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

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 | 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,...

When You’ve Never Been to Berlin

by Calvin Sun | August 4, 2025 | Let me tell you a Story..., Serendipitous!, Summer 2025: The Long Road to Berlin, The Nightlife, Walking Tours | 0 Comments

If it's not already playing, press play. And then start reading. After 3 days in Amsterdam, Nisha, Sujay, Priscilla, Kenny, and myself boarded a 2pm direct train bound for Berlin. It was a 7.5-hour journey that gave us just enough time to reflect...

Meet The Samurai!

by Calvin Sun | Aug 6, 2018 | Introductions

For our upcoming September trip to Japan, I present to you our next class of monsooners: And the places we're monsooning...

How I Visited 150 Countries During Med School+Residency & Still Became a Doctor

by Calvin Sun | Jun 30, 2018 | Epiphanies on the Road, Post-travel Reflections, Speeches, Uncategorized Stories, What Dreams May Come, You're Going to Miss It...

June 23, 2018 6:46pm: Counting down the last 14 minutes of my last shift in residency — the final moments of an era. 6:47pm: In 13 minutes, I graduate as an attending physician. It's remarkable to look back and realize all it took was losing a wager to...

Doha: Teardrops On My “Qatar”

by Calvin Sun | Jun 4, 2018 | June 2018: The Persian Gulf, Layovers, Qatar, Walking Tours

First and foremost, props to Ann "Narcoleptik!" Wen on this trip for the blogpost's witty pun of a title -- It's going to be sad to leave such an unexpectedly pretty city that it's the reason for the teardrops on our "Qatar" (hey hey hey!). After 4 wonderful days in...

Wa Wa Nizwa!

by Calvin Sun | Jun 3, 2018 | How Did You Do That?, June 2018: The Persian Gulf, Oman, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

After overnight camping at Wahiba Sands and leaving at 8am, we drove north up to Nizwa, arriving at around 11am. The main sight and reason to come to Nizwa is for its fort, built in the 1650s by the second Ya’rub and was the administrative seat...

O Man, Oman: Wahiba Sands

by Calvin Sun | Jun 3, 2018 | Camping, How Did You Do That?, June 2018: The Persian Gulf, Oman

After a few hours swimming in the beautiful water holes of Wadi Shab, Talal and the gang continued south towards Sharqiya Sands. Also popularly known as Wahiba Sands named after the local Bani Wahiba tribe there, it boasts sand dunes up to 100 meters high and 170...

Wadi Bani Khalid: An Oasis In The Desert

by Calvin Sun | Jun 3, 2018 | June 2018: The Persian Gulf, Oman

After picking us up from Muscat and showing us around Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in the morning, Talal drove us about 2 hours towards Wadi Bani Khalid, a literal oasis in the middle of the desert. We stopped for a few photos along the way for some photo...

Muscat Mallrats

by Calvin Sun | Jun 3, 2018 | June 2018: The Persian Gulf, Oman, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

After 24 hours in Kuwait, Ann, Mihaela and I boarded our 9:05pm Oman Air flight for Muscat, landing at around 12:15am. Muscat's new international airport is really really nice. The current fee for an Omani tourist visa on arrival is 20 Omani Rials...

24 Hours In Kuwait

by Calvin Sun | May 31, 2018 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Crisis, Fail, June 2018: The Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Layovers, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Serendipitous!, Walking Tours

Preface -- To give you an idea what my life has been like this past month: Exactly a month ago, I was the Caribbean for a 3 day weekend in Turks & Caicos Then I returned to NYC for 4 straight night shifts in the ER (getting sick with a 103ºF fever in the interim!)...

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