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Far away, deep in the heart of Cyprus, a number of very old and special churches can be found. They are like hidden treasures, and also in the age of paved roads and cars, it takes some stamina to visit them.

Of the 9 enlisted churches, I visited 3: Panagia tou Asinou, Panagia tou Araka and Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis. Although they won their inclusion in the list mainly because of their interiors, I fell for their simple outside beauty. Often "just" a robust stone building, but in the best natural settings you can think of.

On my tour of the south of Nepal, I travelled from Chitwan (Sauraha) to Lumbini by public buses. A Japanese guy and I were dumped at the roadside, amidst flat agricultural lands and some forest. 'This is Lumbini', they told us. It's a quiet area, natural in outlook, and with its temples hidden from first sight.

The actual site is quite small: a few excavations and a large tree, that is all to see. Still, it is a very serene place. For a few years several Buddhist Asian countries are building their own temples and monasteries around the original site (according to the "Lumbini Masterplan" by a Japanese architect). They try to surpass each other in beauty. The very different building styles make for an eclectic view.

It certainly is not Africa: the big 5 is not to be seen here, but it is possible to go on a safari in Chitwan. In the early morning, I did a jungle walk. My two guides and I encountered a rhino and climbed up a tree to observe the magnificent animal.

Later that day I did a jeep safari, probably the best thing to do. Among others, we saw several sloth bears, recognizable for their white noses. No tigers, though ...

Well, this hobby of visiting world heritages really takes you off the beaten track: to a cemetery in this case. As it is a public place, you can just walk in and roam around freely.

Most remarkable is that the graves are hidden in the pine forests. The rest of the place impresses as a series of monuments.

All was relatively quiet then, that week in August when I visited this magnificent site. Highlights were the Dome of the Rock, the Armenian quarter including St. James Cathedral, and the weird Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The hundreds of bigger and smaller historical and religious remains are piled up in an area with a size of only 1 square km. That means that sometimes you have to look very well for something your travel guide names as a top attraction. And maybe you discover something much more beautiful on your way ...

Hagi housed the feudal lords of the Kyushu-Yamaguchi region, ending with Lord Takachika Mori (1819-71) who is associated with the proto-industrial trials around Hagi. The site includes the ruins of Hagi castle and many original buildings and streets in the well-preserved town, which has avoided the natural disasters that Japan is so prone to.

I visited Hagi on my first trip to Japan, in the year 2000. I did so on a day trip from Hiroshima. Hagi was (and probably still is) way off the beaten track. It is situated on the northern coast of Honshu Island, and it took me 2 hours on a bus and a train to get there. The ticket seller even had to ask twice if I really wanted to go there. "Hagi in Yamaguchi district you mean?"

The charm of old Hagi proved to be easy to find. Most of its historical buildings lie in the old samurai neighbourhoods. Long, whitewashed walls that line the streets are characteristic of this area. Some of the old houses are still lived in, others are museums. I started at the spacious house of the Kikuya family of Merchants.

Not far from there lies the cute little temple Ensei-ji. It is a combination of a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple. Besides the usual colourful ticket and a brochure in English, they also provided me with a poster of Hagi. And there were more gifts to come: at the little restaurant where I ate my …

The museum in the Park tells the story about the bomb on Hiroshima, but also about all the nuclear tests that were executed after that. I found this, and the rest of the Park, very impressive and tasteful.

Hiroshima itself is of course a very modern city, but I liked it a lot. It has a lot to offer, for example ... another World heritage! The Itsukushima Shrine is situated on an island in front of Hiroshima-City.

Within the valley, I visited the village of Ogimachi, a two-hour bus ride from Takayama in the middle of the Japanese Alps. There quite a lot of the Gassho-zukuri houses can still be found together.

Although it was packed with Japanese tourists, I liked it a lot. The environment is totally unlike the stereotype Japan. In a way, the scene remembered me of Bhutan, where in the green valleys also this kind of big houses annex farms still stand (however without the characteristic thatched roofs).

There are a lot of temples in Japan, but the ones at Nikko I liked most. Nikko on its own disproves the common remark that Japan does not have world-class sights.

The Toshogu-shrine is the best example of this. The main gate inside the complex is 11 meters high and painted with animals, flowers, and human figures. Especially the smallest details (which you can only see with binoculars or the zoom lens of your camera) are magnificent. What at first just looks like a coloured border later turns out to be a whole scene.

Nagasaki seems to have missed out on getting in early on the List, and will have a tough time making it now. Hiroshima has beaten it on the 'Peace'-theme, and I'm afraid Macao has done so on the 'European influences'-theme. So they're now aiming for the 'Christian'-theme, which has already 100 sites on the List!

During my stay in the city in 2000 I visited Glover Garden, Dejima, the local Chinatown, the freaky Fukusai-ji Zen-temple, the temple route between Kofuku-ji and Sofuku-ji, the Urakami Atomic Bomb museum, and (yes!) Oura Church. This probably is one of the proposed 'Churches and Christian Sites in Nagasaki', although you can't be sure as the sites are not named in the nomination file. Oura Church is a 19th-century catholic church with, according to my travel diary, 'beautiful stained glass windows'.

The past of Timbuktu past is more glorious than its present. Now it is a little town on the edge of the Sahara, with sand-covered streets and souvenir selling Toeareg. The mosques are worth a visit, as are the old houses in the center of town with their beautiful manufactured doors.

My most remarkable moment was that when I arrived on Friday afternoon, its male inhabitants with their colourful robes just left the mosques. They made a wonderful contrast with the sandy streets and buildings.

Quite a lot of tourists visit Djenné, especially because of its famous mosque. However, the old two-storey houses in town are also very worthwhile.

When you roam around the streets, the first thing that strikes you is the stench: the preservation of this world heritage has reached so far that it is not allowed to construct modern sewerage.

Bandiagara is situated in central Mali (near Mopti) and is a good place for trekking from town to town. I did a 4-day trek, staying overnight in the villages of Bankas, Ende, Yabatalu and Begnimato. During the day we walked from village to village.

At night I slept on one of the roofs of the houses in the villages. This is very impressive, as you experience the daily life of the Dogon at close quarters. At 6 am the cocks start yelling, the donkeys begin to bray and the housewives get up to fetch water: an ideal alarm clock ...

It was a very memorable trip: admiring the fabulous ornamented woodwork of the doors, visiting the Hogon (traditional priest) and a mask dance was staged for us in the early morning hours.

The site at Sukhothai is a stylish park, where you can explore the ruins by cycling from one monument to the other. The statues and temples are much better preserved (though several centuries older!) than the ones at Ayuthaya, or is that just my imagination?

Sukhothai is more than 400 kilometers distance from Bangkok. I stayed at nearby city Phitsanulok, and went to Sukhothai by local bus, a good option.

Palenque has much in common with Tikal (Guatemala), but for unknown reasons it is a lot less famous. The park impressed me a lot, both the temples and natural surroundings.

The grave of Pakal looks a lot like an Egyptian sarcophagi. The decorations (as a deathmask) and the skeleton however have been transferred to a museum in Mexico-City.

During a standard 3-week tour of Sri Lanka you're likely to visit almost all of the country's WHS: it's just not that big. This new addition to the WH list is no exception: Adam's Peak for example (at the heart of the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary) is quite a landmark.

In 1996 we travelled to the center of Sri Lanka by train. There are many tea plantations in this area. As you go uphill, it gets colder and wetter. As the temperature only reached 15 degrees Celsius, we felt like we were in England or Holland. The locals were really cold too and wore thick jackets, fleece sweaters and hats.

From Nuwara Eliya we did a hiking tour at the Horton Plains. We were transported to the park entrance in about an hour and then walked for about 4 hours. The things to see are some steep cliffs (Little World's End and Big World's End) and waterfalls.

My trip diary notes do not mention anything very remarkable about this hike, and I must admit that even less is left in my memory.

Lots of stairs lead up to the temple. Except for the seemingly endless walk up there, the groups of monkeys are also still in my memory. They are certainly not shy and it is not recommended to eat something with some of them around: you lose it in a second ...

Dambulla is one of the numerous attractions of Sri Lanka, but not the most impressive one (neighbouring Sigiriya is the no. 1 contender for that).

The site in total is quite an experience. First you have to climb a number of stairs. You walk past the paintings of the women, an awesome sight in itself. Then you reach a platform where you can take a rest before the real hard work starts: between the claws of a lion an iron ladder reaches steeply upwards along the rock.

Finally, on top of the rock, you see the site where the palace of the Prince used to stand (now only the ruins are left).

Kandy is a green city with 100.000 inhabitants. It is dominated by a large, central lake. Compared to the capital Colombo a stay here is a relief. There are several shrines to visit, and it is also a good place for walking tours.

The Temple of the Tooth of course is the major sight. Watching the pilgrims even more ... each day the room where the tooth is saved is opened up to let the numerous visitors catch a glimpse

This site is in much better repair than the one at Anuradhapura: there is actually more to see than just ruins. The old city can easily be discovered on a bike. Our bicycles were in terrible condition. I am not totally sure anymore (I have rented so many bicycles in Asia that I sometimes mix up the occasions), but in my memory I got a puncture before arriving at the first monument. According to my photo collection I still managed to visit a big part of the site, but how?