Same Same but Different
Twenty five years ago I found myself in Thailand. And when I say ‘found myself’ I don’t mean ‘discovered a deep well of inner meaning’. Rather I ended up there having secured a knockdown plane ticket from Manchester Airport. Anyway, one of the many things that struck me as I wandered dazed round the streets of Bangkok was the use of a phrase I’d never head before: ‘Same same but different’. Employed in all kinds of contexts it meant that this foodstuff, Buddhist temple, hotel room or tie-died T shirt was exactly like another, except insofar as it wasn’t.