Guardian Travel's year in Instagram: 2015

January We started the year with @ventureforthphoto doing a takeover for us at the annual Bishwa Itjema religious festival, "which draws millions of attendees to the northern Dhaka suburb of Tongi, many of them arriving and departing on heavily loaded trains, which are truly an astounding sight". A good six months before the US and Cuba restored diplomatic relations, @signorilefabio decided to see Havana before it all changed. "Havana appears suspended in the 1950s – you see all these iconic vintage American cars cruising along the Malecon." February The Jaisalmer Desert Festival takes place in Rajasthan every February. @drusillita posted shots from the event, which celebrates the culture and heritage of the region in camel races, music, art and dance. Venice carnival was also in full flow in February – quite literally this year as there was widespread flooding. Local Instagrammer @neumarc posted photos of the costumes and masks. March By March, we were desperate for some sun, and local photographer @katwesterman took us on a tour of the southern California beach scene, including "Muscle Beach" – an outdoor weightlifting area legendary among body builders. This year marked the 50th annversary of Singapore's independence. Photographer @aikbengchia offered to show us around his city, and at 2.15am on the first day, he met Mr Hamid, one of the many cyclists in Singapore who transform their bicycles into a kaleidoscope of colour with a multitude of LED lights and stickers. More than 120,000 photgraphs have so far been shared with us by adding #guardiantravelsnaps – and this one was sent in by @joideverve, a Sydney-based photographer who was touring Japan by train. April One of our featured Instagrammers of the week in April was American photographer @kdkuiper, who travelled all over Egypt, starting in Cairo where he took a ride out to the pyramids: "A trip of a lifetime, and despite all the negative stories that you hear about Egypt, I never once felt unsafe." May In May, we headed to China with @alessors – an Italian photographer documenting how fast the country is changing. "This cigar seller set up his stand in the Kuantan-Zhai pedestrianised area of Chengdu in Sichaun province, with renovated Qiang dynasty hutongs – alleys lined with houses built around courtyards." June We celebrated the start of summer with this shot by @nashker at Plage de Saint-Malo, taken when he travelled 23,000 miles from Asia to the US without using a plane. North Korea was constantly in the headlines this year, and in June announced that it was blocking access to Instagram. Singapore-based photographer Mindy Tan posted photographs from her recent visit on @mindyshoots and blog.mindytan.com. This shot shows a traffic cop on her way to work in Pyongyang. Also in June, Californian pro-climber @chris_sharma took his passion for climbing trees to dizzying new heights, scaling a huge redwood tree for a project called Red Bull's Giant Ascent. He climbed the 77-metre tree in Eureka, northern California, without ropes, getting 50 metres up the bark before reaching the first branches. Photograph by @ladzinski. Five years after the earthquake of 2010 devastated Haiti, Guardian travel correspondent @kevinrushby visited the island to see how it was recovering. July July was all about Greece. With all the economic uncertainty following the debt crisis and the "no" vote in the austerity referendum, we wanted to encourage people to continue to holiday there. This shot by @21_pp shows a little girl playing along with the soldiers in Athens. August "Bright days" lie ahead for Iran's tourism industry following the nuclear agreement struck in Vienna in July. This shot by @mansoreh.motamedi shows an Iranian Muslim family using a selfie stick to take a group photograph on a beach by the Caspian sea, northern Iran @matteocartaphoto, a teacher, traveller and photographer based in China, shared a rare insight into the Naadam festival in Mongolia, a major holiday featuring the three sporting passions of Mongolians: horse racing, wrestling and archery. September In September, Melbourne-based photojournalist @francescovicenzi was in Pokhra, Nepal to witness new constitution celebrations. "The newly signed constitution was seven years in the making and follows months of political unrest. While celebrated in major towns, it has left some minority groups unhappy." October October is all about the beer in Bavaria. @katia_mi_ shared this shot from Oktoberfest: the largest beer festival and funfair in the world, held in Munich since 1810. November November saw Myanmar's first national vote since a nominally civilian government was introduced in 2011, ending nearly 50 years of military rule. @paulratje, an American photojournalist based in Taiwan, captured the historic events. "This shot was taken in Mandalay and shows a group of nuns crammed aboard a bus, seemingly joking around. Nuns in Myanmar are usually quite solemn as they do their alms rounds, but this scene offers a glimpse of their character." December In December, we travelled to the coldest populated region in the world – Yakutia, the heart of Siberia, in north-east Russia – with @maxavdeev, a freelance photojournalist from Moscow. "This shot shows a woman in Gagarin Park just after finishing the 10km run in the park. The extreme cold doesn't deter joggers, even though in temperatures below -30C, any sweat and moisture immediately turn to ice." We rounded the year off in Berlin at the Gendarmenmarkt with @katia_mi_. "This is one of the most popular Christmas markets in Berlin during the festive season. Framed by the Französischer Dom, the Konzerthaus and the Deutscher Dom, a small tent city with more than 1,000 strings of light appears like magic each year in this centrally-located square."
Source: Guardian Travel's year in Instagram: 2015