Carlo Sarion Profile
My enthusiasm for UNESCO World Heritage Sites is rooted in my love for travel, geography, cultures, and conservation. I am originally from the Philippines but now live in New Zealand. I trained as a biologist, dabbled in human resources, and now works in policy.
Recent Reviews Carlo Sarion
Red Fort
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 19-May-24
Three reviews out of 400 visitors, with the last review written more than a decade ago… Surely, the Red Fort Complex deserves better, given how important and popular this site is (emphasis on the word ‘popular’). I visited the site in Dec 2013 and Dec 2023, although this review will be based mostly on my second visit.
Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire’s 5th emperor, founded Red Fort (aka Lal Qila) to serve as his fancy residential palace-fort, only to be later imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in Agra Fort. The fort later became a British military garrison and is now a crowded tourist site with museums that hold art exhibitions such as the India Biennale, which was quite enjoyable and ate up half of the time we were there.
Read OnJantar Mantar
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 15-May-24
Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is an 18th-century observatory built to study the sky with the naked eye (yep, no telescopes). It's a small, accessible, and quite straightforward site to visit, and you get to tick both this site and Jaipur in one go. I visited Jantar Mantar twice (Dec 2013 and Dec 2023) and spent no more than an hour on both visits.
1. A UNESCO site within a UNESCO site
I used to share the opinion that Jantar Mantar as a separate site from Jaipur seemed confusing. I mean, it is well within Jaipur City’s core zone and is an integral part of the city palace’s compound. However, Jantar Mantar as a separate site has its own merits, and as I see it, India intended it that way. Its OUV rests on being an excellent example of an 18th-century architectural ensemble of scientific and technical instruments. It is also a testament to the monarch's (Jai Singh II) patronage of astronomy and cosmology, and sort of a reflection of the rich artistic and scientific culture at the time
Read OnQutb Minar
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 13-May-24
This complex of mosques, tombs, towers, and other structures was the first site we visited on my “revenge” trip to India in Dec 2023, having missed this back in Dec 2013. The site is located in the Mehrauli neighbourhood in southern Delhi and is adjacent to the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. This site is a pretty solid testament to early Islamic art in India and it deserves to be a part of everyone’s itinerary in Delhi.
We went mid-morning, hoping that the smog would be gone by that time. The ticket booth, shops, food stalls, and toilets are located across the site’s main entrance. We paid INR 500 for the entrance ticket (as foreign travellers) and went straight in to avoid the influx of visitors, which were mostly students. We visited all the main structures within the complex
Read OnNamib Sand Sea
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 11-May-24
I visited this site in the summer (Dec 2015) as part of an organised tour to Etosha Pan (Etosha NP) and Sossusvlei (Namib-Naukluft NP). This was one of the best travel experiences I've had, despite the oppressive summer heat (this was supposed to happen in winter, Jul 2015, with a friend who made this trip possible). While this trip was a decade ago, I hope readers will pick something useful from this review of my 2-night trip to Sossusvlei.
Day 1 - Flying to Kulala
I flew on a 4-seater Cessna from Hosea Kutako (Windhoek) Airport to Kulala Desert Lodge, which is located within the boundary of the national park. The late-morning flight gave a great introduction to the arid Martian-like landscape. Upon arrival, we went straight to the lodge to take shelter from the heat. There was a small pool outside of the dining area to cool off, though I spent the early afternoon eating and just enjoying the breezy thatch-roofed accommodation. Our first activity went on late in the afternoon, which involved driving around the desert, walking around rocky hills, and having a wee picnic while watching the sunset
Read OnTongariro National Park
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 09-May-24
Tongariro National Park boasts a couple of records. First, it is the first national park in New Zealand and one of the oldest national parks in the world. Second, it is the first to be inscribed (in 1993) under the revised criteria that describe cultural landscapes and their intangible cultural values. There's nothing much to say about the OUV of this site: it is breathtakingly beautiful (criterion VII), geologically active (criterion VIII), and culturally significant to tangata whenua (Māori) (criterion VI). It's also great to note that its 2020 conservation outlook is rated “good”.
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Carlo Sarion
- Country
- Philippines | New Zealand
- Most Impressive
- Quite a few: Namib Sand Sea, Cappadocia, Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, Ancient Thebes, Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur, and Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand, Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 23.06.24
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Visited WHS
Rating StatsAngkor 5Bagan 5Ephesus 5Iguacu 5Istanbul 5Borobudur 4.5Chichen-Itza 4.5Cuzco 4.5Fraser Island 4.5Great Wall 4.5Gunung Mulu 4.5St. Petersburg 4.5Teotihuacan 4.5Brasilia 4Fujisan 4Québec 4Anuradhapura 3.5Arequipa 3.5Guanajuato 3.5Hoi An 3.5Ping Yao 3.5Prambanan 3.5Rani-ki-Vav 3.5Rio de Janeiro 3.5Sigiriya 3.5Sukhothai 3.5Trang An 3.5Vigan 3.5Yazd 3.5Bolgar 3Kandy 3Lima 3Nikko 3Puebla 3Red Fort 3Vat Phou 3Ahmadabad 2.5Baroque Churches 2.5Camino Real 2.5Golestan Palace 2.5Grand Canal 2.5Hué 2.5Imperial Tombs 2.5Jantar Mantar 2.5Kazan Kremlin 2.5Kinabalu Park 2.5Meknes 2.5My Son 2.5Pasargadae 2.5Rabat 2.5Rideau Canal 2.5Sviyazhsk 2.5Tequila 2.5Chavin 2Pampulha 2Macao 1.5Thang Long 1.5Reviewed WHS
- Red Fort
- Jantar Mantar
- Qutb Minar
- Namib Sand Sea
- Tongariro National Park
- Humayun's Tomb
- Elephanta Caves
- Ahmadabad
- Fraser Island
- Brasilia
- Congonhas
- Ouro Preto
- Diamantina
- Grand Pré
- Te Wahipounamu
- Dong Phayayen
- Meidan Emam, Esfahan
- Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley
- Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution
- Caves of Yagul and Mitla
- Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque
Visited TWHS
- Archaeological site of Laodikeia (T)
- Auckland Volcanic Fields (T)
- Bahá'í House of Worship at New Delhi (T)
- Brazilian Fortresses Ensemble (T)
- Chapultepec Woods, Hill and Castle (T)
- Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (T)
- City Walls of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (T)
- Colonial Urban Plan and Fortifications of the Walled City of Manila (T)
- Corregidor Island and Historic Fortifications of Manila Bay (T)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (T)
- Desert National Park (T)
- Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's Home-Study Museum (T)
- Egyptian Museum in Cairo (T)
- El Nido-Taytay Managed Resource Protected Area (T)
- Etosha Pan (T)
- Former M-13 prison/ Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (former S-21)/ Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (former Execution Site of S-21) (T)
- Great Sandy World Heritage Area (T)
- Hikone-Jo (castle) (T)
- Human Rights, Liberation Struggle and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites (T)
- Inle Lake (T)
- Jame' (Congregational) Mosque of Esfahan (T)
- Kahurangi National Park, Farewell Spit and Canaan karst system (T)
- Monuments, Sites and Cultural Landscape of Chiang Mai, Capital of Lanna (T)
- Mt. Pulag National Park (T)
- Napier Art Deco historic precinct (T)
- Nasqsh-e Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab (T)
- Palais de la Culture, ancien siège du Ministere de l'Education et de la Santé, Rio de Janeiro (T)
- Persepolis and other relevant buildings (T)
- Rural Temples of Cusco (T)
- Salt Mines of Maras (T)
- Shwedagon Pagoda on Singuttara Hill (T)
- Sigatoka Sand Dunes (T)
- Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Grand Trunk Road (T)
- Sites of Saytagrah (T)
- Sun Temple, Modhera and its adjoining monuments (T)
- That Luang de Vientiane (T)
- The Central Axis of Beijing (including Beihai) (T)
- The Lijiang River Scenic Zone at Guilin (T)
- The Padang Civic Ensemble (T)
- Vali-e Asr Street (T)
- Waitangi Treaty Grounds (T)
- Waters and seabed of Fiordland (Te Moana O Atawhenua) (T)
Reviewed TWHS
- Bahá'í House of Worship at New Delhi (T)
- Sites of Saytagrah, India's non-violent freedom movement (T)
- Salt Mines of Maras (T)
- Rural Temples of Cusco (T)
- Waitangi Treaty Grounds historic precinct (T)
- Palais de la Culture, Rio de Janeiro (T)
- Napier Art Deco historic precinct (T)
- Archaeological site of Laodikeia (T)