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...

Syria, Arab Spring, And Dubai

by Calvin Sun | Jun 22, 2011 | Jordan, Lessons Learned, Let me tell you a Story..., Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Mythbusters, Serendipitous!, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Travel Warnings, United Arab Emirates

Syria: Not gonna happen. They're not gonna let visa-less Americans through the border, and they won't be issuing any new visas at the embassy for a few weeks. I tried. I failed. Wop Wop. Maybe next time. I ended up stopping by a protest, however, while on the...

The Bedouin

by Stephanie Quan | Jun 22, 2011 | Jordan, Let me tell you a Story..., Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

While taking pictures of the Monestary, I heard clop clop behind me. I turned around to find Abobad, a Bedouin selling donkey rides. Even though he was wearing a cowboy hat with a fringed leather jacket, he was somehow not the most eccentric Bedouin I had...

Petra By Day

by Calvin Sun | Jun 21, 2011 | Crisis, How's the weather?, Jordan, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

Can't help but contextualize this entry with this classic scene from a classic movie: As if last night's awe-inspiring moment wasn't enough, guess what the Treasury at Petra looks like by day: The road through Petra by day is unlike the quiet,...

Aicha

by Calvin Sun | Jun 21, 2011 | Introspection, Jordan, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

When I first heard Cheb Khaled's "Aisha," I had promised myself I would listen to it again whenver I reached the deserts of the Middle East. I always keep my promises. Comme si j'n'existais pas Elle est passee a cote de moi Sans un regard, Reine de Sabbat J'ai...

Where Do Dreams Come From? Petra

by Calvin Sun | Jun 20, 2011 | Jordan, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, What Dreams May Come

My turn: If an experience is unwriteable, how about a place? Or how about a place at a specific moment of the day? Far far from a tourist trap, Petra by Night is something everyone has to do at least once in their lives. You take one of the most beautiful...

From Philadelphia Through The Deserts Of Jordan

by Calvin Sun | Jun 20, 2011 | Jordan, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

This morning we explored the handful of sights in what was formerly known as the ancient city of Philadelphia, which housed one of the largest public forums and theaters of the Roman Empire. Now Philadelphia has become downtown Amman, where the sights (King...

Understanding a Moment In Amman

by Calvin Sun | Jun 19, 2011 | Epiphanies on the Road, Introspection, Jordan, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea, What Dreams May Come

We are the only two foreigners. Scratch that -- the only two Asians in a sea of local Jordanians and other Arabians. In a balcony cafe awash with the perfumed smoke of nargile, we overlook the quiet chaos of downtown Amman. For a moment, everything seems...

The Palestinian Refugee Camps

by Calvin Sun | Jun 19, 2011 | Introspection, Lebanon, Mythbusters, Summer 2011: From the Middle East to North Korea

It's semantics. In India, poorer neighborhoods where Indians live are called "slums." In Lebanon, poorer neighborhoods where Palestinians live are called "refugee camps." Yet I saw no evidence of what the media conjures up for us: there we no tents in the...

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