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...

Malaysia In A Nutshell

by Calvin Sun | Jun 29, 2010 | Doctor in the House, Fit for Foodies, Malaysia, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

It might just be the easiest country on the Southeast Asia circuit you'll travel to. Boasting diversity in both ethnicity and religious tolerance that might hint that of major cities in the United States, Malaysia creates a nice fruit salad of Malays, Chinese,...

Batty Batu!

by Calvin Sun | Jun 29, 2010 | How's the weather?, Malaysia, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Walking Tours

We're winding down our whirlwind tour of KL and we managed to hit up almost everything in 10 hours (in this order):Batu CavesOld Railway StationNational MosqueSri Mahamariamman TempleChinatownMerdeka SquareLittle IndiaGolden TriangleKLCC ParkPetronas...

Kuala Lumpur

by Annah Kim | Jun 29, 2010 | Malaysia, Public Transportation, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

We covered the city in a day - even with some elongated stops here and there to talk about... random things. May I just say that the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur is exceptionally deceitfully convenient. It only appears to be a great way to get around. It...

Internet

by Annah Kim | Jun 29, 2010 | Fail, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

Just letting you know - the internet is kind of slow and the browser keeps crashing on me... so there won't be much uploading of videos anytime in the near future. Apologies. Annah

Arrival In Kuala Lumpur

by Calvin Sun | Jun 28, 2010 | Malaysia, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

Currently in Kuala Lumpur. What a pretty city with a great vibe. Great mix of people intermingling. Me gusta diversity. Plan tomorrow: Petronas Towers (get there early morning to get evening viewing tickets) Batu Caves Old Railway Station National Mosque Sri...

Pretty As Penang

by Calvin Sun | Jun 27, 2010 | Epiphanies on the Road, Malaysia, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

I was getting a little worried with Penang...I know we came here just for the food, which has been cheap and exquisitely delicious, but my camera started getting a little bored. That is until this morning where we did a whirlwind walking tour of all the...

The Thing About Facial Hair

by Calvin Sun | Jun 27, 2010 | Fail, Lessons Learned, Malaysia, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Uncategorized Stories

So my compadre Rahul Jain told me to grow out my facial hair without shaving the entire trip. This is my progress after almost one month (27 days to be exact): It was never meant to be.

Thailand In A Nutshell

by Calvin Sun | Jun 27, 2010 | Doctor in the House, Fit for Foodies, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand

Thailand. Consider it famous, consider it infamous: It's the dream tourist capital of Southeast Asia. From the quieter "Rose of the North" in Chiang Mai to the cramped hustlin' n' bustlin' of Bangkok, Thailand has something for everyone.One day you're trekking along...

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