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I used to look for the 'secret' places 'off the beaten track' but quickly realized that this meant 1) there are very few people to actually hang out with, since there are almost no tourists and the locals speak no English (this happened a lot on my bicycle tour from Thailand to Cambodia to Vietnam to Laos to Thailand - it was fun the first few times but it gets a bit boring), 2) things are more expensive for me, because there's less competition and the locals know they can charge me tourist prices - the exception is food, 3) the amenities are typically terrible, while I still pay a lot. As for somewhere to snorkel, Koh Tao is indeed great, but November is the one month out of the whole year when the diving and snorkeling is typically, although not always (last year it was great, for instance), really terrible - low vis, lots of storms, etc.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:13
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Oracle posted:There is actually a thickener (alginate) made from seaweed used in milkshakes and cheaper ice cream, this may be where the confusion stems.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:18
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MrNemo posted:I'm currently in Kuala Lumpur teaching English, assuming the locust thing refers to food I'd be happy to show a goon around but I don't know if there's anyone else about here. Bangkok seems to be the happening hub. There's a Singapore lurker goon in KL right now. He misses being in Beijing  If you can hook him up with a lady friend that would be super awesome. Not the RingoR kind If you have wechat you can give him a holler, or if you want to hang out then I can pass along the message.**** I remote wiped my phone  But nobody really uses a phone number. Line/WeChat/Kakao is where it's at. To hell with Whatsapp.
caberham fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 17:20
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If you find caberham's phone there should be plenty of numbers on it, that's all I'm saying!
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Nov 5, 2013 17:42
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eviljelly posted:As for somewhere to snorkel, Koh Tao is indeed great, but November is the one month out of the whole year when the diving and snorkeling is typically, although not always (last year it was great, for instance), really terrible - low vis, lots of storms, etc. There are all sorts of low season deals here right now, but not sure if I'd recommend it for snorkeling now with the storms. They don't last all day but I'd be unhappy if the day I picked to snorkel was a stormy day  while with diving, you don't really notice it until you surface or on the boat ride to the sites. It was POURING when I did my pool session and my instructor and I just stayed underwater the whole time because it was warmer down there, writing on a slate  And I start my deep/nitrox/wreck diving class tomorrow. I really need to get off the island before I bankrupt myself but it's just so much fun.
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Nov 5, 2013 18:10
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I don't wanna be 'that guy' who tells you to stop spending money, but you can have a lot more fun by just doing fun dives and going to places with good diving, like pretty much everywhere in the Philippines or parts of Malaysia. EDIT: At the very least get off the island before you start tech diving 
eviljelly fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 18:18
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I don't really have enough time to head to Malaysia or Philippines on this trip before I need to go home. Heck, I've barely seen Cambodia. I want to return when I have the money and time again though. And I definitely don't have enough to get to the min number of dives required for intro to tech + the course
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Nov 5, 2013 21:54
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Hi guys. My lady and I are traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam this week, and I was wondering what kind of options (if any) there are for data plans out there. My phone is unlocked, so I'd just need a prepaid sim card from someone. Are there any local providers you can recommend? Maybe a business who specializes in tourists… If not I suppose I'll have to pay the $25 or so for the measly 250mb that Verizon offers for international data. Thanks for the help.
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Nov 5, 2013 23:04
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For Vietnam, buy a Mobifone SIM (about $5) and then buy another 100,000 dong recharge (another $5) then text "DK MIU" to 999, it will remove 75,000 dong from your credits. Then you'll have 500MB of 3G data good for a month.
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Nov 5, 2013 23:42
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Go with that Vietnam one, it's super easy to pick up the SIM at the airport and they generally speak enough English there to make it simple. Also note on e-visas for Cambodia. The website is actually incredibly impressive for any country but especially SEA in terms of ease of use and effectiveness. As long as you have access to a printer it's totally painless and just takes a day or two for approval (it also means you can avoid the pain of trying to find a place to do visa photos to the right size/background/etc. A selfie on your cameraphone with a neutral background in jpg is enough). On the other hand it's like $5 more than just getting it at the airport but the convenience is pretty cool. Kind of wish some other countries spent that sort of time on making entry easy. Also I really need to get a new WeChat account since I stopped using a Chinese number and had to replace my phone and now cannot remember the password.
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Nov 6, 2013 02:00
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If you going to stick around just Phnom Penh and Siam Reap Mobitel was the best for data, Metfone is the best for getting coverage in the middle of no where. I just had Metfone and paid $5 for some data that lasted me a month. Every corner a shop will be selling sim cards, mobile phones and credit. You can't not find a sim card in Cambodia
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Nov 6, 2013 02:22
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ReindeerF posted:Finch and eviljelly are sometimes on Koh Tao romancing Swedish tourists I left on Sunday, and now I'm back in Sunny Adelaide  Actually, it's a good thing. There's more important junk for me to do here than there is for me to do there at the moment, and it's not possible to do the here junk properly by doing it remotely. I have no idea when I'll be back. This was the first time I've left Koh Tao without being even a little upset by doing so. I've changed. I did go via Bangkok, but arrived late on Sunday and caught up with some Koh Tao people on Monday night before doing a stupid Bangkok -> Singapore -> Kuala Lumpur -> Adelaide thing starting yesterday and ending today. Tomato Soup posted:And I start my deep/nitrox/wreck diving class tomorrow. I really need to get off the island before I bankrupt myself but it's just so much fun. Did you do AOW with Dave? I told him to say "hi!" for me. Kick his rear end if he didn't Sorry I couldn't catch up - most of my last week and a bit there was spent either packing my poo poo and sending it home or in some kind of debaucherous drunk state. Finch! fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 02:48
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The Vietnam VoA wasn't too bad either. Only works if you enter via air though. But it was super easy, I just found the cheapest site offering letter of invitations (google "vietnam visa" and you'll find 500000 sites offering LoIs) and got mine within a day or two. Printed it out, took the stamping fee in USD ($45ish I think, varies based on which visa you get) with me to the airport. When I arrived, I just headed to the visa counter and filled out a form after dropping off the letter and fee. I was supposed to bring a photo too but I forgot  So they took one for me in the airport at no extra charge which was pretty nice. I wasn't the only one who forgot a photo either Had to do a short wait in the airport which wasn't too bad, maybe 15-20 minutes or so.Finch! posted:Did you do AOW with Dave? I told him to say "hi!" for me. Kick his rear end if he didn't I did! And he didn't I'll kick his rear end today if I see him around. Did he tell you why I had to switch from Jules to him? If not, ask him.Do you go by Finch in real life too so I don't have to awkwardly go "well I know some dude who worked here that goes by Finch online on a forum that we're both on I don't know his name and he told you to say hi to me but you didn't and now I have to kick your rear end  " If not, PM me or post it here if you don't care.
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Nov 6, 2013 03:02
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I guess I'm not so special after all, but this explains it: Nationals of the US, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Italy now get 30 days entry at all Thai land borders.
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Nov 6, 2013 03:23
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When did that change? I entered by land in July and got 15 days. Edit: I'm a 
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Nov 6, 2013 03:34
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Tomato Soup posted:I did! And he didn't Aaah he tends to forget, he did have a beer in his hand! I do - I'm known as Finch at Big Blue and on most of Koh Tao. I only sign up to boats with my real name, which also confuses people because there are so many of us. He did mention Jules' accident. Whoops!
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Nov 6, 2013 03:43
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MothraAttack posted:I guess I'm not so special after all, but this explains it: Nationals of the US, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Italy now get 30 days entry at all Thai land borders. Hong Kong had this privilege 10 years ago  But our currency sucks
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Nov 6, 2013 04:08
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I'm really tempted to just spend the two weeks in Saigon foodcrawling.
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Nov 6, 2013 04:23
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Eifert Posting posted:I'm really tempted to just spend the two weeks in Saigon foodcrawling. Do it! So much awesome goodness. And the locals say that northern and central specialties are actually better in Saigon because the best chefs go there to work. Two weeks is the perfect length of time for that.
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Nov 6, 2013 05:04
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Thailand/Bangkok goons: if I buy an iPhone 5s from a random vendor at MBK, the chances of it being a fake are pretty much zero, right? I don't want to have to wait to get it through an official carrier.
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Nov 6, 2013 06:58
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Can you even buy one in Thailand? I think they are inflated 20% or more right? But yeah, MBK shopping is fine. Iphones are hard to mimic, it's really easy to spot a fake one too. But I got burned buying some fake canon photo batteries. I should have known better when the official price in Thailand is expensive. Even the 3rd parties were bad. Go with RingoR or some other gear goon Thailand sucks for electronic shopping. Like SEA, imports are weird. But great food and beaches!
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Nov 6, 2013 07:10
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caberham posted:Hong Kong
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Nov 6, 2013 07:11
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Finch, Dave forgot about it caberham posted:Can you even buy one in Thailand? I think they are inflated 20% or more right? But yeah, MBK shopping is fine. Iphones are hard to mimic, it's really easy to spot a fake one too. But I got burned buying some fake canon photo batteries. I should have known better when the official price in Thailand is expensive. Even the 3rd parties were bad. Go with RingoR or some other gear goon Now I'm glad I just ordered my replacement canon batteries from the states and had mom send me them in a care package. Two high capacity batteries with positive reviews on Amazon was cheaper than a single battery at MBK.
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Nov 6, 2013 07:36
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ReindeerF posted:We had it, then they revoked it for a bunch of countries with long-term tourist retirees who were using the land borders to get perpetual 30 day stamps (you know, instead of denying them further stamps like a normal country) and made land borders specifically 15 days. I'm surprised to hear if it's back. Interesting. Yup, as of November 1. It's days like this I'm glad other people read ThaiVisa so I don't have to. edit: And seriously, gently caress Teak Door. One time I was googling something about my town and I found a single, desperate Teak Door thread about it with advice on how to get that sweet, sweet Burmese migrant poon and hide it from your wife while on a visa run. What the Christ, man. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 07:39
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caberham posted:Thailand sucks for electronic shopping. Like SEA, imports are weird. But great food and beaches! That reminds me of a story. A good friend of mine, while I was in Saigon, got his iphone 4 stolen at the infamous GO2 Bar (most of my friends got their phones stolen there at least once, sometimes twice - not me ). Being drunk and high, he punched a taxi side mirror, eventually went home and realized he now needed a new phone. In his drunken stupor, he went to the HCMC airport and bought a ticket for the next flight to Tokyo, via Hong Kong. Once in HK, he realized that he did not have a visa for Japan so he went out of the airport and bought a new iphone. Turns out he was at the HK airport at the same time Snowden was there (medias were flocking everywhere trying to locate him) though he did not see him. He came back the next day at work with a new phone that he bought at a much cheaper price than what he would have paid in Saigon. Minus the last-second round-trip plane tickets of course.
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Nov 6, 2013 07:50
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MothraAttack posted:Yup, as of November 1. It's days like this I'm glad other people read ThaiVisa so I don't have to.
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Nov 6, 2013 08:09
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Getting drunk and high can be fun. But breaking things while drunk is probably a good indicator to stop drinking. I'm glad your friend got the phone business sorted out but I hope he's done being a drunken jerk.
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Nov 6, 2013 08:17
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caberham posted:Getting drunk and high can be fun. But breaking things while drunk is probably a good indicator to stop drinking. I'm glad your friend got the phone business sorted out but I hope he's done being a drunken jerk. Oh totally. He stopped hanging out with us (I guess, partly out of shame and partly out of realizing he could use his time for other things - he's definitely not a jerk) and started to focus on his true calling, making iphone/W8 apps and all that. He was already into it, now he's Makin' Money. Happy ending!
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Nov 6, 2013 08:42
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MothraAttack posted:Yup, as of November 1. It's days like this I'm glad other people read ThaiVisa so I don't have to. My visa expired on the 30th of October so this wouldn't have worked as a cheap way to add time for me. I got upset for a second thinking that I went to the Samui immigration office for no reason but then And I just got a massive email about Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha  I'm just wondering which hostel or whatever they got my email from. I think I'm going to give hostels a different email from now on so I don't get more poo poo like that.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:20
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caberham posted:Can you even buy one in Thailand? I think they are inflated 20% or more right? But yeah, MBK shopping is fine. Iphones are hard to mimic, it's really easy to spot a fake one too. But I got burned buying some fake canon photo batteries. I should have known better when the official price in Thailand is expensive. Even the 3rd parties were bad. Go with RingoR or some other gear goon Yeah, I started seeing them around about a week after they came out in the US. They are definitely marked up, but the person I am researching this for seems unconcerned about price as long as it's unlocked and the real thing.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:37
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Yeah, you can buy anything in Thailand, but if it's not regionally available (i.e. everything for at least 6 months after US release) it's always marked up as it's all couriered in. I typically just forego cutting edge gadgets or have a friend bring them back on a trip or something.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:52
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This is the only place I can ask this because you are the only people on this forum who love me and cherish me and accept me as one of their own: What the gently caress has happened to GBS?
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Nov 6, 2013 11:29
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duckmaster posted:This is the only place I can ask this because you are the only people on this forum who love me and cherish me and accept me as one of their own: mods removed the rules, turned GBS into FYAD lite. Lots of whinging from the usual GBS poo poo posters, hilarious content from others. It will revert in a while.
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Nov 6, 2013 11:41
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Someone needs a to make a payment on something, heh.
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Nov 6, 2013 11:49
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So that means you can post pictures of your balls? I always think there's just a thin line between FYAD / reddit / 4chan I'm too dumb to get fyad but yospos is awesome
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Nov 6, 2013 12:27
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So I'm finding $400ish tickets to Bangkok, $300 yo Hong Kong, and $500 to Myanmar. If i want to go to Myanmar what would come out cheaper. I remember getting great flights of of Hong Kong. Planning a few months in advance when your boss tells you vacation days is awesome. So many places i still want to go. May just rent a scooter and spend two weeks going north to south in Vietnam. Learn to relax in Laos. Hike and eat in Indonesia. Learn to scuba in Thailand (make up for the ethnobotany conference i missed because of an absent minded professor), motorbike around in Burma because screw this trains. Do we have any guys in India? I'm skipping Europe and Central Asia because of death cold. What are the cheapest flight hubs and easy visas for Americans?
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Nov 6, 2013 15:09
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HONG loving KONG. Please substitute for that other white guy. He just likes money too much and pork not enough. This time I will location scout a room. You know I will feed you like a king. Or don't come, I'm too ashamed of cancelling Korean goonsgiving....I can't face you anymore, even stuffing you with.Those muslim beef pies don't work.
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Nov 6, 2013 15:17
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caberham posted:So that means you can post pictures of your balls? When I was first on the forums (2000? I don't have that account any more, lost track of it when I lived in China) FYAD was where you were allowed to poo poo post and make personal (well, semipersonal) attacks on other forum users. It functioned as a segregation system which kept the rest of the forums much cleaner than any other forum back then (there was no  then though so things were still a lot looser than now). People noticed post count in those days too, so the negative count in FYAD was supposed to either discourage too much poo poo posting or mark people who were likely making fun of you. It became the natural habitat of people who were actually good at making fun of other people on the internet and these people befriended eachother. Like the appendix FYAD is now vestigial (doubly so once Twitter started sapping talent), why it's there is not understandable without its history but it also doesn't serve it's old function due to atrophy. I'm any case it went from a general access poo poo barn to a functional unit of the forum that attacked less desirable forum elements to a group of maybe fifty people who used it as a hangout after seeing each other post there a lot to a group of like six people doing the same thing today. At current going into FYAD is like walking up to a circle of people you don't know and yelling over their backs to try to start a conversation -- not easy to get anywhere with that.
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Nov 6, 2013 16:06
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Senso posted:Do it! So much awesome goodness. And the locals say that northern and central specialties are actually better in Saigon because the best chefs go there to work. Two weeks is the perfect length of time for that. Any specific suggestions? Heading there tomorrow. This is probably like my 10th post on the subject, but the thing I'll miss the most about Thailand is Isaan food, by far. Today, for example, I had a pork rib soup with the most drinkable broth I've ever had on earth. Seriously, when I'm done with Peace Corps, I'm going to take a survival Thai class, buy a motorbike, ride to Isaan, and beg an old lady to teach me as much as possible about cooking the cuisine. I'm going to come back to the states, cook these recipies for my friends, and show people that life exists beyond pad Thai and drunken noodkes (is that actually a thing in Thailand?) I've seen larb at restaurants before. The meat is never minced, and it's served with leaves of iceburg lettuce.
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Nov 6, 2013 16:27
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The first person to popularize Larb Moo Tort in America is going to make a loving fortune. I mean you'll have to call it Thai Spicy Balls or Thai Fireballs or Super Spicy Ultra Mega Thai Bites or whatever, but they'll sell like hotcakes. Larb Moo Tort is new enough to (most of) Bangkok that I've introduced tons of people to it, even Thai people, and every single person is like THIS IS CRACK. What's not to like, right? Take larb, mush it up in a ball and fry it - serve with nam jim jao.xcdude24 posted:I've seen larb at restaurants before. The meat is never minced, and it's served with leaves of iceburg lettuce. My favorite horrible Thai dish translation back home involves everyone putting bell peppers in Ga Pow instead of basil. I mean WTF. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 16:37
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