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,...

Nur-Sultan / Astana Astronomica

by Calvin Sun | Dec 28, 2015 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Fail, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, Kazakhstan, Our Next Adventure, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

If it's not already playing, press play. And then start reading. I flew into Astana (now known as Nur-Sultan), the new capital of Kazakhstan, last night after a day in Baku. This required a scheduled one hour layover in Almaty --...

Baku To The Future

by Calvin Sun | Dec 27, 2015 | Azerbaijan, Blitzkrieg!!!, Getting that VISA, Layovers, Walking Tours, Winter 2015: The Silk Road

And so we begin another adventure to countries you had problems memorizing in Geography class. As we embark on our 2.5 week journey across the 'stans along the Silk Road, I couldn't help but add 2 layovers to extend my personal, solo sightseeing before...

The Vietnam E-Visa On Arrival Experience

by Calvin Sun | Dec 18, 2015 | Border Crossing, Crisis, Fail, Getting that VISA, Hong Kong, How Did You Do That?, Lessons Learned, Pre-travel Preparations, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Vietnam

The following is a guest post by twice monsooner Ambrose Chu, who graciously asked if he could contribute to the Monsoon Diaries adventures. Ambrose first discovered us when googling how to obtain a tourist visa for Iran. He reached out and met me...

Athens: Get Us To The Greek

by Calvin Sun | Nov 17, 2015 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Fit for Foodies, Greece, November 2015: Santorini & Athens, The Nightlife, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

After a day in Santorini, the next morning I took some an accidental >$100 worth of overpriced Kyclades seafood to go before heading out on my 11:20am flight to Athens. Like the lightning fast flight to Santorini, the Aegean Airlines flight back to...

Galazia Santorini!

by Calvin Sun | Nov 15, 2015 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Crisis, Greece, Lessons Learned, November 2015: Santorini & Athens, Walking Tours, What Dreams May Come

What to do when you get 4.5 days off from work? You can either do your laundry -- or, watch a sunset in Santorini. Having gotten 4 and a half days scheduled off of work after a string of overnight shifts, I casually looked online...

Meet The Silk Road Caravan

by Calvin Sun | Nov 10, 2015 | Introductions

Introducing the brave, beautiful group of new (and old) monsooners so far who are coming this winter on our epic trip on The Silk Road: And from this December 28th to...

Avenging Dallas

by Calvin Sun | Nov 8, 2015 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Serendipitous!, Texas, United States, Walking Tours

Almost 10 months ago, I charged a 30 hour blitzkrieg in Dallas and got to do almost everything. So when I found a $63 American Airlines flight for a 2 day trip to Dallas, I jumped at the chance to avenge what I had last...

48 Hours in Montreal

by Lei Zhao | Aug 28, 2015 | Canada, The Nightlife, Walking Tours, Weekend Trips

I'd always heard nothing but praise about the city of Montreal. I simply never got around to visiting the place until now. 48 hours in this unique city, which is an eclectic mix of modern and historic, European and American, French and English, have...

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