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 | 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,...

Mar Mattai – An Oasis By Mosul

by Calvin Sun | May 8, 2018 | How Did You Do That?, Iraq, Kurdistan, May 2018: Kurdistan Iraq, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

After an exhausting day driving around southeastern Kurdistan, this morning Abdallah and I set out at 9am west of Erbil towards Mosul. You would expect that we drove by a ton more military bases today. By 9:45am we had reached the main checkpoint between...

Sulaymaniyah: “The Paris Of Iraq”

by Calvin Sun | May 7, 2018 | Iraq, Kurdistan, May 2018: Kurdistan Iraq, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Within a one hour drive from Halabja away from the Iran/Iraq border, we reached Sulaymaniyah. Known for its open, relatively liberal and tolerant society when compared to other cities of Kurdistan, this sprawling city has been regarded as the capital of...

Ghosts Of Halabja: The Silent City

by Calvin Sun | May 7, 2018 | How Did You Do That?, Iraq, Kurdistan, May 2018: Kurdistan Iraq, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble wrote a song in March 2011 dedicated to Halabja and the 7000 who died during the 1988 massacre by chemical warfare: After a day alone in Erbil, I was ready to see more of Iraq. Douglas Layton of Kurdistan Iraq Tours and his associate...

Erbil: So I’m In Iraq

by Calvin Sun | May 6, 2018 | How Did You Do That?, Iraq, Kurdistan, May 2018: Kurdistan Iraq, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Serendipitous!, Travel Warnings, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come

A "helpful" friend sent me this last night, reposted from the Iraq Travel Advisory on the US Department of State website, updated January 10, 2018:Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism and armed conflict U.S. citizens in Iraq are at high risk for...

Turks & Paridisos

by Calvin Sun | Apr 29, 2018 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Layovers, Turks & Caicos, Weekend Trips

I'm a simple man: I see 3 days off, I find cheap flights, I go. And this weekend, I go to Turks & Caicos.A British Overseas territory in the Caribbean that ironically uses the American Dollar, Turks & Caicos oversees a distribution of 40 islands...

Miran With The Mostest In Mostar

by Aaron Lam | Apr 6, 2018 | Bosnia & Herzegovina, Epiphanies on the Road, Guest Posts, Post-travel Reflections, Uncategorized Stories, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, You're Going to Miss It...

To be honest, prior to this trip, I did not know much about Bosnia and Herzegovina and its history aside from the fact it was part of the former Yugoslavia and had been battled by war. Thus, heading into our bus ride from Split, Croatia, I had no idea what to...

From Den Haag (The Hague)/Amsterdam Via United Polaris Business Class

by Calvin Sun | Mar 29, 2018 | Flying Fancy, How Did You Do That?, March 2018: Central Europe Road Trip, The Netherlands

Yesterday afternoon I took Austrian Airlines' Business Class from Vienna to Amsterdam where I got in a great 2 hour nap and try some of the best food you can get within the Star Alliance network: I landed in Amsterdam at around 7:30pm, from where...

Lovely Little Linz

by Calvin Sun | Mar 28, 2018 | Austria, March 2018: Central Europe Road Trip, Public Transportation, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come

I can't really explain why my life has been so full of coincidences, (and no it's not because it would "make sense" that extroverts would have an easier time running into other extroverts...my coincidences include the most skeptical of introverts as well!) but...

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