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住热带的人们须小心家中不速之客

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Alan Kozlowski purchased a strip of untouched, oceanfront land on the southern tip of the Thai island of Koh Samui in 2005 and spent the next couple of years -- and about $3.5 million -- constructing an eight-bedroom vacation house.

2005年,阿兰•科兹洛夫斯基(Alan Kozlowski)在泰国苏梅岛(Koh Samui)的南端购置了一块未经开发的滨海土地。在接下来的几年中,他斥资大约350万美元在这块土地上建成了一栋有八间卧室的度假屋。
The 64-year-old filmmaker was drawn to the forested land because of its ocean views, natural setting and the ability to have a feature rarely seen in his home state of California: beachside pavilions, including a fully exposed dining area and a yoga space that opens to the tropical breezes and expansive South China Sea views.
这片郁郁葱葱的土地之所以吸引这位现年64岁的电影制片人是因为其壮阔的海景、周边的自然环境以及在其老家美国加州罕见的一种特色建筑:海滨凉亭,其中包括完全暴露在室外的用餐区和一块练习瑜伽的空间。此间,热带海风毫无遮挡地吹着,壮阔的南中国海海景就在眼前。
Then the cobra moved in.
但没想到的是,眼镜蛇也“住”了进来,成了他的“室友”。
Open-air living -- homes with spaces completely or partially exposed to the outdoors -- was part of what drew Mr. Kozlowski to Southeast Asia, but, as he quickly discovered, it also meant new roommates. In addition to the snake, there were bats, foot-long geckos and flying beetles encroaching on the property.
露天起居是吸引科兹洛夫斯基来到东南亚居住的部分原因。但他很快就发现,这同时意味着你有了新的“室友”。除了蛇,还有蝙蝠、长脚壁虎和四处飞窜的甲虫与你比邻而居。所谓“露天起居”是指你的家中有一些空间完全或部分暴露在室外。
'You're in the tropics, on their land. You have to make friends with them, ' said Mr. Kozlowski, who rents out the home he calls Samudra when not vacationing there. As for the cobra, he had it removed from the property. 'I have a no-kill policy, ' he says.
科兹洛夫斯基说,“你在热带地区,这里是它们的地盘。你必须学会和他们交朋友。”不在泰国度假的时候,科兹洛夫斯基会将这栋他称之为“萨穆德拉”(Samudra)的屋子租出去。至于前面提到的眼镜蛇,他已将其从房中“请”了出去。他说,我的原则是“不杀生”。
Though forms of open-air living have long existed in Southeast Asia, more overseas homeowners are showing an interest in houses from Thailand to Vietnam and Indonesia, bringing elaborate designs that integrate nature into daily living. Bedrooms might have retractable doors on an entire wall. Or roofless bathrooms with showerheads protruding from a large boulder or tree branches that cascade over the tub.
在东南亚,露天起居的生活方式早已存在,但越来越多的海外房主对泰国、越南和印尼的海滨房产表示出了兴趣。他们带来了种种将自然融入日常生活的精心设计:卧室的伸缩门可能占据了一整面 ;没有屋顶的浴室中,淋浴喷头可能安装在一块突出的大石头上,或悬垂于浴缸上方的树枝上。
But the idyllic, natural lifestyle they conjure can be a little too natural, and at odds with the realities of living in tropical climates.
但房主们祈求的这种田园诗般的自然生活方式可能有点太过原生,它与在热带气候条件下生活的现实不相一致。
Mr. Kozlowski isn't the only one with critter problems.
科兹洛夫斯基并非唯一受野生物种“亲近”的屋主之一。
Alison Dilallo is the owner of a six-bedroom villa in a jungle setting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that has an open-sided dining pavilion with a thatched roof next to the pool. It also has an open-sided TV lounge with polished concrete floors.
艾莉森•迪拉罗(Alison Dilallo)在印尼度假胜地巴厘岛的丛林中拥有一栋带六间卧室的别墅。别墅的泳池旁有一座用于用餐的开放式凉亭,凉亭的屋顶用茅草覆盖。别墅还有一个开放式的用于看电视的休息室,室内的混凝土地板经过打磨。
Ms. Dilallo, who is 51 years old and lives in Perth, Australia, uses the house four or five times a year with her family, renting it out during the rest of the time. She said she and her husband bought the villa about 5 1/2 years ago for $1.3 million and later added onto it, investing a further $1.5 million in the property.
现年51岁的迪拉罗住在澳大利亚珀斯,她每年会和家人到印尼的别墅度假四到五次,剩下时间则将别墅出租。她说她和丈夫大约在五年半前斥资130万美元买下了这栋别墅,之后又投入150万美元进行扩建。
One time, she had to call a gecko catcher to remove the 8-inch creature from one of the five exposed bathrooms. In addition to the lizards, Ms. Dilallo also has had to deal with the occasional wild frog or cat that has wandered into the living room.
有一次,她不得不请人将一只长八英寸(约合20厘米)的壁虎从一间开放式浴室捉走。别墅中共有五间这样的浴室。除了蜥蜴,迪拉罗还得不时应对“闲逛”走入客厅的野青蛙或野猫。
'If there are no doors or windows, insects or rodents know no boundaries, so they come in naturally, ' says Alistair Wright, owner of EcoPest Samui in Koh Samui, which handles everything from snakes to scorpions to termites. 'The house becomes part of the environment.'
苏梅岛害虫防治机构EcoPest Samui的所有人阿利斯泰尔•赖特(Alistair Wright)说,如果家中没安门窗,昆虫或啮齿类动物可不知道所谓的“边界”,所以它们自然会跑到你家里去。他说,你的家已经成为周遭环境的一部分了。EcoPest Samui负责处理闯入住户家中的所有昆虫或啮齿类动物,从毒蛇到蝎子再到白蚁,不一而足。
Homeowners gush about the ability to bring the outdoors in, the airflow through the rooms, and the vast sense of space and uninterrupted views.
令很多房主滔滔不绝称赞的是,这里的房子除了能和室外风情融为一体,各个房间空气畅通,还能享受巨大的空间感和毫无遮挡的视野。
'They like to have a different feeling and experience than what they have in their country, ' says Popo Danes, a Balinese architectural designer who often builds second (and sometimes third and fourth) homes for his clients. 'I'm not expecting a New Yorker to want to live in a multistory apartment in Bali.'
巴厘岛建筑设计师波波•丹斯(Popo Danes)说,“在这里置业的人喜欢不同于其祖国的一种感受和体验。”丹斯常为客户建造二套房(有时甚至是第三套或第四套房)。“我认为一个纽约人在巴厘岛不会想住在多层公寓里。”
Pests and insects can be more than an inconvenience. In Indraneel Datta's case, they were a health threat. Mr. Datta, a political consultant who has been living in Indonesia for the past 15 years, had his first open-air home built in 2002 in a paddy field in Seminyak on the west coast of Bali, where his wife, a fashion designer, and their two children contended with overbearing heat, bugs and poor air flow.
有时,害虫和昆虫带来的不仅仅是不便。在英德拉尼尔•达塔(Indraneel Datta)看来,它们对他的健康构成了威胁。达塔是一名政治顾问,过去15年他一直住在印度尼西亚。他的首套开放式住宅建于2002年,地址选在巴厘岛西海岸水明漾(Seminyak)的一块稻田里。在那里,他的妻子(一位时装设计师)和两个孩子不得不和难以忍受的酷热、臭虫以及糟糕的空气流动性抗争。
The family packed up their bags and left after Mr. Datta, 45 years old, caught dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus endemic to tropical and subtropical climates that causes flulike symptoms and can be deadly.
在45岁的达塔患上登革热之后,这家人收拾行囊离开了这里。登革热是一种经由蚊子传播的疾病,属热带和亚热带地区特有。它会导致患者产生类似流感的症状,有时还可能致命。
Then he found there were other headaches that he hadn't considered.
后来他发现,住在这里还有他此前不曾预料到的其它令人头痛的问题。
For Mr. Datta's next home, which he designed with the help of an architect, more thought was put into the topography of the land, the type of soil, the wind direction 'and, of course, the bugs in [the] area, ' he says. This home, which he calls Casaviva Bali, sits on a hillside in Jimbaran in Bali overlooking the Indian Ocean. He spent about $500, 000 on the land and construction costs.
因此,在建筑师的帮助下设计第二套房的时候,达塔说他考虑更多的是土地的地形、土壤的类型、风向以及所在区域的臭虫问题。达塔将这套房称作Casaviva Bali,房子位于巴厘岛金巴兰(Jimbaran)的山腰上,可以俯瞰印度洋。购置土地和建筑成本花了他大约50万美元。
All was well with the house, which once had a fully exposed living room, dining area and kitchen, until the start of the rainy season. During a bad storm in January 2011, Mr. Datta says, the winds 'were literally blowing off our heavy wooden blinds in the living room.'
在雨季开始前,这栋房子看上去一切都很好。房子的客厅、用餐区和厨房此前完全暴露在室外。达塔说,2011年1月发生了一场糟糕的风暴,大风“将客厅厚重的木质百叶窗吹掉了”。
After that, the couple added retractable glass doors to the space. They left a second living area, with weather-resistant sofas and chairs, open to the outside.
在这之后,夫妻俩给这片原本开放式空间增加了多扇可伸缩的玻璃门,只留下另一块开放式生活区域,而此区域中放有能够抵御各种天气的沙发和椅子。
'We didn't know how violent it would get, ' Mr. Datta said of the storm. 'So we're in learning mode. Ultimately, there's no cookie-cutter approach.'
达塔说,“一开始我们并不知道情况会变得如此恶劣。所以我们也在学习之中。但总之并没有以不变应万变的应对方法。”
This trial-and-error approach is common with homeowners, says German architect Walter Wagner, whose company, Habitat5, has built open-air houses in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
德国建筑师沃尔特•瓦格纳(Walter Wagner)说,这种不断试错的做法在房主中很常见。瓦格纳的事务所Habitat5在印尼、泰国和菲律宾曾建造过多栋开放式房屋。
'You have to understand the weather, where the sun rises and sets; how to protect your building during rains and winds, ' he says. 'It's the responsibility of the architect to get the orientation of the house right to reduce heat load or rains.'
瓦格纳说,“你必须了解天气,日出和日落的位置,在雨天和大风天如何保护自己的房子。确保房子朝向正确以降低热负荷或不受雨水侵袭是建筑师的责任。”
For those who brave it, Mr. Wagner says, adjustments are typically made down the line, whether that means adding roller blinds or sliding glass doors.
瓦格纳说,对于那些勇敢的人而言,他们所做出的调整通常很彻底,无论这是否意味着要添加卷帘百叶窗或滑动玻璃门。
Homeowners also need to carefully select their furniture, with an eye toward pieces that can withstand everything from monsoons to salty sea breezes. Mr. Datta says his stainless-steel stools rusted and his olive couch faded to a 'bird-crap green.'
房主也需要仔细选择他们购买的家具。挑选家具的着眼点在于:家具必须可以承受季风和带有盐分的海风等各种气候条件。达塔说,他买的不锈钢凳子最后生锈了。他的橄榄色沙发则褪色成“像鸟屎一样的绿色”。
Some people take extra precautions: Mr. Datta, who has seen snakes lurking around in the garden, says he keeps antivenin in the refrigerator. 'We've never had to use it, but it's a sensible thing to do.'
有些人会采取额外的预防措施:达塔曾见过潜伏在花园里的蛇,因此他总在冰箱里存放抗蛇毒血清。他说,“我们还没有机会用过血清,但这无疑是明智的做法。”

重点单词   查看全部解释    
violent ['vaiələnt]

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adj. 暴力的,猛烈的,极端的

 
overbearing ['əuvə'bɛəriŋ]

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adj. 傲慢的,骄傲自大的,蛮横的

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integrate ['intigreit]

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v. 整合,使 ... 成整体
adj. 组合

 
remove [ri'mu:v]

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v. 消除,除去,脱掉,搬迁
n. 去除

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ultimately ['ʌltimitli]

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adv. 最后,最终

 
salty ['sɔ:lti]

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adj. 咸的

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approach [ə'prəutʃ]

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n. 接近; 途径,方法
v. 靠近,接近,动

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protect [prə'tekt]

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vt. 保护,投保

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gush [gʌʃ]

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v. 迸出,滔滔不绝地说 n. 涌出

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addition [ə'diʃən]

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n. 增加,附加物,加法

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