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Pinball posted:Hey, Sheep-Goats! I'm living in Lub d Silom for the next two weeks, and today I went to Tukta's food stall across from Wat Kaek. Holy balls that stuff was good. Thanks for the tip! When I was there in 2008 the restaurant across the road sold what was then, to me, the most delicious thing I'd ever eaten but simultaneously the most agonising: an epic tom yum goong. I'm trying Lub D Siam Square this time. I plan to hit the 6th floor of MBK pretty hard. Ringo R posted:Earlier today I went to Ministry of Foreign Affairs to once again try to get my passport "verified" because all foreigners come to Thailand with fake passports and cause trouble. I failed last time because I didn't have a stamp on the copy of my passport from my embassy. Today I failed because the stamp from the embassy wasn't translated. Luckily that could be fixed there but oh man.... Sounds like an enormous pain in the arse. Is the above something I need to worry about with a student visa? The consulate guys didn't really say much more than "That will be $225, please" and "Here's your passport, have a good time!" so I don't really know what I need to do except leave the country every 90 days. Finch! fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 13:29
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What's the ATM situation like in Saigon? Any particular insights. From what people have told me in general I expect there to be an entire multifaceted subculture of people trying to steal pin codes and such.
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Jul 30, 2012 14:04
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Ringo R posted:Earlier today I went to Ministry of Foreign Affairs to once again try to get my passport "verified" because all foreigners come to Thailand with fake passports and cause trouble. I failed last time because I didn't have a stamp on the copy of my passport from my embassy. Today I failed because the stamp from the embassy wasn't translated. Luckily that could be fixed there but oh man....
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Jul 30, 2012 14:10
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Toussaint Louverture posted:What's the ATM situation like in Saigon? Any particular insights. From what people have told me in general I expect there to be an entire multifaceted subculture of people trying to steal pin codes and such. Don't use ATMs that sit right in the street at night. When use one of those booth ATM, watch your back to make sure someone isn't blocking the door. In general, I'd say just don't use ATMs when it's dark and nobody is around. Use the official ATMs in front of banks (there are many) if possible. It's not that bad though, nothing wrong happened to me in over a year.
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Jul 31, 2012 03:32
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Finch! posted:Sounds like an enormous pain in the arse. Is the above something I need to worry about with a student visa? The consulate guys didn't really say much more than "That will be $225, please" and "Here's your passport, have a good time!" so I don't really know what I need to do except leave the country every 90 days. Do you really have to leave the country? I'm pretty sure you just need to report to immigration every 90 days or something?
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Jul 31, 2012 03:48
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Yeah, in fact I think on the Ed Visa (I may be completely wrong on this as I've never had one) it's not like the Non-Imm B or the extension via work permit where you leave every 90 days to reset it, I think what you'll be getting is an extension of stay specific to an Ed Visa, which you have to get by reporting every 90 days. Again, I may be completely wrong about that, but for some reason I remember thinking that if you leave the country on an Ed Visa you'll simply lose your extension of stay. Double check that, though, and report back!
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Jul 31, 2012 04:07
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I'm actually a little paranoid about this one. My Vietnamese friend pretty much does nothing but talk about how crooked and profiteering everyone in Saigon is (but he's an overwhelmingly negative person generally sooo). I've been to developing world countries before but I just have this feeling Caucasus DWC do things like this and Southeast Asian DWC do things like this. It's good to be nervous though, Korea is far too safe and bland.
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Jul 31, 2012 04:14
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Oh no, it's going to re-ignite the Vietnam debate, heh. PAGING EVILJELLY. EVILJELLY TO THE CONTROL ROOM.
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Jul 31, 2012 04:29
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Ringo R posted:Do you really have to leave the country? I'm pretty sure you just need to report to immigration every 90 days or something? ReindeerF posted:Yeah, in fact I think on the Ed Visa (I may be completely wrong on this as I've never had one) it's not like the Non-Imm B or the extension via work permit where you leave every 90 days to reset it, I think what you'll be getting is an extension of stay specific to an Ed Visa, which you have to get by reporting every 90 days. Again, I may be completely wrong about that, but for some reason I remember thinking that if you leave the country on an Ed Visa you'll simply lose your extension of stay. Double check that, though, and report back! When I applied for the visa the consul general told me that the maximum period of time I am allowed to stay in Thailand was 90 days, then I need to leave the country and come back. She didn't say anything about reporting to immigration or extending the visa, and nothing was mentioned when I picked the visa up, either. However, the information I'm finding on various websites isn't making things much more clear. The visa I have is valid for one year, with multiple entries. From Thaivisa (I still laugh at the forums): quote:Updated by Sunbelt legal advisors February 9, 2011 So according to that, I'll need to visit an immigration office every 90 days, rather than simply leave the country every 90 days like the consul general says. I also need to extend the visa to the full year within the first 90 days. At least, that's the way I'm interpreting the above. Guess I'll find out for sure when I get there. Apparently the immigration office on Samui only caters for tourist visas, so it looks as though I'll have the fun and games associated with visiting the new office in Bangkok... Edit: Maybe I can do it on Samui. Hm. Edit deux: Just posted on Thaivisa. This could be fun. Finch! fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 05:06
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Dear Thai goons: Do any of you know if there is a name for green, unripe or whatever mango that's kind of cut into strips (but still the whole fruit is attached together- you can tear off strips each approx. the size of a cheese strip) and comes in a plastic bag with this mix of chili and sugar/salt? It's amazing. My Thai friends don't know what it's called and it's driving me mad. I'm resorting to asking smelly farang now =/ edit: I meant green/unripe mango not papaya. oops. rhazes fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 05:35
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Turns out my bank in a podunk town in Korea has VND. There are currently two million and one Dongs in my jeans. I love Vietnamese currency, with the USD had gone with this material.
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Jul 31, 2012 07:00
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ReindeerF posted:Oh no, it's going to re-ignite the Vietnam debate, heh. PAGING EVILJELLY. EVILJELLY TO THE CONTROL ROOM. Nah, if he wants an unsafe, lovely country, then Vietnam is a good choice. Finch! posted:Edit: Also, eviljelly, what's the best company for 3G on Koh Tao these days? I'm going to put my Australian SIM in my Thai phone and put a Thai SIM in my iPhone... No idea, mate. I use a brick phone. I suggest you come to the island and ask around at the shop before you buy. Or, you could just buy a non-data SIM for the first little while before you get to Koh Tao - should cost you something like 150 baht.
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Jul 31, 2012 13:30
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rhazes posted:Dear Thai goons: Do any of you know if there is a name for green, unripe or whatever mango that's kind of cut into strips (but still the whole fruit is attached together- you can tear off strips each approx. the size of a cheese strip) and comes in a plastic bag with this mix of chili and sugar/salt? It's amazing. My Thai friends don't know what it's called and it's driving me mad. I'm resorting to asking smelly farang now =/ My exhaustive research into this tells me that you just call it "mango" (mamuang) and the dipping salt stuff is just called "sauce" (nam prik, even though there is no nam). Thai is not like English. The desire to have a different word for every different thing is an obsession of our language and is not universal (my piddly linguistic knowledge is suggesting that this tendency comes from our language's roughly Germanic origins). When pressed about a more specific term for that food, Thai people will just say "the green mango." As opposed to a ripe mango, which most Thai people don't like to eat anyway, which they just call "a yellow mango." Also there is no word for feather in Thai. They just call it "bird hair." "Look at that plumage" becomes "Stare fur! Cute!" and, of course, there is no word for beak as that is apparently adequately covered by saying "bird mouth." Edit: in NYC when speaking English Thai people call the mango in question a "Thai style mango" or just "Thai mango" if they haven't learned the eminently useful "Thai style X" construction yet. They eat mangos this same way elsewhere, though, such as in Mexico. raton fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 15:11
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I am soooooo pumped about this trip.
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Jul 31, 2012 15:55
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So, I had some help from the Thaivisa forums. No doubt I shouldn't believe everything I read there, but none of the help contained "me missus" so perhaps it's not bunk, after all. The visa I have is multiple entry, which seems to mean that rather than reporting to an immigration office I just need to leave the country every 90 days to reset it. That works well, because I need to return to Australia roughly every 90 days for weddings and work anyway. If I had a single or double entry ED visa, then I would need to visit an immigration office to have that extended so I could remain in the country longer than 90 days. At least, that's my new understanding. I'll ask the school when I get there. eviljelly posted:No idea, mate. I use a brick phone. I suggest you come to the island and ask around at the shop before you buy. Or, you could just buy a non-data SIM for the first little while before you get to Koh Tao - should cost you something like 150 baht. Nuts. I guess I can wait for Koh Tao to get one!
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Aug 1, 2012 06:33
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Ah okay, you got it in your home country and got one of the golden one year multiples, eh? Yeah, that's good then. That's the piece of information I should've asked for. Basically, in your home country it's possible to get a one year multiple entry education visa just like it's easy to get a multiple entry tourist visa. Outside of your home country - and particularly in Asia - it's very difficult to get anything other than a single entry (asterisk here, as a Westerner, you're more likely to get one in a Western country). So, yeah, sounds like you're good. The whole thing about visas, entry dates, durations of stay and so on is a bit weird, but once you understand what each thing is it sort of makes sense.
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Aug 1, 2012 06:39
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Got through Ho Chi Minh's airport and had a cab waiting no hassle. In my airconditioned cheap one room hostel complete with shower now. If this was so effortless when should I expect the other boot to fall?
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Aug 1, 2012 06:55
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Toussaint Louverture posted:Got through Ho Chi Minh's airport and had a cab waiting no hassle. In my airconditioned cheap one room hostel complete with shower now. If this was so effortless when should I expect the other boot to fall? Those of us who do complain about Vietnam (to varying degrees, it should be noted) do so in comparison to the experience we have in places like Thailand, Cambodia & Laos (and others). Vietnam's hardly a massive challenge and I'm sure you'll have a great trip. Now, walk around outside for a while and then come back and post ^__^
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Aug 1, 2012 06:58
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ReindeerF posted:I got the skinny on the fish face photos. It's called "ab baew" in Thai, which is a mashup of "ab" from abnormal (the English word) and "baew" which is something like appearing to be cute. Anyway, if you search ab baew in Thai you get like 1.5 trillion results all of whom are Thai chicks, but for some reason the first result is a hairy farang dude. I understand so much more about Thai facebook culture now.
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Aug 1, 2012 07:54
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rhazes posted:I understand so much more about Thai facebook culture now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MOXSVdklo8
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Aug 1, 2012 09:11
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ReindeerF posted:The magic of Jaidee TV: ThaiVisa poster in the video response! 
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Aug 1, 2012 09:48
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/\/\/\ You sure it's a "missus"? Hahah, how did I miss that? Oh man, holy poo poo that's awesome. Let us now re-live the magic of faranginisaan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhz5Xp_n88Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4_rG4DvWUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAAMHTCEKAI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPnS-ICyuBY More here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Faranginissan/videos The credit one is legitimately funny. Lots of ThaiVisa posters should probably watch this guy's videos for instructional purposes. It's so sad that he quit making them, heh. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 09:59
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Toussaint Louverture posted:Got through Ho Chi Minh's airport and had a cab waiting no hassle. In my airconditioned cheap one room hostel complete with shower now. If this was so effortless when should I expect the other boot to fall? Great! I assume you're in district one? If you want to get drunk, my wife and I should be free on Saturday. Maybe tonight but we'll be outside, don't know if you have a phone working here.
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Aug 1, 2012 10:16
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Alright, I gotta ask.. are there any current or former posters ITT that ended up like a ThaiVisa poster, with the whole bargirl girlfriend (or even better, wife)? Oh and the Thai term for ab (aep) baew is แอ๊บแบ๊ว rhazes fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 10:37
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The closest experience to farang "love" I encountered was a Thai-Chinese lady from Canada (her english was completely native) who was marrying my teacher's girlfriend's friend's brother. And since it was a shotgun wedding one week after meeting, her family in Ontario, Canada couldn't make it. She was really really friendly and excited to meet a fellow Canadian, and it was surreal, I thought she was on drugs or in a trance to basically elope. Why was I there? They had too much food, so of course we were invited to eat the food and drink the beer. And so I concluded that Thai weddings are awesome.
rhazes fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 10:51
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rhazes posted:Alright, I gotta ask.. are there any current or former posters ITT that ended up like a ThaiVisa poster, with the whole bargirl girlfriend (or even better, wife)? Everyone else is just passin' through, yo.
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Aug 1, 2012 11:10
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ReindeerF posted:Not that I'm aware of, but you never know! There are only a few of us who actually live here, though, so the odds aren't very high. Most people posting here either visit regularly or are visiting for the first time and have questions. I think Ringo, Modus, myself and occasionally spog (though it's been a while) live in-country. I guess we have to add eviljelly to that now that he's a full time SCUBA bum (FACT) in Koh Tao. THESE ARE FACTS. Also, BigSuave sort of lives here I guess, but lives may not be exactly the right word! I want to come back  . I was on the bus today in China and a mom ran her kid over near my seat, lifted up the kid's skirt, and she started making GBS threads and pissing everywhere on the bus. I had to walk through it in flipflops to get off the goddamn bus fuuuuck.
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Aug 1, 2012 11:50
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What the gently caress. Is that common in china?
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Aug 1, 2012 11:53
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Invisible Handjob posted:I want to come back I'm all for cultural understanding but seriously, this is literally what untrained animals do. What the gently caress is going on in China? Everyone I met there was so much nicer and friendlier and more worldly than Korea, but I never saw this world of people making GBS threads on tables in a KFC. I have a kitten in my house more civilized than this.
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Aug 1, 2012 11:53
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Hey guys did you know it rains a lot in Southeast Asia?  I'm going to need a better umbrella.Holy poo poo now I know why My Viet friend always bitched about the less than generous beef in pho outside Vietnam. I'm pretty sure the bulk of two or three cows was in my bowl. I am not exaggerating when I say that there was about a pound of beef in this 3$ bowl. Is that why it was like double normal asking price or is that every bowl here?
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Aug 1, 2012 12:05
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Rapsey posted:What the gently caress. Is that common in china? Yeah it's pretty common, hit up the China thread a few pages back we were all sharing our poop/pee in inappropriate places stories. This was a new story though, in that thread I shared the tale of like 2 and a half weeks ago when some kid shat all over the floor at the fake Mcdonalds and then started peeing on it pushing it all around, and his mom put a hamburger wrapper on top of it to cover it up then went on like nothing happened. Note, you may only tell stories of poo poo / piss indoors, as that is still somewhat shocking (though I see it a lot anyways). poo poo / piss outdoors is extremely common and you will impress noone with those tales. Grand Fromage posted:I'm all for cultural understanding but seriously, this is literally what untrained animals do. What the gently caress is going on in China? Everyone I met there was so much nicer and friendlier and more worldly than Korea, but I never saw this world of people making GBS threads on tables in a KFC. I have a kitten in my house more civilized than this. I would still prefer to live here than Korea to be honest, even with all the poop.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:06
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One of you needs to try it and see if whitey can get away with it.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:07
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Toussaint Louverture posted:One of you needs to try it and see if whitey can get away with it. I piss outside in public on people's houses all the time, then spit on the floor after hacking up a loogey. People just give me a wink and a knowing smile. I haven't tried it with poo poo yet though that may be crossing the line.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:08
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Rapsey posted:What the gently caress. Is that common in china? Not common, but if you're in China long enough (a few weeks) it'll happen to you. Toussaint Louverture posted:One of you needs to try it and see if whitey can get away with it. You certainly could. So long as you could pull that off with a hundred and fifty pairs of eyes staring at you. Nobody really stops anybody from doing anything in China, especially foreigners. That's how you get to the bus-making GBS threads point to begin with. raton fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 12:11
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Pro-PRC was once awarded the Hero's Medal for making GBS threads on a table in front of Wen Jiabao.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:12
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Saigon jaywalking isn't as terrifying as people make out. Pretty much same logic as anywhere else.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:20
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Invisible Handjob posted:I want to come back Lolol thanks for that, I was about to jump from my balcony (number one cause of death among expats in Thailand) but now I'm heading over to the China thread instead. Edit: Ok, can you please just link me 'cause I got tired of reading through page after page of bitching about the country 
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Aug 1, 2012 12:25
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Ringo R posted:Lolol thanks for that, I was about to jump from my balcony (number one cause of death among expats in Thailand) but now I'm heading over to the China thread instead. It can always be worse, people in the China thread head on over to the Korea thread during our moments of despair. I'm not sure where those guys go though.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:34
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Invisible Handjob posted:It can always be worse, people in the China thread head on over to the Korea thread during our moments of despair. I'm not sure where those guys go though. The convenience store for soju 
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Aug 1, 2012 12:35
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Invisible Handjob posted:It can always be worse, people in the China thread head on over to the Korea thread during our moments of despair. I'm not sure where those guys go though.  e: gently caress, beaten but mine's better. korea.jpg
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Aug 1, 2012 12:36
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