Well, I can say that I've slept overnight on a train! Thankfully I'm a good sleeper because I managed to sleep for several hours in my upper bed. The challenges were: they don't turn off the lights, the train is rocking a lot, my bed was near the door so the noise & exhaust fumes were not pleasant, and I was very cold during the night (air conditioned train car). They made the beds for us at 10pm and we had to wake up at 4:30. I woke up frequently thinking that I was going to miss our stop.
After we all got off the trip at our stop, we took our bus and arrived at the hotel at 8am. The hotel is really nice- unfortunately we mostly just have time to sleep (about 5 or 6 hours per night) at the hotels but it is definitely nicer that sleeping on a train.
*my observation of our sleeping locations each night so far: 1. On a plane/airport lounge 2. Nice hotel 3. Train 4. Nice hotel. These nice hotels are a short nice alternative to the clean but less desirable places. Lets see what the rest of the nights are like. It is hard to get settled because we cant unpack since we go to a new place each day.
Today we went to a school for migrant children. There are more than 30,000 immigrant children (who are not Thai citizens) and, as I stated in an earlier post, Thailand grants free education and health care to all children no matter where they are from. This school is called Ban buakkrogno community school; it is funded by UNICEF. In addition to teaching the children the Thai language (so they can interact in this country) the school also strives to have the students maintain their roots and the culture of their home community.
* the school began in 2008
* grades: kindergarten through sixth grade
* 16 to 38 kids per grade; 271 total students (119 girls, 152 boys)
* school day: 8am - 3:30 pm with 1 hour break
* problems: not enough teachers - many are volunteers; 1 teacher per 40 students; maintaining the building - it is on the grounds of a temple, the monks live there; distance for students - it is hard for the students to get to the school, most live about an hour form the school
After lunch we were taken to stores where they showed us 3 local crafts: gems (worlds largest jewelry store), lacquer ware (7 layers of black glossy paint then painted) and silk fabric production (silkworms are farmed for cocoons then silk is woven into fabric).
Tonight after dinner we went to a night market (like a busy flea market at night)- a lot of people are active at night- and took a tuktuk (motorcycle with covered seats in back) back to the hotel.
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