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,...

Transcript Of Calvin D. Sun (ECAASU Board Of Directors) ECAASU Goodbye Speech

by Calvin Sun | Feb 24, 2015 | Epiphanies on the Road, Introspection, Speeches, You're Going to Miss It...

Harvard University, Boston UniversitySaturday, February 21st, 20157:00 P.M. ESTWith nearly a quarter of our monsooners coming from those that I've met at ECAASU for the past 10 consecutive years I've been involved, I finally say...

Meet The Road Warriors

by Calvin Sun | Feb 13, 2015 | Introductions

MEET THE MONSOONERS OF SPRING 2015 View Monsoon Diaries 2015 in a larger map Introducing the following monsooners for our Spring 2015 trips: Calvin "O Captain! My Captain!" Sun: ER Doctor, Entrepreneur; New York, NY; Columbia...

Big Eating The Big Easy: New Orleans, LA

by Calvin Sun | Feb 10, 2015 | Fit for Foodies, Louisiana, United States, Walking Tours

A few days later I headed south with two days in The Big Easy, aka New Orleans, LA. Once again Jenn Li, continuing her sabbatical across America, had arrived a few hours earlier and was waiting for me at our AirBnB that she found. We didn't know...

30 Hours In Dallas

by Calvin Sun | Jan 15, 2015 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Fit for Foodies, Texas, United States

Continuing our trend of blitzkrieg day trips, I returned to the heartland of America with one day in Dallas, TX. There waiting for me, reliable and true, was Jenn Li of The Points In Between. She was continuing her sabbatical across America, and I was once...

Monuments To The Gods: Monument Valley, AZ/UT

by Calvin Sun | Jan 5, 2015 | Arizona, Blitzkrieg!!!, United States, Utah, What Dreams May Come

Last night in Page, AZ, we stopped by for a drink, live music, pool and a little bout of Western dancing at the Windy Mesa Bar. 2 Chinese Americans, 2 Serbs, and 1 Australian in a group may have made for a curious look, but people were generally friendly and...

Backyard Beauty: Page, AZ

by Calvin Sun | Jan 4, 2015 | Arizona, Blitzkrieg!!!, United States, What Dreams May Come

2 days ago I decided to visit Arizona for a weekend trip right after getting off of work. I was going to link up with a friend, whom I traveled with in Brunei, who was going to continue her cross-country USA trip. When you find yourself at Antelope...

Making Brunei Ours

by Calvin Sun | Dec 13, 2014 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Brunei Darussalam, Fit for Foodies, Rules Are Meant To Be Broken, Serendipitous!, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

Jame'Asri Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah mosque just got served: Our group departed East Timor-Leste the next morning for Bali, where the plan was to spend another day before leaving the next morning for Manila. But it would be in Bali where the...

Baucau Epic

by Calvin Sun | Dec 11, 2014 | East Timor-Leste, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

Yesterday and today we went way further off the beaten path: the second largest "city" in East Timor of Baucau (which is really more of a seaside village than a city). The 10 of us hired a private van to take us there and back the...

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