Visiting WHS isn’t always easy. Frederic M. and I both tried to tackle the Lenggong Valley recently – a site where early hominid remains have been found, a type of site that always has a challenge in communicating its story anyway. In Lenggong the archaeological museum has been ‘under renovation’ for ages with no end. The other locations are closed to ordinary visitors. To access them you need a guide connected to the museum, but the e-mail address for contact only results in a Delivery failure notification. Frederic and I kept on trying via different channels and we will let you know in a review if we succeed.

Why make our lives so hard? I came up with the following 9 ‘Commandments’ that the management of a WHS should adhere to in order to accommodate a WH traveller:

1. You show your OUV!

You do not keep it to yourself (looking at you, people of Stoclet !). You may restrict visitor numbers when overcrowding becomes a concern, but access should be allowed via a mechanism that is open to everyone.

2. Thou shalt not close up shop right after becoming a WHS

…

For my ‘tick’ of the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex I choose Kui Buri National Park. Kui Buri (sometimes also spelled as ‘Kuri Buri’) was established only in 1999 after tensions between wild elephants and villagers escalated. The elephants’ former habitat had been taken over by pineapple plantations. The park now offers daily 'elephant safaris', where - with a bit of luck - one can observe the wild elephants from a distance. The WWF is still active here to further reduce human-elephant conflict.

The park lies about 1h15 from the pleasant seaside resort of Hua Hin. I used HuaHin Taxi for the return transfer – they are easy to communicate with and know the drill at Kui Buri. The wildlife viewing area is open to entering daily between 2 and 5 p.m. (though you will leave towards 6 p.m.) and requires hiring a 4WD truck and guide at the ticket office.

We arrived at 2.15 and I was driven into the park immediately. The noisy truck drove quite fast on the sandy roads and it was clear that we wouldn’t be seeing much along the way. They will bring you to one of the two main …

Put this one on your to-do list, as Banteay Chhmar may be nominated in the next few years by Cambodia. Serious restorations and improvements of the visiting conditions have taken place, especially since 2017. A lot of money and effort has been put into what is still a remote site not far from the border with Thailand. As with the other Cambodian sites, most of the work is being carried out by local workers and paid for by the Cambodian government. In the earlier stages of its rediscovery and preservation, both the World Monuments Fund and the Global Heritage Fund have been active here as well to mitigate the effects of structural instability and looting.

The Archeological complex of Banteay Chhmar is the focal point of the contemporary town that bears the same name. The ancient site is encircled by a wide moat, still filled with water. The modern town is much smaller and feels like a temporary set-up at its fringes.

My visit to Banteay Chhmar was organized by the local Community-Based Tourism (CBT) group. I stayed overnight in one of their homestays (in a fine room on the second floor of a traditional …

Sambor Prei Kuk means "Many Temples in the Forest". And that precisely is what it is!

I spent 1.5 hours at the site, accompanied by a local guide, her dog, and my tuk-tuk driver from Kampong Thom who before had never been beyond the parking lot. The guides work for the area’s Community-Based Tourism organization, which also offers homestays and other activities (similar to those available at Banteay Chhmar ). I found it worth it to hire a guide this time: the site is not really self-explaining and there are just a few boards with information. I also enjoyed hearing her take on tourism in this region and life in general in Cambodia’s countryside. The cost is 10 USD, in addition to the 10 USD entrance fee.

All temples here are Hindu and were specifically built for the worship of Shiva. The most common feature is the presence of the yoni . Unfortunately, a lot of the original interior statues have been looted or brought to museums in Phnom Penh and France.

The temples show some unique characteristics, as already pointed out by earlier reviewers. The octagonal shape of several of them for …

Recently I bought a book called “ Antarctica. A history in 100 objects. ” I’d recommend it as a gift to every armchair traveller, especially when he or she doesn’t know much already about the subject. Get the hardcover version, it’s not expensive. It got me thinking about Antarctica and possible WHS. We’ve touched upon this subject before at the Forum on several occasions, such as the Top Missing 2008 , Top 50 Missing 2020 , and Jonas Bergmann’s Dream List .

Why are there no Antarctic World Heritage Sites yet?

This is because of the combined effects of two international treaties. According to UNESCO's World Heritage Convention , sites can only be brought forward by a country and should be on its territory . This has been determined in Article 3 and was further clarified with the Antarctica example in this decision from 1977 . Although 7 countries claim portions of Antarctica as theirs (sometimes overlapping), these claims are not recognized by other countries outside of these 7. Also, a large part of Antarctica is unclaimed. All involved parties have since 1959 agreed to govern the continent as a scientific preserve by the Antarctic Treaty …

7 out of the current 9 Moroccan World Heritage Sites have been rated with 3 stars or more by our community. They have brought Morocco a good overall country rating of 3.44. The only exceptions are Tétouan (almost there at 2.92), and Mazagan (2.63). The Portuguese City of Mazagan however turned out the biggest positive surprise of my short Moroccan coastal trip in January 2023.

Just looking at the site’s intrinsic qualities and OUV, I believe a low rating of Mazagan is not fair. Yes, I understand it is small and takes an hour at most to explore. But:

1. It is really old. It dates from the very early stages of the explorations of the Portuguese outside Europe (1514). Among the many Portuguese colonial forts around the world, this one is the second oldest that is still intact. The only older one is Elmina Castle in Ghana (part of the Gold Coast Forts WHS ).
2. It has barely changed since. Elmina was heavily used by the Dutch and British in the 17th-19th centuries, while Mazagan was abandoned after the Portuguese left in 1769. The fortress town, therefore, has kept its original …

“ Invention of sweets ” already is an older connection, it has id number 420 out of 1525. Lately, a few additional suggestions for connected sites were made on the Forum, but at first, I found them hard to fit in. It became a good excuse for a clean-up of the connection!

Limits of the connection

One of the issues with the original connection was that even the title was misleading. “Sweets” are what the Americans call Candy (the people Down Under even call them Lollies apparently!). But we have included sweet pastries as well. So I’ve now changed the title of the connection to “Invention of sweets and pastries”. Just anything sweet to snack on while you are visiting a WHS.

The connection did not have an introduction text, and therefore no criteria to measure sites against. I have now added:

1. They must be sweets (candy), sweet pastries or sweet desserts

2. They are believed to have originated in a specific place within the core zone of WHS

3. They are widely available elsewhere as well, not only at their place of origin

For 'rule' number 2, “believed …

There’s a feature on the home page that lists (T)WHS that are making the news. I once started it to capture events such as “The Taj Mahal is on fire” and “More Nasca lines discovered”. So far, 3316 news items have been logged since 2006. Let’s have a closer look at them, and how we can improve this section in the future.

The Process

Updating the news section is one of the daily chores I do for the website. At fixed times in the morning and in the evening I receive Google Alerts in my e-mail box based upon keywords such as “World Heritage” and “heritage site”. Community members also point me to news via whatsapp or e-mail. And there is an active forum topic where the news gets posted too.

I read through them all and make a selection. Some I omit because they are better placed elsewhere: for example, if a TWHS is rumoured to aim for an inscription in 2024, I will post it in the 2024 WHC forum topic. Also, I try to filter out the ‘old news’, ‘fake news’, and ‘not newsworthy’ ones. More on that later under ‘Pitfalls’.

At the end of last year, I spent 5 weeks travelling around Brazil focusing on the Northern states. I had been to the South in 2004 and had already covered 10 WHS there. Now, I ended with 22 of Brazil’s current 24 WHS seen – to do it all in one go would easily take 8-10 weeks! Herewith are some tips for travelling to Northern Brazil as a WH Traveller.

1. Get used to taking lots of domestic flights

There's no road to Tefe. Manaus to Belem is 3000 km and takes days by boat. Sao Luis is as isolated as it comes. So there's no other transport option than to fly between the hubs of the north. Fortunately, domestic air travel is excellently organized in Brazil. I used Azul mostly: they have the best coverage of the north, usually fly with very modern planes (with free wifi and live TV), and are easy to book online or via the fine app. Using so many flights has two side effects: it is costly (I spent 80-110 EUR per flight, but it can be 200-300 EUR when booking later), and: it is very relaxed. I was …

2022 was my first year without a paid job or any other obligations, and I dedicated it fully to WH travel. I managed to visit 58 new WHS, more than I had anticipated in my Trip Plan and without the free bonus WHS from a WHC meeting. Overall, I travelled more and cheaper than budgeted. After half a year I knew I had enough money left for 2022 to pick up the expensive destinations Skellig Michael and Chad.

For the coming years, due to advantageous tax measures and rising interest rates, I also can raise my yearly travel budget a bit. So the date of reaching the goal of 1100 visited WHS has now been adjusted to 2028 instead of 2030! You can find my updated Trip Planner here, including the actual ‘results’ of 2022.

And I learned a lot:

Mentally

1. You start to overthink things. At the start of the year my head was full of general travel worries (Will there be a bus? Where do I need to buy tickets and when? Etc.). So many choices to make, always trying to reach the optimum. You just have more …