The Urban Clan of Genghis Khan

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An influx of nomads has turned the Mongolian capital upside down.
Leggy models and a child acrobat wait offstage at a pop music concert in Ulaanbaatar.An ocean of green, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world, with just under three million people in a landmass larger than Alaska. Mongolian culture—physical, mobile, self-reliant, and free—developed out here on the steppe. "When people move to Ulaanbaatar, they bring that mentality with them," says Baabar, a well-known publisher and historian.

Your Maya Travel Photos /Travel Photo Galleries

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Cascades El Chiflón, MexicoCascadas El Chiflón, Chiapas, MexicoTulum, MexicoThe beach in Tulum, Mexico, on the east side of the Tulum Maya ruins

Travel Photo Galleries

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Kazakh Eagle Hunter, Mongolia

,A Kazakh man and his trained eagle prepare to hunt in Bayan-Olgiy, Mongolia's westernmost province. Fleeing tribal warfare in the late 1600s, a small group of Kazakhs settled in the isolated province and have kept their language, cultural traditions, and identities.

Holi Festival, DhakaColored powder flies during Holi, the festival of colors, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hindus observe the celebration in the spring, in part by taking to the streets and exuberantly flinging the vivid powder at each other

Photos of the Day: Travel Photo Galleries

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River House, Serbia

A house in the middle of the Drina River near the town of Bajina Basta, Serbia

Shoreline, Japan

Kitaibaraki City, Japan

Awesome pictures of skydiving (16 photos)

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Best Wildlife Pictures: British Nature Winners 2012

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"Animal Behavior" WinnerPhotographer Amanda Hayes tried for more than a week to photograph herring gulls trying to steal puffins' sand eel catches as the puffins landed, but the smaller birds kept outwitting the gulls.

But one day, "a puffin landed and a herring gull grabbed the back of the puffin's neck, lifting it high off the ground," Hayes said in a statement.

"Fortunately for the puffin, it wriggled free and escaped. I'm not sure whose heart was beating faster—the puffin's or mine!"

Photographer Matt Doggett used dead mackerel to attract the birds in a remote location off northern Scotland.

"I like this image, as almost every stage of the action is captured—gannets entering the water, gannets eyeing up the fish, gannets taking the fish, gannets eating the fish and then finally leaving," Dogget said in a statement. "It looks like chaos, but the gannets know exactly where the other birds are."

Explorer of the Week: Rayna Bell

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Bell holds a 40-year-old gopher tortoise at Archbold Biological Research Station, Florida. Photograph by Kelly Zamudio

Rayna Bell received a grant from National Geographic in 2010 to research patterns of diversification in a species-rich genus of reedfrogs from Central Africa. Inspired by stories from her high school biology teacher about fieldwork in Africa, Bell decided to pursue research in evolutionary biology as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. Now a graduate student at Cornell University, she spends about four weeks in the field for each of her research expeditions to look for frogs, lizards, turtles, and snakes. Technically, she’s also been searching for the elusive limbless amphibians called caecilians, and she finally found one on a recent trip to São Tomé Island!

SKYDIVING PICTURES

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Skydiving gives you a bird's-eye view, but first you have to get up high.This skydiver is almost ready to jump. While most go out the door, some jumpers hang from the airplane before falling.This group celebrates just before jumping. All that's left is to make the leap

Winners—Winners Gallery

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Viewers' Choice Winner: HusetA lonely cabin is illuminated under the Northern Lights in Finnmark, Norway.Second Place Winner: My Balloon

H'mong children play with their balloons on a foggy day in Moc Chau, Son La province, Vietnam; photographed January 2012.

National Geographic contributing photographer Alexandra Avakian, one of this year's judges, shares her thoughts on the second place winner:This picture is like a dream, and it’s timeless not only because it’s black and white and there’s no sense of modernity, but also because it depicts an activity that children everywhere on the planet do with balloons. The fog and soft background make it feel like a memory. It’s every bit as good as the photographs in the seminal black-and-white photo book, "The Family of Man." Sometimes the best scenes to shoot are not in the obvious places for travelers but can be found anywhere from a far-flung location—such as this remote Hmong village—to just the around the corner from a big event.

Before you Travel Europe

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Traveling to Spain in pics 1

Holiday ideas: tips and trips

Light fantastic: Berlin Cathedral is one of 50 landmarks to be lit up during the city's Festival of Lights. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Take me there: Festival of Lights, Berlin

Berlin has long been feted for its colourful nightlife, but visitors will be in for extra nocturnal treats next month as the annual Festival of Lights gets under way. From the Brandenburg Gate to the Radio Tower, more than 50 of the city's iconic landmarks will be spectacularly illuminated. "Lightseeing" tours of the city centre by bus, boat, hot air balloon and rickshaw will run throughout the festival alongside musical performances, art installations and open-house events. There's even a Light Run, enabling runners to take in the sights by night. The festival is on from 10-21 October. For more details, go to festival-of-lights.de/en.

Traveling to Spain in pics 2

10 of the best restaurants in Paris

French fancy ... the glamorous dining room at the Hotel Meurice in the heart of Paris

Le Meurice

Anyone wanting a grand-slam experience of Gallic gastronomic grandeur won't do better than the glamorous dining room at the Hotel Meurice in the heart of the city. Though it was redecorated by Philippe Starck several years ago, it's good French bones survived intact – mosaic floor, crystal chandeliers, heavy damask curtains at the windows overlooking the Tuileries Gardens across the street – and the magnificent space is animated by old-school but friendly service that's as precise as a minuette. Chef Yannick Alléno bagged a third Michelin star in 2007, and his brilliantly inventive cooking is based on a deep knowledge of classical Escoffier vintage culinary technique. In addition to such recent creations as crispy green ravioli with a fricassee of snails and wild garlic, a starter, and spit-roasted red-wine marinated pigeon with red cabbage and apple juice, Alléno has become a dedicated locavore by occasionally featuring rare produce from the Ile de France – cabbage from Pontoise, honey from hives on the roof of Paris's Opéra Garnier – on his regularly evolving menu.
• 228 rue de Rivoli, 1st, + 33 1 44 58 10 10, lemeurice.com. Métro: Tuileries. Open for lunch and dinner from Mon-Fri. Average €200. Jackets compulsory at dinner

L'Astrance

Despite the vertiginous prices of Paris haute cuisine, a meal at one of these nec plus ultra tables is an investment that just can't disappoint, and snagging a sought-after table at chef Pascal Barbot's three-star restaurant on a cobbled side street in the 16th arrondissement is well worth persistence. The smallest and most casual table at the top of the Parisian food chain, this high-ceilinged dining room with mirrored walls, widely spaced tables and friendly service offers a decidedly 21st-century take on French haute cuisine. Barbot, who trained with Alain Passard and once served as chef to the admiral of the French Pacific fleet, loves vegetables, fruit and fresh herbs, and his style is brilliantly witty and deeply imaginative, as seen in signature dishes such as his galette of finely sliced button mushrooms and verjus marinated foie gras dressed with hazelnut oil, or turbot with baby spinach and sea urchins, both of which are part of his regularly changing tasting menus.
• 4 rue Beethoven, 16th, +33 1 40 50 84 40. Métro: Passy. Open for lunch and dinner Tues–Fri. Average lunch €80, average dinner €200

Traveling to Spain in pics 3

Best new British B&Bs: quirky, family-friendly and budget

New British B&BS ... quirky Ffynnon Fendigaid in Ceredigion

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FAMILY-FRIENDLY

Staverton Hall Staverton, Northamptonshire

Guests enter through impressive iron gates and head to this grand house in a spectacular setting. Friendly owners Rupert and Serena, who have young children of their own, love having families to stay. Relaxed breakfasts (and dinner) at flexible times are served at one table. All is local and delicious. The large, light bedrooms and modern shared bathrooms upstairs have good views. There's a huge guest sitting room with sash windows, log fire and board games; there is also a heated pool, a play area, a big garden, and a pub a walk away.
• 01327 878296, stavertonhall.co.uk. Doubles from £90, annex sleeping six £200, small twin £50, all B&B

The Peatcutter's Croft, Ullapool, Highland

There's more beauty in a mile on Scotland's west coast than almost anywhere: vast skies, soaring mountains, shimmering water, barely a soul in sight. Pauline and Seori left London to give their family the freedom to roam. Now they have a colourful cast of companions: sheep, hens, ducks, rabbits – a definite draw for kids. Your quarters at this gorgeous little croft combine country simplicity with colour and style. Sea eagles patrol the skies and porpoises bask in the loch. All this, and Pauline's fabulous cooking, too.
• 01854 633797, peatcutterscroft.com. £35pp pn B&B, children half price, maximum of £100 per night per room

The road to Penang - the other side of Malaysia

Peranakan Museum, George Town. Photographs by John Brunton. Click the magnifying glass icon to see a map of the area

We've flown into Kuala Lumpur with the intention of going jalan-jalan, or on the road to the Malays. I lived in KL, as everyone calls this crazy metropolis, for five years, and it is still like a second home. But this time there is no hanging around, as my wife and I are setting out towards the northern border with Thailand, through the heartland of the Malay peninsula.

This part of the country is often overlooked by tourists, who prefer the golden beaches of the east coast or paradise islands such as Tioman or Langkawi. Our final destination will be Penang, an island my Malaysian friends tell me has suddenly become one of south-east Asia's hottest destinations.

KL is the modern face of Malaysia, a skyscraper city of the future, where Blade Runner meets Bollywood. There are few reminders of the complex history of a country that declared independence from Britain only 55 years ago. Driving out of the centre we soon find ourselves lost in a sprawling urban mass as intimidating as Los Angeles, and it is only with a little luck that we reach the busy north-south highway.

Kuala Lumpur station

The road is surrounded on both sides by rolling hills, marked by geometric lines of palm oil and rubber plantations. The scene resembles an Escher drawing, and there is little trace of the dense rainforest that once covered most of Malaysia. After we've been going an hour, the landscape changes suddenly and dramatically, with massive limestone outcrops leaping hundreds of craggy feet out of the flat plains. Up on a hill, a giant but rather tatty billboard announces that we have arrived at Ipoh – City of Millionaires, and our first stop-off.

Here are some of the photos,Travel Photos

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Canoeing the entire Congo river… and living to tell the tale

King Congo … Phil poling his way through the vast Bangweulu swamp. Click on the magnifying glass to see the river in the early morning mist. Photographs: Phil Harwood

I was alone in the middle of deepest, darkest Congo. Worse still, I was being chased by eight angry tribesmen in two dugout canoes – and they were gaining on me.

"Mazungu … Mazunguuu!" came the screams from behind. "Give us money!" They were all standing up and paddling like men possessed. The nearest guy had a huge machete at his waist. I had been paddling as though my life depended on it. As though? It did depend on it! The fear was rapidly growing within me, demanding an answer to the primeval question: fight or flight?

The word mazungu, white man, was being screamed and repeated along both banks. It was disconcerting, to say the least. I felt like a wolf that had inadvertently strolled into a farming community and was being hunted down. I had to go faster. But now, after paddling my heart out to the point of near exhaustion, I turned around and saw the nearest dugout canoe was less than 20m away. So close that I could see the whites of the men's eyes and their teeth bared in a contorted, hate-filled travesty of a smile. What was it going to be: roll over and expose my soft underbelly, or put up a fight? It was the venom in the next cry of "Mazungu" that made me decide. I grabbed my machete …

Thanks to winning a travelling fellowship and grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, I was on my way to making the first source to sea descent of the Congo river through the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the true source in north-east Zambia, the Congo river is just short of 3,000 miles long and the eighth longest river in the world, with a flow rate and drainage area second only to the Amazon. It flows through savannah, swamp and dense tropical rainforest, crossing the equator twice before finally draining into the Atlantic.