There was this loudening warbly flappy whistling behind me and when I looked back, I realized the sound was now coming from above and then a flock of geese or ducks flew over me and kept going.

Don't ever take silence and darkness for granted. It can disappear irrevocably in an instant. Where I used to live, the lights on the interstate were replaced with different LED units and my back yard suddenly became bright enough to garden and do auto maintenance at night because of the light pollution.

Never, my attitude is centered on appreciation.

LED lights in traffic settings are the worst. I'm looking forward to stargazing here.

And just across the water, you have the Philippines: Quite possibly the noisiest country on earth. It's nice with the life and chaos for a bit, but it doesn't take long for it to become too much. When SM Malls choose to blast their awful jingles at the same time as restaurants are trying to play their own music and the mall management have a freaking marching band parading around the mall to celebrate their three day sale, there's something deeply wrong. Who in their right mind would enjoy that?

Haha, yeah! I just came from the Philippines for a wedding. I lasted 10 days, and that was more than enough noise for me.

It seems like Filipinos enjoy that much noise, or maybe they're just inured to cacophony at this point.

Actually a bit of both. Many Filipinos feel uncomfortable when it's quiet. My wife had a hard time at first adjusting to life in Scandinavia. As the years passed, she learned to embrace tranquility, though.

Good to hear, and brave of her! Moving from a maelstrom of ambient noise to largely unpopulated tracts of land must have been strange. I still haven't been anywhere in Scandinavia, but I'm sure it'll happen eventually.

Recommend you do it soon. The current government tanked the currency, so it's actually relatively affordable if you're from f.ex the UK.

I hadn't heard, thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

I figured, it was a reminder for everyone. One of my favorite experiences in recent years was visiting Big Bend National Park, one of the darkest places in the US. The scale of the sky is something I will never forget.

Nice, enormous night skies make my head spin.

If I get stuck n the US again at some point, an extended national park tour is my top priority. I visited more than a few, but I was traveling with friends and the schedule was more hurried than I prefer.

Strawberry, Arizona was a pretty good starscape, though.