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

Dear Daughters,

by Calvin Sun | August 15, 2026 | Post-travel Reflections, What Dreams May Come, You're Going to Miss It... | 4 Comments

Dear daughters, In a rare moment of peace as your mom was recovering in the PACU and you were down the hall in the NICU, I found myself thinking about everyone over the years who made judgments about my lifestyle and said to my face: "Sure, you've been to every...

We Had Twins

by Calvin Sun | July 26, 2026 | Crisis, Doctor in the House, Let me tell you a Story..., Serendipitous!, United States, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come | 0 Comments

Identical twins. This was a birth by a thousand cuts. A story as old as time, for two lives as new as right now, where spontaneity gets sandwiched between a relentless tango with death. They were born after one of the hardest chapters of our lives: a rare...

Tomorrowland Babies

by Calvin Sun | July 25, 2026 | Festivals | 0 Comments

Four Tomorrowlands in, and this is the first I'll be writing about a trip I planned without having gone. What gives? It's not as if I didn't want to: Right as 40+ of my monsooners were heading off to Belgium, I was in a hospital room in Queens, meeting my...

Where Do You Go When You’ve Already Been Everywhere?

by Calvin Sun | May 17, 2026 | Camping, Epiphanies on the Road, Fit for Foodies, May 2026: Bobo's Farm, New York, Post-travel Reflections | 0 Comments

Where does one of the youngest most traveled person in the world still travel to after they've been to nearly every country in the world? Home, of course. I've hitchhiked onboard trains through the endless expanse of The Sahel, slept in guesthouses in...

It Zermatt-ers A Lot You Followed Through!

by Calvin Sun | April 3, 2026 | Border Crossing, Crisis, Fit for Foodies, Flying Fancy, How's the weather?, Serendipitous!, Spring 2026: French & Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Weekend Trips, What Dreams May Come | 0 Comments

Any normal person would have headed home after 4 consecutive days of 6+ hours of skiing black diamond powder at 3,330 meters followed by six hours of raving in a blizzard. But I am not a normal person. Unlike most people, I don't procrastinate on fulfilling...

Alpe “d’Huez” in Charge Here? We Couldn’t Wait Until Tomorrow, for Tomorrowland Winter

by Calvin Sun | March 28, 2026 | Festivals, France, How's the weather?, Spring 2026: French & Swiss Alps, The Nightlife | 0 Comments

We made it to a Tomorrowland Aftermovie! Click on the YouTube video below where it starts right where you see us dancing to Alok; me on the left, and Patricia right in the center in her lavender hoodie as the video slows in on her/us (well, really just her)....

Why Not “Disfrutar”?

by Calvin Sun | March 23, 2026 | Fit for Foodies, Flying Fancy, France, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Introspection, Layovers, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Serendipitous!, Spain, Spring 2026: French & Swiss Alps | 0 Comments

We got a lot going on in the world right now: There's now a war in Iran, the funding bill for our DHS still hasn't passed, and the entirety of the TSA has been working without a paycheck for the past month. With the war, I'd imagine both the region and Emirates...

Meet the Tomorrowland Winter Monsooners!

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

Why do Tomorrowland just once a year when you can do it twice AND ski/snowboard at the same time? Introducing the following returning monsooners for this iteration of our favorite annual festival. Welcome back those returning with me for their 2nd, 3rd, or even...

All Aboard the Santa Claus Express!

by Calvin Sun | February 10, 2026 | February 2026: Lapland, Finland, Fit for Foodies, Flying Fancy, Lapland, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

I woke up to an Arctic sunrise again, this time to send Mel off on her early flight back at 7:30am; she had to return a day before the rest of us. After she left in an Uber to the airport, I cooked the last of what was left in the fridge at the Airbnb and saw...

For Richer, For Polar

by Calvin Sun | February 9, 2026 | February 2026: Lapland, Finland, Fit for Foodies, How's the weather?, Lapland, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

I just woke up to this Arctic sunrise before everyone else in the Airbnb. I took the time to make some scrambled eggs for breakfast, brewed the coffee, and leisurely sat down to write this blog post as I waited for the rest of the group to come to life. What a...

A Place Of Miracles: Kyaiktiyo & The Golden Rock

by Calvin Sun | Aug 6, 2011 | How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Myanmar, Public Transportation, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

If it's not already playing, press play. And then start reading. Pretty much any M83 song will do here. The Kyaiktiyo (pronounced: "Chachiyo") Golden Rock has been a pilgrimage site for thousands of Burmese Buddhists, but for the determined traveler,...

Phenom-enal

by Stephanie Quan | Aug 6, 2011 | Cambodia, Let me tell you a Story..., Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

defenses up again. haggling again. sleeping in a building that's about to be torn down. there's a rave going on outside. got a massage by a blind person... It may just be the place where I'm staying (by the lake, near a cluster of cheap cheap hostels), but...

Bangkok (Briefly)

by Stephanie Quan | Aug 5, 2011 | Introspection, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Thailand

21 hour layover in Bangkok was, as predicted, overwhelming. THE DENSITY. e.g. 1. Khao San rd. This is where apparently all of the backpackers congregate at night. What you will find on this road: street food every 10 feet, local musicians covering american classics,...

Into The Wild

by Stephanie Quan | Aug 4, 2011 | Cambodia, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Thailand

Not quite the wild, actually. More like into the unknown. Calvin and I parted ways this morning. It was a little sad. He wrote his address in my notebook next to all the other addresses of people, we've traveled with. Of course, he pointed out the sentimentality in...

Enlightened Cats, Giraffe Women, And Life On Inle Lake

by Calvin Sun | Aug 3, 2011 | Myanmar, Mythbusters, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, What Dreams May Come

I present to you, the famous jumping cats of Nga Phe Kyuang! Inle Lake is like the big brother of Srinagar's Dal Lake. It's simply gorgeous. Except for the jumping cats of Nga Phe Kyuang, it's not really a place to see anything but rather to explore how life...

I (Actually) Got Struck By Lightning: Mandalay

by Calvin Sun | Aug 3, 2011 | Crisis, How's the weather?, Myanmar, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

Remember the game we used to play when we were young? We'd see a flash of lightning, count the number of seconds before hearing the sound of thunder, and then multiply that number by the speed of sound to find out how far away that lightning strike was? I tried to...

Bagan/Inle Lake

by Stephanie Quan | Aug 1, 2011 | Myanmar, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

Since I'm skipping Mandalay, I'm getting an extra day in Inle Lake which, like Bagan, is so gorgeous. It has a different sense of peace though. Bagan- Spent the day in a horse drawn cart and climbing up the sides of temples. Most of these are made out of brick and it...

The Manhattan Of Temples: Bagan

by Calvin Sun | Aug 1, 2011 | How's the weather?, Myanmar, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, What Dreams May Come

Disclaimer: Since Flickr is banned by the Myanmar government, I have to use this router browser to bypass the controls. Unfortunately, although this means I can upload photos, I cannot view or format them. So if this entry is missing any photos or if the photos don't...

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