As GypsyNesters, our quest is to see the world and relate it to you in our own quirky way.
But why should we have all the fun?
To share the wealth, we asked the web’s best independent travel bloggers to send us their best WHAT THE ?! moments as a part of Travel Photo Roulette.
(Travel Photo Roulette may be followed on Twitter with the hashtag #PhotoRoulette)
We hit a gold mine of the craziest, funniest and just plain weird travel photos in the world!
Here’s what we asked for:
Everyone who travels has those WHAT THE ?! moments. It can be in nature, or the most unnatural of occurrences. Sometimes it’s as simple as a funny sign, a wacky name of a town, a weird food or an unfortunate piece of art. All nomads find themselves in cultural situations that can cause us to do a double-take, make us uncomfortable or feel completely out of our element. Moments like that are our favorites. Show us yours!
We’d like to thank everyone who submitted their amazing shots to Travel Photo Roulette. It was unbelievably difficult to chose a winner to host next week’s round on their website!
WHAT THE ?! – The Runners Up
Any one of these incredible photos could have been chosen as #1. We just have to say it again – WE HAD SUCH A HARD TIME CHOOSING!
Note: Photos are in no particular order
From Torre at Fearful Adventurer: On Koh Chang Thailand, at dusk every night, it is possible to spot homo sapiens in action. These mammals sprawl shoreside and pose for the camera in a peculiar mating ritual that scientists call “My Latest Facebook Photo.” If you get really lucky, you’ll get to spot an elusive threesome in which the male performs a thonged mating dance in front of two submissive females. (What the?!)
From Suzanne at Boomeresque: These were the “helpful” instructions we were given to enter the “onsen” (communal bath) at our hotel in Takamatsu, Japan.
From Melissa at Melissa To and Fro: While perusing a local market in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I stumbled upon this bizarre egg variation. Yuck!!
From Denise at The Art of Slow Travel: This is easy!!! My biggest what the??? moment while travelling was when I came across the ‘Grand Prix Priest’ in London
From Noah at Somewhere or Bust: I said “WHAT THE?!” when this kid passed by me on a beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. I chased after him for this photo.
From Dani at GlobetrotterGirls: Earlier this year we witnessed the incredible Thaipusam festival in Penang, Malaysia, in which the devotees carry out sacrificial acts, mainly mortification of flesh in various degrees… Seeing some of the devotees, all we could think was WHAT THE ?!
WHAT THE?! – The Winner
Congrats to Juno from Runaway Juno! Congratulations and we can’t wait to see what you choose as your theme next week!
From Juno at Runaway Juno: This was taken at Emeishan, Sichuan Province, China. A famous Buddhist mountain, a lot of people here to pray at the Golden Summit. It is 3099m, and seriously the mountain starts lower than 1000m. We walked to the top for two days, and we saw this guy on the way down. There are a group of people who are selling the service. This guy obviously hire these guys and ‘hike’ the mountain, wearing suit and texting. Amazing, huh?
WHAT THE ?! – Honorable Mentions
Note: These are in no particular order
From Shane at The Working Traveller: I’d long forgotten the real name of this temple in Malaysia, instead, somewhat disrespectfully, remembering it as the Nazi Buddha Turtle Temple. This photo partly suggests why:
From Gerard at GQ trippin: Blurry shot taken from Thailand’s Songkran celebration. Q shooting at the SWAT team? What the?!
From Adrian B. at Travel to Sun: The Merry Cemetery from Săpânţa (Maramureş County, Romania) is a unique place where colored funeral crosses carry cheerful lyrics and paintings inspired by memorable moments in the life of the deceased:
From Zara at Backpack ME: For all the traveling racists out there, beware that IN Thailand, the pick-pockets are NON THAI! That’s right.. the locals are aaaalways goodie, goodie!
From Clare at Earth Travel Unlimited: South Africa is a fabulous country and home to much quirkiness. Frequently, you’ll find entrepreneurs advertising their services (typically builders, painters, pest removal etc) via home-made signs fixed to lamp-posts, road signs etc. We’ve seen many hilarious signs, but this one certainly had us going “What the…???”.
From Kat at Travel With Kat: At a Jola Festval in The Gambia, men were striking themselves with knives, broken bottles and razor blades but not actually cutting themselves at all!
From Hannah at Love. Play. Work: ‘WHAT THE…’ was certainly the words coming out of my mouth, but also everyone in the boat watching me too! Big thanks to our Oregon home exchange neighbours for taking us out on the lake.
From Cam at Traveling Canucks: This street performer in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany had me saying “What the…?!”
From Jade at Our Oyster: While hitchhiking the North Island of New Zealand we got dropped off in a small town where the main roads fork. We were careful not to get too close to any of the resident rabies goats though!
From Raymond at Man On The Lam: This is from the Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, CANADA. Basically, it’s a museum filled with stuffed dead gophers. This one was my fave…
From Micki & Charles at The Barefoot Nomad: Our “What the ?” moment is from a highway on New Zealand’s South Island. The highway’s road/rail wooden bridge was barely wide enough for our tiny car. I can’t imagine how an entire train would fit. You can just see the yellow sign at the end indicating a sharp curve after the bridge, making it impossible to see oncoming cars or trains The worst part? We thought we could hear a train in the distance.
From Tash at jouljet: Whilst I was in Dominica, I was constantly surprised at the types of homemade rums they would make, but this selection takes the cake! Snake, grasshopper, centipede, snake fat??? What the??!!!???
From Ted at Traveling Ted: On the famous Nha Trang booze cruise tour in Vietnam, our hosts decided we needed more entertainment: as if snorkeling, volleyball, and a floating bar was not enough. They broke into song and this particular number was a cover of the Beatles Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da. The Beatles never toured for the White Album, but if they did I am sure John, Paul, George, and Ringo would have been adorned in a similar fashion.
From Natasha at World Wandering Kiwi: I enjoyed enthusiastic local hospitality many times when travelling in Central Asia but I’m sure this was the only day in my life when I had vodka with lunch, tea and supper. On this memorable evening in Tajikistan I struggled to keep up with the endless (unintelligible to me) toasts and when called upon to reciprocate, could only come up with inanities such as “Nova Zelandiya!” and “Nyet Taliban!” Perhaps ‘What the..!’ would have been more appropriate!
From Irina at Trips That Work: People in Toronto love dogs. Some of them love their dogs a little too much… what the???
From Lilliane at wanderlass: When i first arrived in S.A., i found the cholitas quite interesting. Eventually got used to them BUT nothing, NOTHING could prepare anyone for the Cholita Wrestling in Cuzco! waadaa?? hahaha
From Melissa at The MellyBoo Project: Taken during my stint volunteering at a lion conservation project in Zimbabwe. We were laying out the partially frozen offals (innards) out in the sun to defrost so that the lions in the breeding program could have their meal. I happened to find some x-rated cow/bull parts and felt this was necessary behaviour to be documented on camera!
From David at The Roaming Boomers: After a stunningly beautiful hike in Arizona’s Superstition Mountains, we noticed that one of our photographs contained a very mysterious watcher.
Perhaps it’s an ancient artifact guarding the Lost Dutchman’s mine!
Look closely on the hoodoo just left of center. See the face?
WHAT THE….!
From Jeremy at Living the Dream: We stopped at a small island in Halong Bay to play on the beach. Other travelers were there, and I couldn’t help but notice that this guy was in the most opposite extreme of beach clothes I’ve ever seen. Love it!
From Greg Goodman at Adventures of a GoodMan: I love India. It’s a magical country where every minute I’m out of my guesthouse, there’s something new and different to see.
Usually it makes sense, but I can’t come up with a single reason for this man to be watering a dirt patch on the side of the road in the Punjab countryside.
Is he trying to grow mud?
Simulating the rainy season?
Making a dirty slip and slide?
What the?!
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
YOUR TURN: Which one is YOUR favorite?
Great post! Have nice day ! 🙂
Great post! Have nice day ! 🙂 lqnh8
The Songkran pic!! My Fav!
David, I was looking for a pic of the Skunk Ape you were telling me about. But maybe no pic is available (yet)! lol
Somehow nobody ever seems to get a clear photo of the beast. Surprising! 😉
Thanks for the honorable mentions!
Thanks for joining in the fun.
Thanks for the runner up vote. My first reaction was What The?!, but I now celebrate the winner. Congrats Juno.
Thanks for the runner up vote and for picking such a great theme. Travel is certainly a great chance to happen upon “What the ?!” photo ops.
Thank you for submitting, we had a great time with this.
I think I might have nightmares after that first photo….
I saw this linked to on Pinterest so I know others may visit.
I just want to say that I don’t think the photo of the Buddhist temple belongs in here. Long before the swastika was hijacked by the Nazis, it was a symbol that denoted positive things. For some it meant “to be good”, in Buddhism it is a sacred symbol. The only “What the..” I did was in regards to the ignorance.
Nikki – thank you so much for the clarification. We love when What the… moments become educational! -Veronica
I had to educate myself about the swastika during a recent visit to Finland where I was perturbed to see that the symbol of the Finnish Air Force is a blue swastika. What I learned is that it was the Nazis who stole and corrupted the swastika (like everything else they touched), turning it into a reviled symbol of Nazism and hatred. In fact, for 5,000 years it was an international symbol of peace and well-being. After WW II, out of sensitivity to the visceral negative reactions engendered by the Nazi swastika, the Finns retired their blue swastika, but they have since reclaimed it.
Hi Nikki, though it’s a slightly odd way to learn about the swastika, it is thanks to a 1970s sci-fi show that I was aware of the pre Nazi origins and their warping of the symbol before I took the shot (though I thought they took it from Hindusim).
Even so seeing a row of Buddhist statues bearing the mark still comes as a bit of a shock and though I did think twice before submitting the picture I believe it deserves its place as a WTF moment.
The swastika is different…
Congratulations to the winner as well as to all other participants, great pics, everyone!
And thanks for the honorable mention, guys!
Agreed one hundred percent. We had a blast doing it.
As soon as I saw Juno’s picture I knew it was the winner. I even said WTF out loud when I saw it. Thanks for the honorable mention.
It is a good one. We had fun choosing.
I would have had no idea which one to choose. They are all hilarious!!!
Agreed, it was a tough call.
This is such a great collection of photos. My favourite would have to be the one taken at Emeishan Mountain. Must have been crazy seeing that on your way down!