Hotel staff demonstrates “Lantern Dining Experience”, which enables diners to enjoy meals while protecting themselves against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Hoshinoya Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan, February 2, 2022. The lantern-shaped transparent partitions are created by Japan’s traditional craftsman and guests staying at the hotel who pay 30,000 yen (about 260 USD) as venue charge can invite others to dine with them under the partitions. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Lee Kiefer of the USA (L) and Inna Deriglazova of Russia (R) in action during the women's Foil Individual Gold Medal Bout of the Fencing events of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Makuhari Messe convention centre in Chiba, Japan, 25 July 2021. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/EPA/EFE)

An Indian soldier blows fire as he performs an acrobatic manoeuvre known as 'Mallakhamb' during an event in Jaipur on December 5, 2024. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)

An Afghan man prepares tea for customers at a roadside tea shop on the outskirts of Jalalabad February 2, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

A Hindu holy man on his way to the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, gestures towards a visitor as he rests at a transit camp in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, January 6, 2016. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, where the Ganges River reaches the Bay of Bengal, on the auspicious Makar Sankranti festival day that falls on Jan.14. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

Autos sit on top of each other in a washed out section of Dog Track Road in the Millview community as Gulf Coast residents continue cleaning up from damage caused by torrential rains in Pensacola, Fla., Thursday, May 1, 2014. The National Weather Service, estimated 15-20 inches of rain has fallen in the Pensacola area in the past 2 days. (Photo by G. M. Andrews/AP Photo)

Naga Sadhus or Hindu holy men, smeared with ash, drink tea inside their makeshift camps near the confluence of river Ganges and the Bay of Bengal, ahead of Makar Sankranti festival at Sagar Island, south of Kolkata January 13, 2015. Hindu monks and pilgrims are making their annual trip to Sagar Island for the one-day festival of “Makar Sankranti” on Wednesday. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)