Travel

A rather plump cat who found fame after a photo of him 'chilling out' swept the web, has had a statue erected in his honor. Tombili from Istanbul, who passed away in August, was apparently known for lounging on the curb with his belly hanging out and his front paw up. And now, a statue has been installed in the feline's favourite spot, with his chilled-out pose captured for posterity. Many fans of Tombili have applauded the piece of art, while others are less keen on it.

Lonely Planet's new edition of its voyage bible, The Travel Book, is extremely heavy - but that should come as no surprise, because it's laden with descriptions and facts for every country in the world and is stunningly furnished with more than 800 photographs. These spectacular images capture the unique essence of exotic travel destinations around the world. The book's odyssey starts in Afghanistan and circumnavigates the globe from A to Z, ending with Zimbabwe, and visiting every single country in between, from Norway's Geirangerfjord and Seven Sisters waterfall (top), to the seascapes of New Zealand (bottom left) and the mountains of Turkey (bottom right).

NEW There are more dead people buried under the pavements of Savannah than there are living people walking on top. For all its pretty cobblestoned squares and antebellum townhouses, the exquisite seafood and Southern generosity, this small port on the frontier of Georgia and South Carolina has a dark underbelly: grisly tales of sordid murder, haunted houses and a colonial-era graveyard (inset) decorated with the lingering entrails of Spanish moss. Savannah could well claim to be America’s most haunted city. That’s why, this Thursday evening, I’m being driven round its deserted squares in the back of a hearse.

Anthony Killen, a Brit who was on his first skydive with an instructor over New Zealand's Bay of Islands, was 'laughing and ecstatic' when they spotted the technicolour spectrum. While actually witnessing this sight is a freak occurrence, the formation itself is not. All rainbows in their complete form are circular, we just can't see them from the ground, or from anywhere other than directly over them.

The 816 Nuclear Military Plant, located in the mountains of Fuling district in China's Chongqing municipality, was designed to manufacture plutonium in the 1960s, but never went into operation. It covers 1.1 million square feet, with more than 130 roads and tunnels (left) as well as educational light displays (top and bottom right).

Stretching from floor-to-ceiling these incredible ice stalactites look particularly eerie as they shine from the darkness and protrude from a cavern of red rock. The unusual frozen formations were captured by intrepid caver, Peter Gedei, at the Ivacic Cave hidden under the highest peak in Slovenia, Triglav. During his recent expedition, he also discovered a thick frozen bed of water which he said shone in 'beautiful colourful layers' when it was lit.

MailOnline Travel's Rebecca Seales saw summer go out in a blaze of glory in blissful Boston. And beyond the reds, russets, and gold, this classy city offers cosy shopping boutiques, great restaurants, imposing museums, and – for sports fans – top-flight baseball care of the Red Sox.

A new book, Tiny Churches, by intrepid traveller Dixe Wills, explores the fascinating and varied histories of 60 of the country's most diminutive churches, from the church in Wiltshire so small the congregation sit outside to the chapel balanced halfway down a remote Pembrokeshire cliff. MailOnline Travel has rounded up a selection of some of the most beguiling churches featured in the book.

Stepping into a steamy pool of water with the Swiss mountains visible in the cloudy twilight - this is the scene captured in a new video which has swiftly gone viral. Entitled Stairway to Heaven, the 39-second-long clip shows a woman getting into the infinity pool at the five-star Hotel Villa Honegg in Switzerland. The aquamarine waters seemingly have no end, as they run over an invisible edge to make way for sweeping views of the valley below. Towards the end of the video, a shot from high up reveals there is also a hot tub in the corner of the L-shaped pool.

Bats rule the roost when it comes to caves, ducking and diving through their dank dwellings. And now new drone footage attempts to mimic a bat's point of view, taking viewers inside the eerie Devetashka cave in Bulgaria that was inhabited as far back as 70,000 years ago, but is now home to around 30,000 bats. Footage captured by a YouTube channel reveals a giant cavern with large holes punctuating the length of it. At one point the camera steadily hovers along a dirt walkway. The lens then circles around to give a near-360-degree view of the 100ft-high craggy ceilings. Later the camera swoops down to foot level, narrowly missing some inky puddles as it grazes the floor. It then continues to fly, revealing a small stream of water running through the cave down below.

Unicorns might be the things of dreams but this certainly isn't - a pink cafe dedicated to the mythical beasts. The Unicorn Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, features a psychedelic mix of furnishings, from rainbow-coloured carpeting to Barbie-pink armchairs. Taking things to an even more mystical level is the food menu - which features rainbow-coloured strands of carbonara and a volcano-shaped creation named 'spaghetti meatball lava cheese'.

Peeled paint, crumbling brickwork and rotten timbers are a common theme in this striking photo series, which unearths abandoned buildings across the UK. Simon Yeung makes it his mission to highlight the beauty of decay through photography, capturing dilapidated train stations, hotels, churches, mansions and hospitals on his travels. He says he finds it 'tragic' how scores of buildings are left to crumble and rot, but he understands how the money needed to save them from peril is often too much. In a bid to get the desired shots, Yeung admits that he often puts himself in dangerous situations as he ventures into structures on the verge of collapse.

From a Morrisons sign reading 'Morons' to a Starbucks Coffee banner announcing 'Sucks Coffee', these are an example of the unfortunate spelling errors that can occur when neon signs malfunction. Amused bystanders from around the world have been busy sharing some of the most hilarious - and sometimes rude - neon sign fails they've encountered. Indeed, Instagram user @cawsin from Vancouver said he had to stop the car and take a photo when he spotted a burned-out sign for the pharmaceutical company London Drugs mistakenly reading 'ON DRUGS.' And it's clear that one passerby had a giggle after spotting a sign for the Ortiz Funeral Home in New York wrongly reading 'ORTIZ FUN HOUSE.' But there are dozens more to have a chuckle at. Here MailOnline Travel reveals some of the most comical neon sign fails around...

Rowing across the Venetian lagoon after a thunderous storm raged had an eerie feel. And exploring some of the hundreds of islands slowly sinking into the murky waters proved to be an even eerier experience. Tumbled down quarantine stations dating back to the Black Death, mental asylums and old monasteries where Casanova would apparently have his pick of nuns, were some of the spots we encountered as we sailed around. Poveglia - believed to be of the world's most haunted locations - was our first port of call. Pictured top left, right and centre is Poveglia, pictured bottom left, 16th-century graffiti from shipping merchants at Lazzaretto Vecchio, and bottom right, views over the plague pit at the museum island.

In Nikko, a city about 70 miles north of the Japanese capital Tokyo, there is a multi-million dollar theme park featuring replicas of Clint Eastwood (inset) and Mount Rushmore (top right). The eerie attraction has been abandoned since 2007 and now looks more like the set (top left and bottom right) for the 1973 horror film, Westworld, where robotic androids took over a theme park.

An abandoned Soviet gulag has become a popular dive site for adventurous explorers and tombstone jumpers thanks to the crystal-clear lake that now submerge much of the building. Rummu prison (inset) in Estonia was abandoned some 25 years ago when Stalin's empire collapsed and more than half of the 75ft building has since been flooded. Scuba divers from across Europe now flock to the area to explore the ruins of the prison.

These hilarious photographs capture the exact moment visitors to a horror theme park came face-to-face with terror inside the attraction. The images were captured as groups of people made their way through Nightmares Fear Factory in Ontario, Canada - a popular tourist attraction that claims to be the 'scariest haunted house' in the region. And even after decades in business, the attraction still draws countless thrill-seekers each year.

Most people expect to see a monotonous sea of clouds when they're flying at 37,000ft. But when one passenger looked out of her window mid-flight, she was surprised to discover that her plane appeared to be flying over a lava-spewing volcano (right). The vision that Penny Bowman from Melbourne, Australia, was greeted with was in fact an optical illusion created by the setting sun (inset). The traveller managed to photograph the moments just before (left) and after the incredible light show.

These enthralling photos are the winners and top 55 runner-ups in this year's Red Bull Illume Awards. Photographer Lorenz Holder was crowned the Overall Winner for his breathtaking shot of athlete Senad Grosic riding his BMX bike across a bridge in Germany (bottom left), Ken Etzel caught rock climber Wiz Fineron finding himself in a tight spot on the side of a cliff in Grampians, Australia (bottom left), and (bottom right) Alexandre Voyer shot diver Marianne Aventurier face-to-face with an enormous shark at the Azores Islands in Portugal.

If you happen to traipse into these woods in Italy, you're in for a big surprise. The Valle dei Mulini, or 'Valley of Mills', in Sorrento is home to a beautifully haunting menagerie of abandoned mills, which were once part of the area's pasta production industry. Emerging from the undergrowth, the ruined buildings - which date as far back as the 13th century - can be seen as you enter the deep gorge.

With her mouth agape and bright, wondrous eyes, it's impossible not to look at this baby bear and smile. The tiny female cub was photographed when she was just four months old, weighing little more than a newborn baby at 9.9lbs. Shots show her striking various comical poses, from confidently balancing on her back legs to seemingly smiling as she sits on a weighing scale. The striking images were captured by Australian wildlife photographer Alex Cearns during a visit to the Free The Bears rescue centre in Cambodia.

Two fisherman, believed to be from south east Asia, made the catch of their lives after thousands of fish cascaded down a river and into their net. As the video starts, the men are seen holding a net over a narrow river as a few fish flop over it, while a couple are caught. But the stream of fish suddenly intensifies, with dozens of them piling in and hitting the pair in the face. The school of the fish rushing through the water and the air is so enormous that both men get knocked off their feet and lose their grip on the net. Despite this, when the chaos subsides - and the men have scrambled back to their feet - the water calms and a huge haul of fish can be seen caught up in the net.