inconsistent news from southeast asia

So two weeks into the trip (has it been two weeks?) we've only done the massage thing once. It was a whole hour, full body massage for 150B (a little less than 5$) and it was truly heaven!! I don't know why I haven't gone more, other than the total overload of choice with respect to price and venue. Sometime too much choice is a bad thing.
When we were in Lampang, we took a highway hike to the outskirts of town to the Herb Conservatory where I also indulged in a facial (at 150B). This consisted of a facial scrub with something that smelled kinda like mustard, followed by yogurt, followed by a mud mask, followed by a cucumber mask, followed by a cup of tea. I'm not sure about the lasting effects of the whole procedure because as soon as I stepped out in the sun, I must have lost a litre of water through my face

It doesn't seem fair that I travel half way around the world to immerse myself in a totally new culture and what is it that I hear pouring from speakers everywhere??? Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion and Shania Twain!!!!!! Has the whole world gone tone deaf or something? At least in Canada we can blame the laws that tell us that we have to play that stuff, but Thailand seems to do it out of free will??? If they're trying to appeal to us tourists, I think I had better set them straight!

Last night we went to a bar that had a three piece Thai band that not only played reasonable music, but they also took requests! So what if they didn't play EITHER of the songs we asked for (Helpless and Gimme Shelter)?? It was neat to hear Pink Floyd sung in a Thai accent

So after spending the summer in B.C. preparing myself for the cold cold showers that I would be having here in Thailand, it turned out I had nothing to fear. There is nothing nicer than jumping in a cold shower after having spent many hours in the blistering hot climate. I think I've only taken one warm shower here, and that was because the water had been sitting in the pipes and had heated up. But let's see how long I can keep my "cold shower regime" up when I get back to Canada!! Brrrrrrrrrr

A fun game that Mat and I have taken to playing while watching the world go by is "Name That Nationality." And it's quite amazing how accurate we can be, assuming your accents gives away where you come from. I think the Scottish are the easiest to identify, followed by... British and German. But this of course made me think - What identifies a Canadian (other than the flag on our backpacks!) We have been identified on several occasions as Canadian ("from Vancouver?") because of: "Your face", "You just seemed like you were from there", "You acted like it".
If anyone has any thoughts on the subject, I would love to read them!