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,...

The Cape Town Epic

by Calvin Sun | Aug 11, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Fit for Foodies, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Serendipitous!, South Africa, The Nightlife, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come

After a blockbuster back-to-back days at Victoria Falls and the Chobe National Park, our group flew back to Johannesburg for a one night layover to regain our senses. The next morning we took an 11am Mango Air flight (the low-cost carrier of...

An Elephant Symphony Plays In Chobe National Park

by Calvin Sun | Aug 9, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Botswana, What Dreams May Come

A Phanty Procession! To do Kasane is to do Chobe. Regarded as one of the top 2 "elite" safari destinations in Africa, Chobe is most famous for being home to the world's largest and most numerous elephant herds in the world (among other...

Victoria Falls: 4 Countries In 1 Day

by Calvin Sun | Aug 8, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Border Crossing, Botswana, Crisis, Fail, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, South Africa, What Dreams May Come, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Today I've marked visiting the last of the world's 3 greatest waterfalls: In April 2014 we violated international law crossing Iguazú Falls (the world's largest waterfalls system) along the intersection of Brazil and Argentina, a year later we pushed a...

Jockeying About Jo’Burg

by Calvin Sun | Aug 6, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Fit for Foodies, Lessons Learned, Public Transportation, South Africa

Last night we partied it up in the hipster neighborhood of Braamfontein, where we found out that every bar there has a 30-50 ZAR cover charge, and that even with an entry stamp on your wrist they'll make you wait in the back of a 2 hour line if...

The Prime Minister Of Lesotho Sees Us Off To Jo’Burg

by Calvin Sun | Aug 5, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Lesotho, Serendipitous!, South Africa, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

We slept in again this morning, waking up at a more civilized 8am and lazily taking in the chilly morning air of Lesotho. Our taxi then came to pick us up at 9am to take us back to the airport. Once arriving at 10am (traffic is somehow always terrible here) and...

From Eswatini To Lesotho

by Calvin Sun | Aug 4, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Blitzkrieg!!!, Border Crossing, Eswatini, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Lesotho, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, South Africa, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

After a beautiful yesterday at the Mlilwane Wildlife Reserve, we returned to our hostel at Sundowner's and exchanged travel stories with the Peace Corps crew that had already been living at the hostel for months. Somehow during our introductions, a...

From Mozambique To Eswatini

by Calvin Sun | Aug 3, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Border Crossing, Eswatini, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Mozambique, Public Transportation, Way Way Off the Beaten Path

Our group woke up this morning at 5:30am to catch a 6:00am cab to the bus station. Instead of the one close by to the train station that's listed in Lonely Planet that would take us to Swaziland, our cab drivers opted at the last minute instead for...

Mosey’ing In Mozambique

by Calvin Sun | Aug 2, 2016 | August 2016: Southern Africa, Blitzkrieg!!!, Doctor in the House, Getting that VISA, Lessons Learned, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Mozambique, Walking Tours

After a lovely yesterday with Nadi in her motherland of Malawi, today we woke up at an ungodly hour of 5:00am to catch a 5:30am cab to the airport, arriving at 6:00am. After an uneventful check-in process at Lilongwe’s no-frills airport, we boarded an 8:00am Malawi...

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