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...

22 Hours In San Diego

by Calvin Sun | Sep 23, 2010 | Blitzkrieg!!!, California, United States

Tomorrow I'm bound for San Diego and pulling an emergency "Taipei" situation where I'll be there for 22 hours. Why emergency? Well, in 3 days I have my first medical school block exam back in Brooklyn and I'm not entirely prepared. But I can't let you down without...

OK, You PERVERTS And DRAMA QUEENS! (Most Popular Entries)

by Calvin Sun | Aug 16, 2010 | Post-travel Reflections, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

My first day of med school. Will I ever travel again? The Monsoon Diaries' 10 most POPULAR posts ...courtesy of Google Analytics 10. June 24th, 2010 - Mae Sot, Thailand - The Thing About Squat Toilets 83 visits, 83 unique visitors, 03:09 average visit time (winner for...

And the Awards Go To…

by Calvin Sun | Aug 15, 2010 | Post-travel Reflections, Serendipitous!, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

Most Generous Hosts: Saraswati Reddy, Avanti Maluste Best Lifesavers: Vaibhav Shah, Arjun Rajagopal Earliest Riser: Supraja Sudharsan at 5am Fastest Response Time: Cindy Chang Miss Congeniality: Madhurya Reddy Best Unexpected Travel Partners: Fiona Mary Lewis,...

Monsoon Diaries By The Numbers

by Calvin Sun | Aug 14, 2010 | Doctor in the House, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Lessons Learned, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Post-travel Reflections, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, What to Pack

Days traveled: 72 Countries Visited: 12 (Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, China, India) FRIENDS # old Friends I ran into: 15 (Manila: Shyama, Saigon: Van, Mae Sot: Geoff, Singapore: BX & Sajni &...

“Kuch Bhi Ho Sakhta Hai”

by Calvin Sun | Aug 13, 2010 | *Countries, Epiphanies on the Road, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Uncategorized Stories, What Dreams May Come

If it's not already playing, press play. And then start reading. The echoes of Jeff Buckley. An autorickshaw roars by an airport runway. I came in as a stranger, left as a friend. I came in unsure what I was looking for, I left knowing what I needed...

Word Associations

by Calvin Sun | Aug 12, 2010 | Post-travel Reflections, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

Philippines: Laid Back Manila: Wistful Banaue/Batad: Grand Tagaytay: Single-minded Vietnam: Frenzy Hanoi: Bustling Hue: Tasty Saigon: Sprawling Cambodia: Polar Phnom Penh: Heartbreaking Siemreap/Angkor Wat: Breathtaking Laos: Lethargic Vientiane: Vacant Luang Prabang:...

Returning Pains

by Calvin Sun | Aug 12, 2010 | Epiphanies on the Road, Lessons Learned, Post-travel Reflections, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, United States

It's weird to... have a hot shower with good water pressure. have a clean bathroom. have more than 4 pairs of underwear, 5 pairs of socks, 5 shirts and 1 pair of pants to choose from. have an insulated cab. lie in a familiar bed. dig through clothes from a closet...

As if I Didn’t Have Enough Coincidences In My Life…

by Calvin Sun | Aug 11, 2010 | China, Lessons Learned, Serendipitous!, Uncategorized Stories, United States

As if I didn't have enough coincidences and run-ins already from my travels in India and Singapore, I asked myself while getting on the plane to NYC: "wouldn't it be funny if I also run into someone I know on this flight?" ...and there you have it, the moment I...

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