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

All Aboard the Santa Claus Express!

by Calvin Sun | February 10, 2026 | February 2026: Lapland, Finland, Fit for Foodies, Flying Fancy, Lapland, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

I woke up to an Arctic sunrise again, this time to send Mel off on her early flight back at 7:30am; she had to return a day before the rest of us. After she left in an Uber to the airport, I cooked the last of what was left in the fridge at the Airbnb and saw...

For Richer, For Polar

by Calvin Sun | February 9, 2026 | February 2026: Lapland, Finland, Fit for Foodies, How's the weather?, Lapland, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

I just woke up to this Arctic sunrise before everyone else in the Airbnb. I took the time to make some scrambled eggs for breakfast, brewed the coffee, and leisurely sat down to write this blog post as I waited for the rest of the group to come to life. What a...

The Coolest Hotel in Lapland (Literally)

by Calvin Sun | February 7, 2026 | February 2026: Lapland, Finland, How's the weather?, Lapland, What Dreams May Come | 0 Comments

After sneaking in some sugar donuts just in time before Kahvila Lohihovi Oy closed at 5pm, we continued our 2 hour drive south from Ylläs to the Arctic SnowHotel & Glass Igloos, about 30 minutes north of Rovaniemi on the shores of Lake Lehtojärvi....

Ylläs Hear Me Out

by Calvin Sun | February 6, 2026 | February 2026: Lapland, Finland, How's the weather?, Lapland, Way Way Off the Beaten Path | 0 Comments

How This Trip Happened On September 30, 2025, a monsooner named Yuhan — who's been on many trips with me — randomly invited me to watch her favorite anime that had a surprise 2-week return to theaters: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, originally released in 2006. I...

Sundance’s Last Dance: Park City, UT

by Calvin Sun | January 27, 2026 | How's the weather?, United States, Utah | 0 Comments

Once again we're gathering friends across time zones and milestones; some have flown in from Philly, others from NYC, one flying over from Dallas just for the weekend to make new friends, all converging together this week on a mountain town for a week of...

Meet the Lappi Wedding Party!

by Calvin Sun | January 26, 2026 | Introductions | 0 Comments

Meet the Sundancers!

by Calvin Sun | January 2, 2026 | Introductions | 0 Comments

From a trip planned over a year ago after a bunch of friends joined me in Killington 2024, we are flying out to Park City, UT for our first time at the Sundance Film Festival for their final time in Park City, UT! Welcome back those returning with me for their...

Niger At Last: A Second Chance

by Calvin Sun | December 10, 2025 | Border Crossing, December 2025 Annex: Niger, Fail, Flying Fancy, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Layovers, Niger, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come | 1 Comment

11 months ago, I sat on the tarmac in Niger's International Airport at Niamey, watching my trip evaporate due to visa complications. The Niger Embassy in Washington D.C. had stopped issuing visas to Americans entirely. But I don't give up. In late...

Yemen Day 4: Mukalla Drive

by Calvin Sun | December 5, 2025 | December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Yemen | 0 Comments

Al-Mukalla Pulling ourselves away from a desert mirage paradise at Haid Al-Jazil, we swapped our armed guard at another checkpoint during the 2 hour drive to Mukalla. You point that thing away from me! After a long wait at one of the...

Yemen Day 3: Where Reality Surpasses Dreams at Haid al-Jazil-lion Miles Away From Reality

by Calvin Sun | December 4, 2025 | December 2025: Yemen - Hadhramaut Valley, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Yemen | 0 Comments

Haid Al-Jazil As the afternoon began to wane, we continued onto our accommodation for the night at the Haid Al-Jazil Resort Hotel, named after what it overlooks and its location perching dramatically on a cliff overlooking the Wadi Do'an. You'll find remarkably...

Flying First Class (EVA & Thai Air) To Oz Via Taipei

by Calvin Sun | Dec 29, 2017 | Australia, Blitzkrieg!!!, Flying Fancy, How Did You Do That?, Layovers, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Taiwan, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

At a journey that could clock at more than 42 hours from NYC, flying to Sydney can be a real ballbreaker for even the most dedicated of jet-setters. And I wanted to make the most of it -- so last week I transferred 90,000 Chase Ultimate...

Meet The Kiwi Kangaroos!

by Calvin Sun | Nov 16, 2017 | Introductions

For our upcoming trip to Australia & New Zealand, I present to you our next class of monsooners: We're also meeting up with Genoviva again, this time in Sydney for New Year's...

Munich By Night

by Calvin Sun | Nov 12, 2017 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Germany, How's the weather?, Layovers, Serendipitous!, The Nightlife, Walking Tours, Weekend Trips, What Dreams May Come

One year ago at a Thanksgiving Dinner I was hosting at my place, one of my monsooners from my 2016 Southern Africa trip and the 2017 Trans-Mongolian + Tibet trip, JC, brought over his new roommate Stephanie. She had just moved into NYC from her hometown of...

Let’s Do The Tiraspol Transnistrian Time Warp Again

by Calvin Sun | Nov 11, 2017 | Border Crossing, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Moldova, November 2017: Moldova & Transnistra, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Transnistria, Unrecognized Territories, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips

See those dotted lines around Tiraspol on the map above? That means something.Sandwiched in between Moldova and Ukraine lies a breakaway/renegade self-proclaimed separatist region officially known as Pridnestrovian Moldavian...

Chiseled Chisinau

by Calvin Sun | Nov 10, 2017 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Fail, Moldova, November 2017: Moldova & Transnistra, Serendipitous!, The Nightlife, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips

One more weekend off, one more monsoon. I've always wanted to come to Moldova & Transnistra for a few reasons:Former Romanian-turned-USSR enclave rebuilt by Kruschev and thus currently one of the last few capital cities other than Minsk and Pyongyang to...

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...

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