The Monsoon Diaries: How to travel the world with no time or money -

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...

Getting Away With Robbinsville: The Akshardham Redemption

by Calvin Sun | October 6, 2025 | Camping, Layovers, New Jersey, October 2025: Camping in Robbinsville | 0 Comments

One of my more unique camping trips to have monsooned; this is what happens when you plan a camping trip months in advance just to visit a temple arguably worth seeing as a world-class destination. I was stuck at work all day Friday as Eddie took the initiative...

A Quick Halifax Check

by Calvin Sun | September 12, 2025 | Layovers, Lessons Learned, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Walking Tours | 0 Comments

After two days in Saint-Pierre (and a turbulent ferry ride to Miquelon and back), we boarded an hour-and-a-half direct Air Saint-Pierre 9am flight to Halifax, landing around 9:30am local time (Halifax runs an hour behind Saint-Pierre), Our onward...

Miquelon Impossible

by Calvin Sun | September 11, 2025 | Doctor in the House, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

Sometimes the most spontaneous detours leave the strongest impressions. That morning in Saint Pierre, we hadn't planned on leaving the island. But after completing two walking tours around St. Pierre and checking the ferry schedule, we realized we could still...

48 Hours in a Little Saint-Pierre-ce of France

by Calvin Sun | September 11, 2025 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

After three days soaking in St. John's charm, we dropped off our rental car at YYT Saint John's airport to catch the rare 5pm direct flight (PH1127) via Air Saint-Pierre to Saint-Pierre & Miquelon: one of the few weekly connections between Newfoundland and...

Don’t Be Dildo-Dallying

by Calvin Sun | September 9, 2025 | Canada, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

While based in St. John's, we took a spontaneous day trip by rental car to the now-famous town of Dildo. You'll know when you arrive; they're incredibly proud of their distinctive name. Though a vocal minority has repeatedly raised referendums to...

St. John’s: The Eastern Edge of Everything Everywhere All At Once

by Calvin Sun | September 9, 2025 | Canada, September 2025: Newfoundland to Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

Months ago I decided to gift myself a week off after Labor Day...simply because I could. After a year as wild as this past one, I craved actual and intentional self-prioritization to restore some balance. Finding fares under $200, I booked a morning departure:...

Singapore Airlines Business Class FRA-JFK

by Calvin Sun | August 5, 2025 | Flying Fancy, Germany, Summer 2025: The Long Road to Berlin | 0 Comments

After a slow morning walk and talking about our villain (antihero?) origin stories in Berlin, I hugged Daniela and Gabe goodbye, hopped on the tram for a few stops, went underground for the metro, and made it back to the hostel in time for a 1:30pm check out. Nisha,...

The Algerian Visa Requirements for USA Passports

by Calvin Sun | Jan 2, 2020 | Algeria, Getting that VISA

It took about 3 weeks, but I finally was able to get my hands on the rare and coveted Algerian tourist visa in NYC ... 24 hours before my literal departure to Algeria! You'll need the following to prep: 2 copies of a filled out but unsigned visa application...

Happy 10 Years (Officially): A Decade In Review

by Calvin Sun | Dec 31, 2019 | Post-travel Reflections

The Monsoon Diaries is my love letter to life.When it began as a simple travel blog for a particular trip to Southeast Asia & India the summer I was to begin medical school — much like the premise of “The Motorcycle Diaries” — and during the monsoon season...

You’re Going To Miss … Egypt

by Calvin Sun | Dec 10, 2019 | Egypt, You're Going to Miss It...

Keeping up with tradition I wrote the following in a stream of consciousness Jack Kerouac style -- so please forgive run-ons and typos. Press play and read the post with the music . . . "Let's never come here again because it...

They Put A Monsooner On The Moon — The White Desert Of Egypt

by Calvin Sun | Dec 7, 2019 | Autumn 2019: Egypt Redux - 10 Years Later, Camping, Crisis, Doctor in the House, Egypt, Epiphanies on the Road, Fail, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come

Once in a while, I'm blessed to write up and release a blogpost that will stand the test of time in my memories. This is one of those posts. The irony of today rests in the fact that after a decade visiting 180 countries and...

All Roads Lead To Alexandria

by Calvin Sun | Dec 4, 2019 | Autumn 2019: Egypt Redux - 10 Years Later, Crisis, Egypt, Fail, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

Going to miss Luxor's West Bank vibes. After an eventful 2 days here, we made a mad dash for the Luxor Train Station across the river. Getting there 45 minutes early, I took this time to give everyone a memento silver bracelet of...

Luxor-y Travel

by Calvin Sun | Dec 3, 2019 | Autumn 2019: Egypt Redux - 10 Years Later, Egypt, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, What Dreams May Come

After the first rounds of goodbye to Likhith and Karthik last night, I noticed that Mihaela is already crying realizing that the trip is halfway over: Wrapping up 2 days in Aswan, we planned to set out this morning on a 7:30am train to Luxor,...

Life’s Simbel — It’s Abu The People That Make The Trip, Not The Destination

by Calvin Sun | Dec 1, 2019 | Autumn 2019: Egypt Redux - 10 Years Later, Egypt, What Dreams May Come

Credit goes to Ann Wen (who's not even on the trip!) for the blogpost title. In our second day in Aswan, we set out for sites outside of the city, beginning with the obligatory tourist pilgrimage to Abu Simbel. This began with a mandatory wake up call at 3:15am...

Finally Coming Together “Aswan!”

by Calvin Sun | Nov 30, 2019 | Autumn 2019: Egypt Redux - 10 Years Later, Doctor in the House, Egypt

By now you might be sick of all these "throwback" nostalgia I'm writing about, 10 years this, and 10 years that.Thankfully, there's some new material as I had missed Aswan the last time I was here. Therefore it would be our first stop outside of Cairo after...

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