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...

From Bagan To Mandalay

by Calvin Sun | Aug 1, 2011 | Lessons Learned, Myanmar, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

Flickr is banned here. That means no photos of Bagan until I try to upload again somewhere around Lake Inle tomorrow. 🙁 Stephanie and I have momentarily parted ways; she's currently hanging out a little southeast at Lake Inle for 2 days while I'm here in the city...

Burmese Myanmar

by Calvin Sun | Jul 31, 2011 | Border Crossing, Lessons Learned, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Myanmar, Mythbusters, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, What Dreams May Come

Well, I'm finally here. Although this isn't my first time officially in Myanmar, I'm actually exploring the country for more than a day this time. A few myths about Myanmar that are well, actually true (I learned them all the hard way): There really is not a...

Yangon/Rangoon In Myanmar/Burma II

by Stephanie Quan | Jul 31, 2011 | Myanmar, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

I'm a few days behind. Oh well. Having arrived a few days before Calvin, I got to settle in or marinate in (its ungodly hot) Yangon a good bit. It is my first southeast asian city though, so please excuse the comments that seem to regard the more generally southeast...

Bangladesh’s Sour Aftertaste

by Calvin Sun | Jul 28, 2011 | Bangladesh, How Did You Do That?, Lessons Learned, Let me tell you a Story..., Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

I may have spoken too song in singing the praises of Bangladesh. Or maybe it's because I'm a stupid tourist. ...but in my defense, nobody mentioned this in the guidebooks: I learned the hard way today that when you arrive in Bangladesh and take money out of an ATM,...

“Where You Come from?” “USA” “No, Where You Really From?”

by Calvin Sun | Jul 28, 2011 | Bangladesh, Epiphanies on the Road, Introspection, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

During the last 3 days in Bangladesh, I’ve come to develop a fondness for its brutal honesty. Given its complete lack of exposure to tourists and foreigners, rickshaw drivers and touts charge surprisingly such low fares that there’s very little need to haggle....

Remnants Of A Ghost Town: Panam Nagar

by Calvin Sun | Jul 28, 2011 | Bangladesh, How Did You Do That?, Mythbusters, Public Transportation, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

Alex left for Chittagong today while I stayed behind in Dhaka. While it's only for 2 days, it's fun to travel alone again! In my brusque research of things to do around Dhaka, I've heard reports of a nearby abandoned ghost town called Panam Nagar in Sonargaon, which...

Dhaka Down Under

by Calvin Sun | Jul 27, 2011 | Bangladesh, Serendipitous!, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Walking Tours

Headed south today to check out the heart of what makes Bangladesh tick: Old Dhaka. Before I begin, I befriended a fellow Australian traveler named Alex at my hostel. We shared a lot of similarities in our style of traveling save for the fact Alex spends a...

Damn Beautiful Dhaka

by Calvin Sun | Jul 26, 2011 | Bangladesh, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

The standard reply when you tell someone you're traveling to India: "W..wow!" The standard reply when you tell someone you're traveling to Bangladesh: "W..why?" To be honest, I didn't quite know what exactly brought me here. I didn't get a guidebook...

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