The Monsoon Diaries: How to travel the world with no time or money -

Grenada Más

by Calvin Sun | November 4, 2025 | Grenada, October 2025: Pirates of the Caribbean's At World's End | 0 Comments

🇬🇩 190 down. 3 to go. After our 3 day stay in Dominica, we took a long hour-and-a-half drive back to the airport from our Portsmouth lodgings, stopping for a quick photo opportunity along the way. Dominica's airport is tiny. You...

Dominica-n’t Miss This

by Calvin Sun | November 1, 2025 | Dominica, October 2025: Pirates of the Caribbean's At World's End, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

From St. Vincent, we boarded InterCaribbean Airways JY 717 at 12:20pm. Their new airport, however, was built just 8 years ago and still has some operational quirks. The staff double-printed my first leg itinerary from St. Vincent to Barbados without including...

Dead Men Tell No Layovers: St. Vincent & The Grenadines in 12 Hours

by Calvin Sun | October 29, 2025 | Layovers, October 2025: Pirates of the Caribbean's At World's End, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 0 Comments

Fresh off a quick overnight in Grenada (courtesy of a free JetBlue voucher from last October's Welcome to Chinatown gala), we touched down at Maurice Bishop International Airport at 1:53pm. This marked the beginning of a 3-country Caribbean...

Getting Away With Robbinsville: The Akshardham Redemption

by Calvin Sun | October 6, 2025 | Camping, Layovers, New Jersey, October 2025: Camping in Robbinsville | 0 Comments

One of my more unique camping trips to have monsooned; this is what happens when you plan a camping trip months in advance just to visit a temple arguably worth seeing as a world-class destination. I was stuck at work all day Friday as Eddie took the initiative...

A Quick Halifax Check

by Calvin Sun | September 12, 2025 | Layovers, Lessons Learned, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Walking Tours | 0 Comments

After two days in Saint-Pierre (and a turbulent ferry ride to Miquelon and back), we boarded an hour-and-a-half direct Air Saint-Pierre 9am flight to Halifax, landing around 9:30am local time (Halifax runs an hour behind Saint-Pierre), Our onward...

Miquelon Impossible

by Calvin Sun | September 11, 2025 | Doctor in the House, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

Sometimes the most spontaneous detours leave the strongest impressions. That morning in Saint Pierre, we hadn't planned on leaving the island. But after completing two walking tours around St. Pierre and checking the ferry schedule, we realized we could still...

48 Hours in a Little Saint-Pierre-ce of France

by Calvin Sun | September 11, 2025 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

After three days soaking in St. John's charm, we dropped off our rental car at YYT Saint John's airport to catch the rare 5pm direct flight (PH1127) via Air Saint-Pierre to Saint-Pierre & Miquelon: one of the few weekly connections between Newfoundland and...

Don’t Be Dildo-Dallying

by Calvin Sun | September 9, 2025 | Canada, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

While based in St. John's, we took a spontaneous day trip by rental car to the now-famous town of Dildo. You'll know when you arrive; they're incredibly proud of their distinctive name. Though a vocal minority has repeatedly raised referendums to...

St. John’s: The Eastern Edge of Everything Everywhere All At Once

by Calvin Sun | September 9, 2025 | Canada, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

Months ago I decided to gift myself a week off after Labor Day...simply because I could. After a year as wild as this past one, I craved actual and intentional self-prioritization to restore some balance. Finding fares under $200, I booked a morning departure:...

Singapore Airlines Business Class FRA-JFK

by Calvin Sun | August 5, 2025 | Flying Fancy, Germany, Summer 2025: The Long Road to Berlin | 0 Comments

After a slow morning walk and talking about our villain (antihero?) origin stories in Berlin, I hugged Daniela and Gabe goodbye, hopped on the tram for a few stops, went underground for the metro, and made it back to the hostel in time for a 1:30pm check out. Nisha,...

Frickin’ NATURE: Manuel Antonio National Park

by Calvin Sun | Jun 28, 2013 | Costa Rica, Fail, How's the weather?, Summer 2013: Central America, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come

There's been a few recurring inside jokes we've been throwing around during the trip, one of them being nature's tendency to constantly amaze us, and at the same time screw us over. Today was one of those days where it tried to screw us over. Today we...

Quaint Quepos

by Calvin Sun | Jun 27, 2013 | Costa Rica, Fit for Foodies, Summer 2013: Central America, Walking Tours

Today we explored the lovely little town of Quepos, which was once underwater filled with mangroves (thanks for that Jenn Gao!), and is so small it only takes 3 hours to see everything, even if you're walking really really slowly: We struck up a...

“The Most Beautiful Sunset In The World”

by Calvin Sun | Jun 27, 2013 | Costa Rica, How Did You Do That?, Lessons Learned, Summer 2013: Central America, The Nightlife, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come

Forbes Magazine lists it as one of the 12 most beautiful national parks in the world (the list is actually pretty thorough). A contributor to Forbes and the author of "Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?" remarked that this was "the most beautiful sunset in the...

Arriving Into Manuel Antonio National Park

by Calvin Sun | Jun 26, 2013 | Costa Rica, How Did You Do That?, Lessons Learned, Public Transportation, Summer 2013: Central America

I barely got an hour of sleep before we had to wake up at 5:15am to catch taxis to the Bus Station for Manuel Antonio. BEWARE: LONELY PLANET AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG about where to catch the buses to Manuel Antonio and Quepos; right now common...

Crossing From Granada (NI) To San Jose (CR)

by Calvin Sun | Jun 26, 2013 | Border Crossing, Costa Rica, How Did You Do That?, Lessons Learned, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Nicaragua, Summer 2013: Central America, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Today we shrugged off the comforts of a direct international coach bus (that would've taken care of everything for us at a hefty price) and opted for independently navigating our way from Granada, Nicaragua to San Jose, Costa Rica by way of the cheap and local...

Our Little Slice of Granada

by Calvin Sun | Jun 25, 2013 | Fit for Foodies, Nicaragua, Summer 2013: Central America, The Nightlife, Walking Tours

We've had our fair share of colonial town experiences from Cartagena to Antigua to Santo Domingo, but Granada is something else of a find in Nicaragua. It may be not as well manicured as the aforementioned three, but that's what makes it feel so much more...

Managing Managua

by Calvin Sun | Jun 25, 2013 | Border Crossing, Nicaragua, Summer 2013: Central America, Walking Tours

After spending 1.5 hours at the border between Honduras and Nicaragua (most of it waiting around as they processed our passports), we arrived into Managua via Transnica Bus at around 1pm in the afternoon. From there we did a bit of sightseeing, starting with...

Tegucig-Awe-lpa

by Calvin Sun | Jun 24, 2013 | Fit for Foodies, Honduras, How Did You Do That?, Lessons Learned, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Mythbusters, Summer 2013: Central America

"...Tegucigalpa is dangerous and the crime is palpable . . . Comayaguela, which is very rough and tumble and not a place to linger day or night. San Isidro Market is a particular hot spot for petty theft. . . . Take taxis at night. In Colonia Palmira, gangs of...

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