sick for our first illness of the trip.

Next we went to the town of Imlil in the Atlas Mountains. We survived a surprise hail and lighting storm as well as freezing rain and flash flooding. After which I fell sick for our second illness of the trip.

Then it was time for our Sahara Desert tour!

We kissed goodbye to Morocco in Casablanca.

Our next stop was Egypt. We saw the pyramids of course.

And Jake tried Scuba diving for the first time in his life in the Egyptian Red Sea.

Then Logan left us and Jake's brother Robert joined us in Beirut to visit Jake's extended family. Lebanon solidified itself as Jake's favorite country of the trip, and my second favorite (shoutout Pakistan).

So much shawarma.

After Robert left, our couple time began in the rugged desert and rapid development of Saudi Arabia.

After the steel and concrete of Saudi Arabia we went to the slower, calmer Oman.

We took on more souks.

More mosques.

More food.

More wandering and funny tour guides.

We left Oman, and with it the Middle East, to begin our 11 day tour of Northern Pakistan. This is where our travel compatibility was really put to the test. Strictly Pakistani food, terrifying roads, hours of strenuous hiking, no laundry, WiFi, cell service, or heating. Jake was unphased. It would take more than that to break up this power duo.

We moved on from the North to Lahore - our other Pakistan stop. This was also the two week mark of sleeping in the same bedroom. So I revise my prelude to this blog post - from October 10th to November 3rd, Jake and I not only shared every waking moment with each other, we actually shared every single moment with each other since we shared a bedroom for almost a month straight.

Some without windows.

Lahore was a fantastic and fitting Pakistan send off.

Also of course we ate ample Pakistani food together.

Two weeks in Pakistan down, we moved on to Thailand. More delicious food!

One of the best days of the trip - scooter day in Koh Yao Yai!

One of many romantic date nights.

Temple and waterfall exploration in Chiangmai.

Keen blog readers may remember this photo as we left Koh Yao Yai for Chiangmai.

That is one of three unrefrigerated yogurts I ate over the course of that five hour travel day. The result? Jake caring for me as I was the sickest I've been in potentially my entire life. He nursed me back to health, providing me with a lifeline of LiquidIV and venturing out into the rain to get me noodle soup and water.

Thanks to Jake's assistance, I recovered and we were able to explore our final stop of the trip together - Bangkok.

And then, just like that, it all came to an end. Two months of travel, one of them with just the two of us, flew by. Marrakesh feels like a long time ago.