Soul Searching in Bangkok

To appease my spiritual side (yes, I have one), I will try going to church regularly on Sunday. I’ve already missed last Sunday when I arrived here, so this last Sunday I’ve decided to go to one. My quest to find for a Catholic church with an English mass began at the hotel. The little book in the room says that I could get the list from the reception. So I went asking at the reception, and they put me in touch with one staff who is a catholic herself, cos they really didnt have the info on hand. I feel that all the staff here was really helpful. Well, this staff went making some calls and in the end got some info for me. She says that the St Louise church beside St Louise Hospital has English mass at 11am. So off I went, to the almost last station on the BTS line.

There... St Louis Hospital... this must be the church.

Cool church. Nice looking. Cool interior. Kinda big too. Ok, I admit it, I arrived 20 mins late. But mass has not yet start, so I waited around. Then about 10 mins later, I noticed that everyone else in the church was THAI! Yeap, no farangs (white people) around. Hmm… strange. So I asked someone there, and then he said there wasn’t any English mass here! So I asked him where else have, but his English was bad and I could not make out what he was saying. So I asked him to write it down….

... here ...

Really helpful. At least I know what time is the mass.

This time, not wanting to be late, I started my journey to this church at 4.30pm, one hour before mass. This was what happened:

1. I showed the note to the ticket person in the BTS line and asked “how to go here?”. At first he said something in Thai. Then realising I dont understand Thai, he gave me a map and pointed to the station I’m supposed to go to. One station away. Easy.
2. Arrived at the station and asked the ticket person (again, by showing the note). He pointed towards the right exit. No, he didn’t know how to explain which way I should turn after exiting.
3. Saw a policeman at one of the junction near the exit. So I thought he’ll be the best person to ask. I showed the note again. He replied something vague… all I heard was “…wait… bicycle…”. I realized he was pointing to the few motorbike taxis waiting at the corner, and he directed one of them to come. So I hopped on it (although I really wanted to walk), and finally, I arrived!

The Holy Redeemer Church!

Asking around the office of this church, finally, I managed to get a list of English mass around Bangkok...

Now, I just need to find the exact location of those churches...