Sunday Mass at the Mariner's Club Hong Kong

We've been walking for several blocks and my uncle just kept on walking without saying a word on where we were headed. It was a Sunday, and I knew that we were going somewhere to attend mass. But I couldn't see a church anywhere! In the busiest commercial section of Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, church steeples are rare.

When we arrived at a building somewhere, I thought we were stopping for an errand first. Imagine my surprise when I saw that inside, there were smaller rooms, including a small chapel filled with Filipinos, and a few Chinese and British nationals, preparing for Sunday mass. I was totally blown away to find these devout and prayerful lot in the middle of Hong Kong. It was also weird in a way because the mass was so like the way mass is done in the Philippines.

After the mass, I went outside to peek at the other rooms. There was a British family outside, in a circle, talking. The men were wearing Sunday suits, the women in dresses and the little baby dressed in white with frills and ruffles. It looked like the baby was about to be baptized.

Later, I found out that this was the Mariner's Club, a hub for devout Filipino Roman Catholics on Sunday mornings, and a hub for seafarers at other times. When you're in the area when you travel to Hong Kong, be sure to drop by and observe the mass on Sunday morning. It's just different.

The Mariner's Club is located at 11 Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, HK.