same, same, but different

Originates in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, where locals use it (in English) to describe things that are very similiar yet not identical, such as substitute goods in markets.

• "A day before I'd stepped off a train in Vladivostok in snow and ice, still hung over from the vodka hug-fest with the silver-toothed gangsters, India and Afghanistan just over my shoulder, on my mind, and then, wham, a taxi through warm L.A. -- "Fuck, man, look at that traffic!" said the driver, who'd emigrated to the U.S. from Jordan when he was sixteen -- and I was plunging into a place I hadn't seen in months. As a T-shirt in India read, "Same, same, but different.""
• "I have pets too, but not nearly as many as you! Same, same but different!"
• "So we are same same but different as they say in some parts of the world."
• "Nothing MOVES from one level to the next without you ACTIVATING the market and the prospects. As the people say in Cambodia; Same, same but DIFFERENT."