by Calvin Sun | Jul 19, 2022 | Cape Verde, Getting that VISA, July 2022: Cape Verde, Walking Tours
5 days off in the middle of summer, and flights dropping down to $800 roundtrip from NYC to Cape Verde…what’s not to like? Taking advantage of the new (just opened up 10 months ago!) Air Senegal Flight HC408 route, direct from NYC to DSS (NYC to...
by Calvin Sun | Jun 19, 2022 | Fail, Flying Fancy, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, How's the weather?, June 2022: Svalbard, Lessons Learned, Norway, Svalbard, Way Way Off the Beaten Path
Postponed 3 times over 3 years, we’re finally making this voyage happen. It may not be starting off pretty once we arrived, but what matters is that we’re here. Using miles for my first voyage on SAS Airlines, I spent only $70 to snag...
by Calvin Sun | Mar 11, 2022 | Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Iraq, March 2022: Central Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Serendipitous!, Way Way Off the Beaten Path
Less than 4 years ago I was invited on a whim to join my friend Rik Brinks for a beer in Kurdistan Iraq. So I went without a moment’s notice, not realizing how easy it was to get in with a visa on arrival. There I ran into not only Rik, but also...
by Calvin Sun | Oct 10, 2021 | Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, October 2021: Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Way Way Off the Beaten Path
Got my third booster for COVID-19 yesterday! And what better way to revel in my potential side effects of the booster than a 12 hour red-eye flight from NYC to Abu Dhabi to Riyadh? The days of loopholes and hurdles to obtain a business or transit visa...
by Calvin Sun | Feb 24, 2020 | Angola, Fail, February 2020: Angola & Cabinda, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, Walking Tours
Angola: Once a Portuguese overseas territory from the 16th century to 1975, the country became infamous for becoming the staging ground for a brutal civil war (between the Soviets and an alliance of Western nations that ironically also included China…one...
by Calvin Sun | Jan 21, 2020 | Fail, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, January 2020: The Saharan Odyssey, Mauritania, Public Transportation, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, What Dreams May Come
After relaxing in Dakhla for 2 night, we drove to the border of Morocco and Mauritania early this morning. About an hour into the journey we suffered a flat tire, which luckily took about 30 minutes to sort out thanks to a friend of the driver’s...
