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...

Some Special Taxi Experiences

by Annah Kim | Jun 27, 2010 | Fail, Let me tell you a Story..., Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand, Uncategorized Stories, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Before I begin, this photo was too good to pass up. I know that it may not be the most sensitive or politically correct item to post - but I'm here to share my experiences and not all of them turn out to be 100% politically sensitive. So, Bangkok is...

30 hours In Bangkok

by Calvin Sun | Jun 27, 2010 | Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand, The Nightlife

Just very quickly: We're about to board a plane to Penang, Malaysia after only 30 hours in Bangkok. Despite the short time spent here, we got a very good idea of the city: Big giant buddhas, traffic congestion, supreme mass of humanity, huge wats, upscale really...

Quick Update: Night In Bangkok

by Annah Kim | Jun 26, 2010 | Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand

So- it's after 3am and I'm pretty exhausted. I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to give a full run-down with videos of today's activities, but I just wanted to let you know that we successfully had a full night in Bangkok. We started at the Mandarin Hotel -...

In Bangkok

by Calvin Sun | Jun 26, 2010 | Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand

We're in Bangkok now. Our worried parents would send to us images of riots and burning cars when we arrived . . . But we saw none of that.

Surviving Myanmar/Burma

by Calvin Sun | Jun 25, 2010 | Epiphanies on the Road, How Did You Do That?, Myanmar, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand

So we did it. Any concerned mommy and daddy of the Western world would wag their finger at their little 'uns for even entertaining the idea of a trip into Myanmar. Why? It's one of the most secluded police states in the world, run by a military junta, and simply...

A Few Hours In Burma

by Annah Kim | Jun 25, 2010 | Myanmar, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India

You can obtain a day-pass into the Burmese town of Myareddy from the Thailand Mae Sot, Tak border for 600 Thai Bhat. We made an early trip over and here are a few videos from the excursion. Crossing the Border: Burmese Neighborhood: Burmese School:

The Thing About Squat Toilets

by Calvin Sun | Jun 24, 2010 | Fail, Myanmar, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand, Uncategorized Stories

I had been a little worried that so far during this trip, we haven't been able to share some particularly embarrassing stories. But earlier this afternoon I had a terrible experience with a squat toilet that can be nominated for the stupid award. Set up: At...

F.Y.I.

by Annah Kim | Jun 24, 2010 | Myanmar, Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, Thailand

I'm on the bus to Mae Sot- a town 6km from the Burmese border. We're going to stay in the town overnight and hopefully cross the border for a half day tomorrow. Internet is not going to be easily available I don't think and my bberry's 3g network is in and out.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »