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...

Cruzin’ In Cuzco

by Calvin Sun | Mar 30, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, Fit for Foodies, Peru, The Nightlife, Walking Tours

So about the place we're staying at... Yeah, anyways, Loki's Backpackers Hostel? It's nice: Our circuit around Cuzco was brief. We pretty much saw most of everything we were supposed to see in under 4 hours. This was the route we took:Start...

Machu Picchu

by Calvin Sun | Mar 29, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Peru, Public Transportation, What Dreams May Come

Before I begin, I must preface this with the inspirational scene that led me to Machu Picchu in the first place: "and here we go..."As unsure as I was when the day was about to start, today was when everything that was supposed to work out, worked...

Machu Picchu, Here We Come

by Calvin Sun | Mar 28, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, Peru

It's currently 4am in Aguas Calientes and we just woke up after a 5 hour slumber/nap. I feel like a million bucks. No really, we're about to set out to wait in line at 4:30am for the first bus that leaves at 5:30am. To see what? To see Machu Picchu and climb...

I Won’t Pay You If You Lie To Me! & Ollantaytambo’s Beauty

by Calvin Sun | Mar 27, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, Doctor in the House, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Peru, Public Transportation, Uncategorized Stories, What Dreams May Come

Nausea. Dizziness. Headaches. Fainting. Vomiting. Death. All serious complications of Altitude Sickness where Lonely Planet says: "Altitude sickness is not a joke. It doesn't matter how fit you are; some people will get it and some people won't. Be especially...

San Salvador, Lima, And A Mid-flight Screw Up

by Calvin Sun | Mar 27, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, Epiphanies on the Road, Fail, How's the weather?, Peru, Uncategorized Stories

Before I know it, I'm already fast packed to another trip across the border. What's different this time is that out of all the inhabitable continents of the world (sorry Antartica, unless global warming happens, you don't count), only South America and Australia...

In Lima!

by Calvin Sun | Mar 27, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, Peru

In the middle of a late night dinner at Pardos Chicken near downtown Lima, where we're having tasty cow hearts and some fantastic fried chicken. More to come when I have time to upload a few pictures and videos.

And I Go.

by Calvin Sun | Mar 26, 2011 | Pre-travel Preparations

After enjoying some nice send-off company in the wee hours of the night, I'm packed up and ready to go. See you on the other side of the hemisphere. Goodbye NYC, hello Perú!

Packing – South America

by Calvin Sun | Mar 25, 2011 | April 2011: Peru & Colombia, Pre-travel Preparations, What to Pack

Less than 24 hours before departure, I give you my packing list for Peru and Colombia, 7 cities in 7 days: The itinerary in 7 days: Morning flight to Lima Overnight in Lima Morning flight to Cuzco Morning bus to Ollantaytambo Evening train to Aguas...

« Older Entries

Next Entries »