The Queen of heaven.

Sai Kung has got a new Opera house. And they build it in only a few days. "Wauw", some might say; "they are surely efficient those Chinese, building a new opera building in a few days". And yes they are. But the building is not going to stay, it is build out of bamboo like the scaffolding on the construction sites, and is only here for 5 days, then it will be torn down and moved to another place.It is kind of amazing to me how efficient they are and what they can do with bamboo. They build this theater, hosting approximately 500 people, in the very center of Sai Kung, using a corner of the public basket court, blocking one road and a part of a car park in front of the Temple. The back side of the of the building on the basket court.
All around this new opera, a huge number of small stall's rose like fungus out of the wet ground and people trying to sell all kind of snacks, drinks and other thing to the visitors, it is like a little festival. The reason for this event is the Queen of heaven. The wet season has started for sure so the people need to send prayers and gifts to the Queen of heaven, and in that way try to make an influent of the amount of water coming down. If it is too much, everything will wash away, if it is too little nothing will grow to make a good harvest. So they have these plays for trying to get in a good position to the gods.Along with the building, a huge number of artists, actors, technicians and stage workers also showed up, and during the day the inhabitants and other curious people like me, can go and have a look on the preparations behind and on the stage. So was i, as i tried to take a photo of an actor doing his make up in front of the stage, kindli told to go behind the stage to have a look and take my pictures. At first I got a bit scared as he started to wave his arm n front of me, as wanted he to show some sympathy with a German movement from the 30ies. But he was just being kind, telling me to go backstage.And there I was, surrounded by busy actors, tailor's and technicians orking to get the show up and running. The entrance is free and I enjoyed the open and friendly way they let everybody have a look on all the aspects of the Theater. For an European it is kind of odd being allowed to just walk behind the scenes and stick your curious nose into the makeup box of some actor, without being dragged away by some aggressive security guy and a furious screaming primadonna.On the night I went to have a look, I didn't understand a thing but it must have been quite funny as the audience often burst into a big laugh. On Monday the hole thing will be dismantled and we get the corner of the basket court, the road and the car park back and hopefully we will not get to much rain neither to much sun, because all the effort then would have been for the cat.

If you wanna know how Catriona looks like a jellyfish with green hair and I as a drowned pirate, then you have to log on again tomorrow -maybe- or Monday, as tonight we're invited to an; "under the sea" pub crawl in Lan Kwai Fong.