Canada the brave

After 5 or so months on the road, there are certain patterns I can discern in the nationality of visitors to a country. Cambodia and Vietnam receive lots of Francophiles hoping (largely in vain) to meet some natives that speak their language. Thailand gets lots of German & English [sex-]tourists and Australia is positively chokkers with Pommeys. But one group of people which I have consistently met all over the place are the Canadians. Pratically unknown in Europe, I have been impressed with their general knowlege, sense of humour and "not-being-like-americans". Speaking of which I think I have met less than 20 Americans on my travels, whereas I have met at least 100 Canadians. Strange, considering that America is generally wealthier and has 290 million inhabitants whereas Canada has a measly 32 million inhabitants. There is a theory out there that most American travellers are claiming they are Canadian. I can actually back this up - I met a group of people on Koh Phan Gan, asked them where they were from and they all replied "Caaanada". 7 beers and a whiskey or two later, one of the "Canadians" pipes up "Yeah maaan, you know back home in Chicag... I mean Toronto". Hand, Red, Anyone?
You will also see an insane amount of Maple leaf flags adorning backpacks of all shapes and sizes. This is because the Canadians don't want to be mistaken for Americans and the Americans want to be taken for Canadians.
Cunning.