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,...

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Belgrade…

by Calvin Sun | Oct 23, 2017 | Serbia, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Normally I wouldn't care too much about an overnight layover on a return flight home, but this one's special.After dropping off our rental car at Ljubljana's Airport and boarding our 8:40pm flight to Belgrade, we would plan for an 9-10 hour overnight...

Skocjan Caves: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!”

by Calvin Sun | Oct 22, 2017 | How's the weather?, October 2017: Slovenia, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Slovenia, Weekend Trips

After a quick trip in Trieste, we drove back across Italian-Slovenia border for the Škocjan Caves -- A UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to one of the largest known underground canyons in the world. For 16 euros a person (12 euros if you have a...

A Trieste Tryst

by Calvin Sun | Oct 22, 2017 | How's the weather?, Italy, October 2017: Slovenia, Serendipitous!, Slovenia, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips

While we were at Bled yesterday taking the boat ride to the inlet, we befriended a fellow American and NYU student Ashley after teasing her for hogging the front seat and ruining all our photos. We would then find out that she was staying just across...

The Postojna Caves: 24,000m Of Awesome

by Calvin Sun | Oct 21, 2017 | How Did You Do That?, October 2017: Slovenia, Slovenia, What Dreams May Come

What we just did today: After a morning in Lake Bled and an early afternoon at Predjama Castle, it was finally time for the big finale of our day: The Postojna Caves. Spanning 24,340m long and carved by the Pivka River over the course of 2-3 million...

Predjama Castle

by Calvin Sun | Oct 21, 2017 | October 2017: Slovenia, Slovenia, Weekend Trips

After a serene morning at Lake Bled, we drove south for about an hour and 15 minutes to reach Predjama Castle. First mentioned in the history books in the late 1200s during the Renaissance period, Predjama Castle was the seat of the knight and...

Bled Bleeds Beauty

by Calvin Sun | Oct 21, 2017 | October 2017: Slovenia, Slovenia, Weekend Trips

After yesterday's series of disasters that almost cancelled our entire weekend trip to Slovenia, it was finally time for things to go our way today. We headed to bed last night at around midnight, waking up at 7:45am to be picked up by Slovenia Explorers at...

Essentially, The Odyssey…To Ljubljana

by Calvin Sun | Oct 20, 2017 | Crisis, Fail, How Did You Do That?, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, October 2017: Slovenia, Serendipitous!, Slovenia, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips

"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." - John SteinbeckEverything seemed like it was going according to plan. After all, I had a minor scare 6 days ago when I nearly missed my flight from JFK to Paris and then...

Meet The Monsooners Of Slovenia!

by Calvin Sun | Oct 16, 2017 | Introductions

As of yesterday I was resigned to the possibility of going to Slovenia alone. But as of today, I can announce there are 2 other crazies joining me on our trip to Slovenia this weekend.And guess what? We still have room so if you need a weekend...

« Older Entries

Next Entries »