Wandering through Angkor Wat, Traveling Through Time
Wandering through Angkor Wat last week I didn’t just feel like I was stepping back in time – the temple complexes are so unique, impressive and old (Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century) that you can feel the weight of their age and history – but back in my own time and past as well.
Visiting Siem Reap was the first time I’ve gone back to a place where I had backpacked through four and a half years ago when I initially came over to Southeast Asia. Walking down the same streets and seeing the same things brought back memories of what I had experienced, what I was thinking and where I was in my life at the time I had first visited.
Kind of trippy.
A monk snaps a photo of Angkor Wat
Devas (deities) guarding the south entrance to Angkor Thom
Growing up I was really interested in history and always felt like I wanted to be living in a different time. With traveling you can catch glimpses of those different times and places.
Even older than Angkor Wat, the Banteay Srei temple is thought to have been built in the 10th century
At Angkor, some places in the Angkor complex, you can really see the passage of time, like at the Ta Prohm temple which has been taken over by the jungle.
Ta Prohm Temple
But the revisiting places of your own past is perhaps more moving.
Carvings around a door at Banteay Srei
Apsaras at Angkor Wat
A few of the more than 200 faces at Bayon Temple
Where have you time traveled to?
Hey! I'm Alana and I've spent nearly the past decade living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, working as a writer and photographer. I started Paper Planes as a place to share local insight, special places, and how to travel well through a range of experiences — from hostels to high-end hotels, street meat to multi-course meals.
New places are always calling my name...
1/19/16
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These photos are really cool. I had a similar experience when I went to visit my cousin in Rome this past spring. I had been there more than 10 years ago with a high school Italian class trip and I was totally having weird dejavu moments at the Spanish Steps, etc.!
How fun! I lived in London seven years ago and went back for the first time last fall…it’s a nice but strange feeling how things come back to you.
Lovely photos! I do hope to travel to Angkor and SE Asia at some point in our travels. Luckily, we did do a lot of “time travelling” when we lived in Turkey…such amazing ancient ruins there as well. 🙂
Turkey is on my travel this for tis year – I’ve always wanted to go!
I’ve only gone back to a few places more than once – one was London, and another was (haha) the Moscow Domodedovo Airport. I taught in Russia for two years after college, so on our way to Thailand last year, we purposely took the flight that had a stopover in Moscow so I could show my husband a little bit of Moscow! It was a nice little stop on memory lane!
Incredible how memories flood back once you’re there, huh?
Ah! That’s so awesome that you go to revisit your own past in the context of Angkor. I remember returning to Seoul after 3 years away, and it was definitely trippy thinking how much I’d changed since being a bright eyed freshman in college to a recent grad living and working in Korea.
So much change!
Some fantastic photos!
Awesome place, one of the best place in south east asian