When we first arrived in Thailand we saw lots of tshirts with the words, "Same same" printed on the front and "but different" on the back. We weren't really sure what that was all about but we soon found out. When you ask a question, it is a standard reply which doesn't always really answer what you have asked. Sometimes they don't bother with the "but different" just to make things more interesting, so generally you just have to figure out things for yourself. Today we were heading to a museum and a man at the side of the road told us to go one way, the man next to him told us to go another way, so I asked again which way to go, and was told "same, same, but different! Well that cleared that up. The strangest thing about it was that we hadn't asked directions in the first place.
When we were booking a bus to go to Sihanouk Ville, the man reeled of a load of different companies and their prices. The conversation was like this,
Me - what is the difference between the two,
Man - nothing, same same but different
Me - yes, but what is different
Man, - no difference , same, same but different
I gave up and took the cheaper option which was actually very good and did the job.
When a tuktuk, taxi, or rickshaw shouts to ask you for a fare and you reply "sorry! no" they always say " Maybe tomorrow" and we reply in our Scottish accents, " Mebbes aye, Mebbes naw! " they seem happy with that, but also confused.
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