We left Nakhon Sawan for Sukhothai this morning. After driving for about 1 1/2 hours we arrived at Naresuan University, a government sponsored school in Phitsanulok. The university has 16 faculties and about 20,000 full-time students. We met with a professor in the education department who is trying to bring community based education to Thailand. According to the internet, community-based learning refers to a wide variety of instructional methods and programs that educators use to connect what is being taught in schools to their surrounding communities, including local institutions, history, literature, cultural heritage, and natural environments. She gave us a brief lecture on her research and answered our questions.
The building where our lecture was held was surrounded by beautiful rice paddies. Inside it was teak with many lovely pieces of oriental pottery.
It was lunchtime so we went to the students’ canteen for lunch. Lin broke us into three groups and each group was assigned a student to help us manage the process. There were a lot of little restaurant stalls with all types of food. It was a little overwhelming. Rick and I got chicken curry. During lunch we were able to ask the students questions about college life.
After lunch our three student helpers said good-bye.
Back on the bus we drove to our hotel in Sukhothai. Sukhothai was the capital of Thailand from 1238 until 1438. It was selected because it floods every year and the rulers thought the flooding would protect the Thai people from invaders, specifically the Burmese. It worked, the Burmese’s didn’t invade while Sukhothai was the capital. The city contains the ruins of temples built when the city was the capital. The temples started out as Hindu temples but were later converted to Buddhist temples. Some of the people in our group rode from temple to temple on bicycles, the rest of us rode in a small trolley. We were there as the sun was setting and the light on the buildings was spectacular.
Interestingly we met a Swiss family there that had driven from Switzerland through Pakistan and Iran to Thailand. Quite an adventure requiring all sorts of security folks while traveling on the road.
We are staying in a lovely hotel with lots of ponds and beautiful greenery.
