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,...

Do The Dushanbe

by Calvin Sun | Jan 8, 2016 | Tajikistan, The Nightlife, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

After a one hour drive from the creepy haunted Soviet sanitorium, we arrived in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. Formerly a small village known for its weekly Monday bazaar (the name “Dushanbe” means Monday), it gained global attention in 1920 when the emir of...

Khujand To Dushanbe: Essentially, “The Shining”

by Calvin Sun | Jan 7, 2016 | How's the weather?, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Tajikistan, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

From death tunnels to haunted hotels, the last 2 days were straight out of a setup for a horror movie. To begin, we first set off at 8am from Khojand to Dushanbe, driving towards the Fan Mountains. We first stopped over at Istaravshan, formerly...

Khujand: From Uzbekistan To Tajikistan

by Calvin Sun | Jan 5, 2016 | Border Crossing, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

After 2 days in Samarkand, the group arrived in Tashkent in the afternoon and we did a leisurely walk through Independence Park, observing some national monuments and a public fair. By the memorial to veterans, there are gold plated books listing...

The Golden Road To Samarkand

by Calvin Sun | Jan 3, 2016 | How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Uzbekistan, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

We travel not for trafficking alone: By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned: For lust of knowing what should not be known We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand. - James Elroy Flecker, 1913 The mysticism surrounding The Silk Road has...

New Year’s Eve In Bukhara

by Calvin Sun | Jan 1, 2016 | Fit for Foodies, The Nightlife, Uzbekistan, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

The next morning, the group boarded our 9 hour bus ride from 8am-5pm (with an hour lunch break in between at a rest stop) from Khiva to Bukhara. The drive isn’t as pretty as I would expect, as it’s endless barren fields of the Kyzylkum Desert. ...

Khiva: A Journey Through Time

by Calvin Sun | Dec 31, 2015 | Fit for Foodies, Uzbekistan, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

The next morning the group got up at a horrific 4am in the morning for a 5am bus ride to the airport. We embarked on a 7am flight to Urgench, capital of the Khorazem region. Urgench has been regarded as a missable stopover city a stone’s throw...

Taking Tashkent To Task

by Calvin Sun | Dec 29, 2015 | How Did You Do That?, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Public Transportation, Uzbekistan, Walking Tours, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

With the arrival of my college friend Remi this morning, our group was finally complete and we were ready to begin our first official day in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. A few of us started off by learning about the black market exchange with the Uzbek...

Opportunities In Turkmen Rejection: The Uzbekistan Visa On Arrival Loophole…For Americans

by Calvin Sun | Dec 28, 2015 | Border Crossing, Crisis, Fit for Foodies, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

Sometimes, all the planning in the world can’t stop travel from being…travel.We’ve acquired visas to places like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. We’ve defied countless odds in moving hundreds of our monsooners to remote corners as far as Antarctica....

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