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
Mount Vernon (T)
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 07-Feb-25
It just seems appropriate to visit and write a review of Mount Vernon after doing so with Monticello, as both were the residences and plantations of two prominent American presidents in Virginia. We visited the site in Dec 2024 as a side trip while visiting family for Christmas. Whether it has the potential to be inscribed or not and regardless of our opinions about George Washington as a slave owner, I'd recommend a visit here.
The mansion tour
At the time of our visit, the mansion was undergoing significant renovation (see photo, with the facade obstructed by tarpaulin) and only a very limited part of the mansion could be accessed. It was helpful to attend the free virtual tour at the Ford Orientation Centre. We entered the mansion through the door that opens to the New Room. This multi-purpose room is the most interesting (to me) of all the rooms in the mansion. Its walls are painted in pastel green, and it has a Palladian window with composition ornament and a ceiling with stuccowork
Read OnMonticello
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 31-Jan-25
This site was the first of the few UNESCO sites I visited during my trip to the US in Dec 2024. It made for a great stop on my way to spending the holidays with family in Virginia. I made sure that we visited both Monticello and the University of Virginia campus, which I think is the best way to really appreciate the OUV of this site.
Monticello
Monticello was Thomas Jefferson's primary plantation and house, situated on a hill or [...]
Read OnUxmal
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 06-Jan-25
I visited this site in January 2025, my first for the new year. I had initially planned to check out Labna, Sayil, and Kabah as well, but after all the holiday travel, I decided to focus on Uxmal and make it a laid-back day trip from Merida.
Touring the site
I arrived at the site well after lunch and spent about three hours exploring. The weather was perfect, and the crowd was much smaller than I remembered from my visit to Chichen Itza two years ago. This was consistent with what I had read in various blogs about Uxmal, though I had anticipated a more crowded experience, especially considering it was peak holiday season. The main structure in this site, many of which depict the rain god Chaac, are as follows:
Read OnSítio Roberto Burle Marx
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 12-Nov-24
We visited Sitio Roberto Burle Marx in Sep 2022, when Rio was experiencing several days of torrential rain. I had to cancel our first two attempts to visit due to the weather, but the rain hadn't stopped even on the day we finally went. Although this review is two years overdue, I thought I'd document my experience visiting the site and share some thoughts about Burle Marx, whom people have both criticised and revered.
Getting started
We took an Uber from our accommodation in Ipanema to the site, and the trip took a bit longer than the usual hour-long journey. As previous reviews have emphasised, it’s essential to book ahead since the guided tours have limited capacity. We checked in at the gate and waited at the administration building
Read OnRed 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’). Although I visited the site both in Dec 2013 and Dec 2023, this review is based mostly on my second visit.
Inside the Red Fort
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 OnProfile Data
- Name
- Carlo Sarion
- Country
- Philippines | New Zealand
- Ranking
- 410
- 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 04.01.25
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10 Best Missing
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
- Monticello
- Uxmal
- Sítio Roberto Burle Marx
- 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)
- Central Park (T)
- Chapultepec Woods, Hill and Castle (T)
- Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (T)
- City Walls of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (T)
- Civil Rights Movement Sites (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)
- Ellis Island (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)
- 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)
- Mount Vernon (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 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
- Mount Vernon (T)
- 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)