Thailand : Bangkok : Vimanmek

Tomorrow we go to Khao Yai for some RAINFOREST!
Liv has 20 T-shirts. She wonders why her bag is heavy.
Apparently it's all the "other stuff".
Today we went to Vimanmek, an enormous and gorgeous teak mansion in the middle of Bangkok. We noticed the gorgeous building, but the Thais were obsessed with Rama V, the king who built it, and with English stuff, all the furniture was English save the Waterford crystal chamber pot.
The Thais are very protective of their monarchy. At one point, a guy told us in awed tones "We worship King and Queen like Buddha!" Every morning and evening in all public places, on TV and on radio, the Thai national anthem is played and everyone in the street drops what they're doing and stands to attention. The national anthem is also played before concerts, dances, plays, boxing matches and even films.
Any form of dissent is looked upon very badly - apparently one well thought of Thai intellectual once made a sarcastic comment about the king's passion for yachting and was quickly arrested!
The Thais all speak in very flat tones, especially when speaking English. The guide in front of us was grating away in Thai while our softly spoken guide tried to compete.
We saw some beautiful traditional dancing. The men carry drums whilst dancing, except for Hanuman who was hilarious and lots of fun. The costumes are very bright and coordinated.
We just guzzled a pack of Pringles in the air conditioned lovelyness of the 7-11 and suddenly perked up. I think I need to eat more salt and drink more water.
Or sweat less (yummy!)...