HK: Day 1 (01/28/2007)

12.30 PM. We just arrived from Hong Kong and we were planning to attend the Mass at St. John's Cathedral at 2 pm. The 2pm Mass was a sung service with hymns in Filipino. We decided to have our lunch first before we go to St. John's Cathedral. We found this Chinese restaurant along Des Voeux Road. I forgot the name of the restaurant. What I can remember - once we get out of Ramada Hotel, we turned left.

Chinese menu

We chose this restaurant cuz there were lots of locals eating inside the resto. The restaurant looked normal..you know, like the restaurants here in the Philippines. Square tables with 4 chairs. The waiters were kinda old (mostly men). This was something I noticed about Hong Kong. The service crews were usually old - on the way to becoming senior citizens. I think this is a good thing and I wish we could adapt this kind of employment here in the Philippines.

The waiters were very accomodating. We didn't know how to speak Cantonese so we just kept smiling. Basically, we relied on sign language. We thought they knew we were not locals. The waiter handed us the Chinese menu as shown above. We just couldn't understand the menu no matter how hard we tried to remember the Chinese lessons we had back in highschool. So, we asked for an English menu and the waiter smiled and nodded. :) I cannot complain about the servings in this resto - andami talaga!

Pork in corn sauce and pork with veggies

beef noodles

Since we were not fond of tea, we ordered Coke. I thinks it's Coke Sakto's great grandfather.

St. John's Cathedral. After lunch, we crossed the street to ride the tram to Central. The tram at Hong Kong Island is the cheapest mode of transpo. It only costs HK$2 - doesn't matter where you get off. It was Sunday, so there were lots of Filipinos. They were all heading to HSBC building. I think they had a gathering or something. When we were lost we asked for direction, we discovered that the residents of Hong Kong were more helpful than some of the Filipinos we asked help from. Some Filipinos just totally ignored us!

St. John's Cathedral

A person at the tram station told us that we get off once we saw the HSBC Building - the one with lions at front and Bank of China Building. The woman got it right! The tram stopped after we passed the Bank of China Building. Bank of China Building is different from Bank of China Tower. This is the Bank of China Tower, which you will also see before you turn right to St. John's Cathedral.

Bank of China Tower

The Mass hadn't started yet when we arrived. Since it was Candelaria, we went outside with our candles. The Mass started there, then we all went inside.

It was cold outside and we were kinda sleepy in the middle of the mass. My aunt had Bonamine during our flight, so during the sermon, she could hardly open her eyes. LOL!

Inside St. John's Cathedral

Close up of stained glass at the altar in St. John's Cathedral

St. John's Cathedral is an Anglican church and the building was built in the shape of cross. During Communion, we dipped the "bread" into the cup of wine. That's a first for me! :) The people in the Church were mostly Filipino and those helping in the Church were Filipino as well, which was kinda great. It's like attending a mass here in Manila.

St. John's Cathedral
4-8 Garden Road, Central
general@stjohnscathedral.org.hk

Public transport:
- Buses, 12A, 40, 40M stop on Garden Road in front of the Cathedral.
- MTR, Central Station, Exit K which leads you to HK & Shanghai Bank HQ. Cross the HSBC building through the open Ground Floor to Queens Road Central; Cross Queens Road Central at the traffic lights to the Cheung Kong Center; Go up the escalator, then the stairs to the Cathedral.
- Sunday Car parking is available at Cheung Kong Center, Citibank Plaza and in Murray Building.