Word on the Street

I wanted to take a diversion from our travel writing to share some of the sayings one hears on the street.  Spend enough time on the road and you'll encounter touts of all sorts offering their services, so at times while their demands can get a bit pushy and slightly annoying, looking back on some of them is comedic and worth sharing.

In Vietnam, the saying is "same same" meaning another product whether food or any similar item is the same thing.  The trick however that's not always the case, such as when you bargain with a street vendor and you pick up some fruit, they offer you a price, you counter with your own price, they take back the original product you picked up and replace it with something smaller or inferior and say "same same".  Also in Vietnam you are again asked to buy things that you have no use for and are given a guilt trip from the street vendor like "you help me" so buy from me.

Also, tuk-tuk, cyclo, xe om, ojek, taxi, motorbike, bemo or any other common mode of transportation will offer you a ride, you deny it and they come back with "maybe tomorrow"?  Another is in Hong Kong and countless other places you are innocently first asked to buy a legitimate product such as books, or a tailored suit or fake watches, you again deny them and they come back with "ok, how about hashish...marijuana"?

In Cambodia:
Hey lady, you want massage?
You buy from me ok.....?

In Singapore:
Locals end every sentence with "lah", such as "do you want some food lah"?
Yes becomes "can" and no is "cannot", without the 't' sound
Also say "have" a lot, such as "do you have bananas"? and the response is "have"

In Turkey:
Instead of saying no and disagreeing, the response is "problem"

We'll try and update with more sayings along the way......