I hastily snapped this photo on the day that I came to look at the apartment with the realtor, taking just a moment to giggle privately to hide my glee. ("I found it! I found it! Yup, this is the one." Actually, Jacky the realtor would have been equally gleeful, since I think he was growing weary of hauling me all over southern Phnom Penh on his little motorbike...)
It's the hot, dry season now, and I have no inclination whatever to spend time on the roof, even under the canopy, during the daylight hours. At night, though, I have sat or lain down on this terrace and just marvelled. The air is cooler, I can hear night birds, bats and geckos, but best of all, I can see stars.
Even when I had a small balcony in KL, there was just too much light pollution to see anything but the moon when it happened to enter the patch of sky I could see from my vantage point. In my last apartment, which I did love dearly, I had to peer out through louvred windows to see a narrow strip of sky visible over the tops of the high-rise jungle that was closing in fast.
Phnom Penh is still a blessedly low-rise city, and it has minimal light at night, so I can look up into a vast inverted bowl of dark sky and pick out at least a few constellations as I did when I was a kid. It's a fine thing.
That's great! I can imagine how different the sky would look here than in KL! Light pollution isn't just bad for amateur astronomers, it's bad for birds and insects and wildlife that depend on the dark to navigate, to stay safe and to determine their sleep and wakefulness rhythms, too. It's bad enough that city folks don't sleep enough, but our excessively bright lights and keeping the animals awake, too!
ReplyDeleteNow that's a real Treat! I love your terrace! Fingers crossed I can close more deals in the next few months! We cant wait to come over and throw a huge Vege BBQ !! :)
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