the color of its countries

That's Thai for "elevator," or actually for "lift," of which it is a Thai phoneticization. At least, that's what thai-language.com would lead us to believe, and since the word passed my trusty "Google image search the foreign word and see if the result is what you expect" test, I'm buying it.

But I'm digressing. I actually just wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a difference between China and Thailand: here, as in America but unlike in Chengdu, the elevator close-doors buttons do not bring the doors whooshing together with satisfying promptness. I find myself mashing the button with impatience every time I ride, and then I have to smile: it's just another habit picked up in China, like stomping in dark hallways in hopes that the lights are hooked up to a (in Chengdu, ubiquitous) noise detector. Or blowing your nose farmer-style on the pavement.

Matthew says this -- the elevator doors, I mean, not the nose-blowing -- has to do with who manufactured the elevator, not where it's installed. There are apparently four major elevator manufacturers in the world, all from different countries, and I guess they decide whether the close-doors button is a placebo or not. Says Matthew, anyway. You could probably check Wikipedia. I'm too sleepy to investigate it properly.