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,...

Meet the Monsooners to Rapa Nui / Easter Island!

by Calvin Sun | Oct 14, 2024 | Introductions, Uncategorized

Enigmatic Rapa Nui and Easter Island awaits us. Welcome back those returning with me for their 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th monsoon: Melinda "Sunrise Hiker" Kwok, 4 time monsooner returning from Bhutan, Syria, Meteora and South Sudan Melissa "Look! Pizza!" Weinnman, 3 time...

Let’s Maldive Into Malé

by Calvin Sun | Sep 27, 2024 | Maldives, September 2024: Bhutan

After our 4 days in Bhutan, our respective groups bid farewell at the Paro airport. While most of them would return on a morning 7:10am flight to Kathmandu, only 4 of us -- Melinda, Sampson, Sujay and I -- paid about $250 extra for an onward flight from Paro to...

Where Heaven Meets Earth: Scaling the Sacred to Tiger’s Nest

by Calvin Sun | Sep 25, 2024 | Bhutan, September 2024: Bhutan, What Dreams May Come

We wake up this morning at the Eco Lodge by Paro to a stupendous view from our room. Today is the day we've all been waiting for. Today we achieve a bucket list item for everyone who knows where Bhutan is on the map, and fans of Nolan's Batman as...

Let’s get Punakha-d up for an Adventure!

by Calvin Sun | Sep 24, 2024 | Bhutan, September 2024: Bhutan, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Today the 24 of us woke up to a glorious morning in Thimphu: For our second day in Bhutan we plan to drive from Thimphu, Bhutan's current capital, to Punakha, the former capital. After getting in some breakfast and coffee, we...

Almost Got the Bhut-an!

by Calvin Sun | Sep 23, 2024 | Bhutan, Fail, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, September 2024: Bhutan, Serendipitous!

Upon an invitation by Letti's friends after our West Africa trip together, I happily accepted and asked for permission if I could also invite a few monsooners if they'd be interested. As I learned about the process, it came at no surprise that the government of...

This Is My Med School White Coat Ceremony Speech

by Calvin Sun | Sep 20, 2024 | Introspection, Speeches, What Dreams May Come, You're Going to Miss It...

Just today I gave the keynote speech at the White Coat Ceremony of the very same medical school that had let me graduate 10 years ago. 10 years ago when I also gave a similar (but far shorter) keynote speech that could only at best guess what would happen in 10...

Meet The Happiest People Going to Bhutan!

by Calvin Sun | Sep 2, 2024 | Introductions

Let's go to the Land of Happiness and the onetime hermit kingdom of Bhutan! Welcome back those returning with me for their 2nd, 5th, or even 7th monsoon: Sujay “Chief Siesta Officer” Sheth: 7 time monsooner returning from Tomorrowland, The Hokkaido Snowpocalypse, The...

American Samoa: You Have To Pago Pago To See Where They Day Ends

by Calvin Sun | Aug 30, 2024 | American Samoa, August 2024: The South Pacific Island Hopper, How Did You Do That?, Samoa, United States, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

From an exhausting full day in proper Samoa, we had breakfast at our hotel, a quick morning tour of Apia afterwards, and drove over to the local sorta-international (but definitely not the main one) Fagalii Airport outside of Apia for our 10:30 Samoa Airways...

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