Dejav vu, as any fan of Monty Python knows, is that strange feeling we sometimes get that we’ve lived through something before.
I often get it when I travel.
I’ve established that it usually happens when I’m somewhere that reminds me of a place I knew in the past.
I’m staying for a few months at Mae Rhampung beach in Ban Phe, in Thailand’s Rayong province. The long stretch of beach reminds me of the “Golden Four” beaches* on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, which I visited with my family every year during my childhood.
Of course, the place is unmistakably Thai, but the beach itself, lapped as it is by the Pacific Ocean, and the only-sporadic development along the road that runs in parallel evokes another time and place.
But it’s not just personal memories that can be ignited. When I took my first trip to Europe, I regularly felt I had been there before, because the great sights — the Eiffel Tower, the Flavian Ampitheatre (Colosseum), the Grand Canal, the Hofbrauhaus — all seemed so familiar, from books and films.
Being there for real, of course, awakens something truly special. You may feel like you’ve been there before, but don’t let that deter you from enjoying every minute of your travels.
And make sure you take away enough good memories to ensure that next time you think you’ve experienced something before, it’s because you have.
*I’m not sure of the provenance of that name. From memory, there were at least six of them: Currumbin Beach, Tugun, Bilinga, Kirra, Coolangatta and Greenmount.
