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

Meet the Sundancers!

by Calvin Sun | January 2, 2026 | Introductions | 0 Comments

From a trip planned over a year ago after a bunch of friends joined me in Killington 2024, we are flying out to Park City, UT for our first time at the Sundance Film Festival for their final time in Park City, UT! Welcome back those returning with me for their...

Niger At Last: A Second Chance

by Calvin Sun | December 10, 2025 | Border Crossing, December 2025 Annex: Niger, Fail, Flying Fancy, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Layovers, Niger, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come | 1 Comment

11 months ago, I sat on the tarmac in Niger's International Airport at Niamey, watching my trip evaporate due to visa complications. The Niger Embassy in Washington D.C. had stopped issuing visas to Americans entirely. But I don't give up. In late...

Yemen Day 4: Mukalla Drive

by Calvin Sun | December 5, 2025 | December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Yemen | 0 Comments

Al-Mukalla Pulling ourselves away from a desert mirage paradise at Haid Al-Jazil, we swapped our armed guard at another checkpoint during the 2 hour drive to Mukalla. You point that thing away from me! After a long wait at one of the...

Yemen Day 3: Where Reality Surpasses Dreams at Haid al-Jazil-lion Miles Away From Reality

by Calvin Sun | December 4, 2025 | December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Yemen | 0 Comments

Haid Al-Jazil As the afternoon began to wane, we continued onto our accommodation for the night at the Haid Al-Jazil Resort Hotel, named after what it overlooks and its location perching dramatically on a cliff overlooking the Wadi Do'an. You'll find remarkably...

Yemen Day 3: Wadi-“we” Do’an Here?

by Calvin Sun | December 4, 2025 | December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Yemen | 0 Comments

Deep into Wadi Do'an From Shibam, we drove deeper into the Hadhramaut system, heading toward Wadi Do'an, a dramatic side valley that branches off the main wadi. Because of the recent military takeover of the local Hadrhamaut government yesterday, we had...

Yemen Day 2/3: Waking Up to A Military Takeover | Shibam Diggity – Where Are Skyscrapers Born? Here, in The Manhattan of the Desert

by Calvin Sun | December 4, 2025 | Crisis, December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Travel Warnings, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Yemen | 0 Comments

Day 2 was supposed to start with a morning drive to Al-Mukalla, the seaport and capital city district of Hadramawt. But that plan aged poorly, because we woke up to this instead: Just like my morning of our last day in Kabul in 2019, we woke up to...

YE-ah-MAN! Yemen Mainland Day 1: Oh Sei-yun Can You See?

by Calvin Sun | December 2, 2025 | December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Yemen | 2 Comments

Let's just say being here to take this photo at sunset today was worth the wait: The Visa Maze: When Standard Procedures Is Anything But Standard Before you get in, you'll need an entry visa. As an American citizen in 2025, you'd expect the Yemen...

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 Out Of ‘The World’s Murder Capital’: San Pedro Sula

by Calvin Sun | Jun 22, 2013 | Honduras, How Did You Do That?, Mythbusters, Public Transportation, Summer 2013: Central America

To be honest, it wasn't that bad. Not once did we ever feel unsafe driving through San Pedro Sula on our way to Copan Ruins. In fact, it looked like any other city in Central America. Our group landed in 3 separate runs: Angela arrived at noon on Friday, Erick,...

The ‘Most Dangerous Place On Earth’ & ‘Murder Capital Of The World’

by Calvin Sun | Jun 22, 2013 | Honduras, Summer 2013: Central America, Travel Warnings

To be honest, I didn't know this until after booking my tickets...but we're about to fly into the "one of the world's most violent places" a.k.a. The Murder Capital of the World: San Pedro Sula, Honduras. You might be thinking, Oh, Calvin, you CHOSE this place...

Meet The Monsooners Of Central America

by Calvin Sun | Jun 3, 2013 | Introductions

Here's to celebrating the end of my 3rd year of medical school: 4 countries and 9 cities for less than $1100 *all-inclusive* of flights, transportation, lodging and food at $20/day for 9 days from June 22nd - June 30th. From spelunking impressive Mayan ruins to...

36 hours In Austin

by Calvin Sun | Apr 12, 2013 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Fit for Foodies, Texas, United States, Walking Tours

We found one of the most beautiful places in the United States, and it would've been a shame not to mention it in our latest Monsoon Diaries adventure.The story begins a year ago when I found a photo gallery on coolhunter.net called "Amazing Places to...

Dare We Dream For 2013?

by Calvin Sun | Feb 18, 2013 | Our Next Adventure

2013 Trips APRIL: Austin, Texas JUNE: Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: Iceland DECEMBER: Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, ANTARCTICA I do not take credit for any of these pictures because at the time of posting, I haven't been...

You’re Going To Miss … Ukraine & Poland

by Calvin Sun | Jan 11, 2013 | December 2012: Eastern Europe, Fail, Germany, Poland, Post-travel Reflections, Serendipitous!, Ukraine, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, You're Going to Miss It...

Pictures courtesy of Mandy Cheuk, Simon Lu, Kai Tan, Cynthia Koo, and yours truly.With contributions by Cynthia Koo. If it's not already playing, press play. And then start reading. "...Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the...

Punta Cana For Rent

by Calvin Sun | Jan 6, 2013 | Dominican Republic, Fit for Foodies, January 2012: La Hispanola, The Nightlife

Punta Cana is usually synonymous with the word "paradise." And you really will find paradise once you see its beaches...but Punta Cana can also become synonymous with the word "commercialized." That's because the *entire* beachfront is owned by mega-resorts; nowhere...

Santo Domingo Chinitos

by Calvin Sun | Jan 5, 2013 | Dominican Republic, January 2012: La Hispanola, Mythbusters, Public Transportation

We set off on a late morning on a search for Santo Domingo's Chinatown. Grabbed a breakfast at the 200 year old diner joint, Cafeteria la Colonial, and then walked north up Duarte Avenue (with Parque Duarte behind us) for about 1/5 of a mile until we hit...

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