The Emperor Has Been Received and No Opera Until Friday, Oct 8th

Two very busy days and no time to post. First thing to note is that there are no opera performances until Friday, Oct 8th. Sorry about the misinformation. The temple has substituted Hokkien Puppets at 2pm and 8pm on Tuesday (just finished) and Wednesday. I was there today and the puppets had an audience and they were paying attention and laughing. Charming troupe performing. Try to catch it.

I expect that the festival will be very quiet until Friday. That’s Ninth Month, First Day so it should gear up. The buses will start arriving with the Singaporeans, and there is a procession on Saturday evening at 7pm to receive the Emperor’s Finance Minister. When the word gets out about how beautiful the temple is and how the deities have been given a fresh sparkle, I expect that lots and lots of people will want to see it. Think about how smokey it will be!

In the last couple of days, I have walked kilometers, chasing processions, camera on tripod. I have a room in the dormitory at the temple so I’ve been sitting with my new roommates and listening to their stories, as well as taking some fun photos with them. They are beginning to realize that I am around for awhile and that I probably won’t stop asking questions! I have also met a lot of photographers at the festival. It has been good getting reacquainted with people and also making some new photographer friends- even some who have read the blog!

I was wearing a white scarf yesterday, at my new roommates’ suggestion, and out of respect for the festival. Also, the committee gave me an official T-shirt to help me along the procession route with the RELA guys. So, apologies if I looked liked a crazy expat. Don’t worry – I won’t be doing the trance/piercings at Thaipusam!

Lots of stories to tell and information to share. Keep visiting! More posts to come. And if anyone is reading this, could you please let me know what the red looks like in the photos. I desaturate it but looks bad on my monitor and I can’t tell what everyone else is seeing. Thanks!