Photo Of The Day: Mongolia

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Mongolia looks like the perfect place for a road trip. This image, according to its photographer Mark Fischer, was snapped between the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar and Mandalgovi, a small town perched on the edge of the Gobi Desert. The bright yellow of the broken-down car, the blue sky, the ramshackle buildings, the green earth, the machinery dumped here and there – little of it suggests tourist board boilerplate, granted, but every last detail speaks to Mongolia’s compelling geographies and vast distances.

Upload your best images to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. We choose our favorites from the pool to be Photos of the Day.

Tourists Arrested For Kissing Buddha Statue In Sri Lanka

by Jessica Festa on

It becomes more and more apparent everyday just how much travelers need to research the cultures they are visiting beforehand. Recently in Sri Lanka, three French tourists – two women and a man – were given suspended, six-month prison sentences for kissing a Buddha statue. Additionally, they were fined 1,500 rupees ($10.84) each.

The incident was brought to light when the travelers tried to get their photos printed at a local shop.

“The studio employee saw the images and alerted the Galle police who arrested the tourists on Monday and the case was concluded today because they pleaded guilty,” police spokesman Ajith Rohana told news.com.au.

Along with the woman-kissing-Buddha photo, the man posed for a shot while imitating the statue’s pose. These actions are seen as offense to country’s Buddhist community, and the travelers plead guilty to desecrating a Buddhist shrine in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The tourists were free to go, however, as their sentences are suspended for five years.

As a mostly Buddhist country, locals are very sensitive to foreigners disrespecting Buddha images.

[Image via mckaysavage]

China’s Popular Beach Trend: The Facekini

by Jessica Festa on




If you’re traveling to China this summer and want to fit in at the beach, you may be less than thrilled to learn the popular fashion trend will not allow you to get a tan. Dubbed the “facekini,” these masks cover the person’s entire face, head and neck, with holes cut out for the eyes, nose and mouth.

In northeast China’s seaside town of Qingdao, women especially find these masks appealing for beachwear. Unlike most Westerners who enjoy getting bronze in the summer, Chinese women view white skin as a sign of beauty. In fact, the Chinese have an expression that roughly translates to “white skin covers up a hundred uglinesses.” Because of this, these women will do whatever it takes to stay fair.

“[I wear this because] I fear getting tanned,” said Wang Xiuzhi (王秀芝), a “facekini woman” on Qingdao’s No. 1 Bathing Beach, as reported by Xinhua. “I come here to swim often and [the mask] does work.”

According to CNNGo, the facekini has other benefits, like preventing jellyfish stings, repelling mosquitoes and warding off sharks.

While many people from outside China are just finding out about the facekini, the truth is it has been popular in Qingdao for the last five years.

Would you wear a facekini to the beach?

[Image via AFP / Getty Images]

12 Of The World’s Most Beautiful Caves

by Jessica Festa on

For adventure-travel enthusiasts, visiting caves is a great way to satiate one’s appetite for exploring the lesser-traversed world out of the sun’s light. Immersed in bizarre natural formations, you’ll see rainbow colored rock compositions, jagged stalagmites, rugged stalactite, azure waters and scenery that will make you feel like you’re on another planet. Everything goes silent as the air gets cooler, and the only sound you hear is the trickle of water dripping from the uneven cavern roof. These places are sometimes peaceful, other times eerie, but almost always alluring.

Whether you want to get out and explore a cave for yourself or feel better curbing your curiosity from your computer chair, you can get a visual idea of some of the world’s most beautiful caves by checking out the gallery below.

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[Images via Shutterstock]

Woman Falls Asleep On Flight To Paris, Wakes Up In Pakistan

by Libby Zay on

A woman on a Paris-bound flight fell asleep and woke up when the plane landed back in her starting point of Lahore, Pakistan. What’s more, the plane not only stopped in France, but also touched down in Italy before completing the journey.

Express News, a Pakistani television news channel, first reported about the sleepy passenger, described as a middle-aged French woman who is married to a Pakistani. Her relatives are infuriated that nobody from Pakistan International Airways (PIA) bothered to wake her when she reached Paris.

Upon returning back to Lahore, she had completed a 7,700-mile round trip that took 18 hours.”It is a passenger’s responsibility to check about the destination and disembark when the plane arrives at the particular airport,” a representative from the airline told Agence France-Presse.

The airline, who believes a French subcontractor is to blame, has since promised to take the woman back to Paris free of charge and set up a committee to investigate how the crew failed to notice the woman during a two-hour stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Photo by Don Fulano, flickr.

[Thanks, Imran3000!]