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,...

Discovering East Timor

by Calvin Sun | Dec 9, 2014 | East Timor-Leste, Walking Tours, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

Today the group pulled an all-nighter to catch at 7:30am flight from Bali to Dili, the capital of East-Timor Leste. When we landed, I immediately knew we were in a country unlike most others. This is travel purely off the beaten track, where...

No Typhoon Can Stop The Monsoon: Bali

by Calvin Sun | Dec 8, 2014 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Epiphanies on the Road, Fail, Fit for Foodies, How Did You Do That?, Indonesia, Introspection, Lessons Learned, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, The Philippines, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

In the last post I described the massive risk we were taking rebooking a flight from the Philippines to Bali after a later flight of ours was cancelled because of the typhoon. Well, we made it. Not even a typhoon can stop the monsoon! After...

Escaping The Typhoon

by Calvin Sun | Dec 7, 2014 | Camping, Crisis, How's the weather?, Let me tell you a Story..., The Philippines, Uncategorized Stories, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

We're not in the clear yet, so keep your fingers crossed until we reach Bali. And even then, I'm not sure if typhoons affecting even a single country may spread to the entire Southeast Asia region. For more drama, read on... On our third and final day...

Another Day In Paradise

by Calvin Sun | Dec 5, 2014 | The Nightlife, The Philippines, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

We hopped on our private boat again today….and…. ...that's pretty much all we did. We did nature. Jumped in for some snorkeling: Walked along the sandbar known as Snake Island: Poured rum into coconut we picked...

Typhoon…What Typhoon?

by Calvin Sun | Dec 4, 2014 | The Philippines, What Dreams May Come, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

Despite warnings of inclement weather (like a freaking typhoon), we went out anyway, because, well, there was no typhoon. This is island hopping, on our private boat: Island hopping is exactly what it sounds like. We go from beach to...

“El Nido” Get To Paradise!

by Calvin Sun | Dec 3, 2014 | The Philippines, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

Within 12 hours we went from landing in the bustling capital of The Philippines… …to partying all night at Prive… …to here: Getting to The Palawan Islands is neither simple or direct. Unless you’re booking a resort...

First Night In Manila

by Calvin Sun | Dec 2, 2014 | Serendipitous!, The Nightlife, The Philippines, Winter 2014: Extreme SE Asia

First night in Manila and the group is ready.What better way to make first impressions than to party it up the first night at Privé? Side story: Filipino guy next to me on the flight to Manila: "I think I've heard of you....Monsoon Diaries?" Me: "..."

Full Circles from JFK to Manila

by Calvin Sun | Dec 1, 2014 | Serendipitous!

One of the first photos I ever took for this blog was the one above of a little Filipina girl in Manila 4 years ago. I remembered thinking: What a badass. On The Monsoon Diaries' maiden voyage 4 years ago, I took an afternoon Cathay Pacific flight CX831 to...

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