A few days ago I realized I had a low-level eye infection. Nothing serious, but I clearly needed to get my eyes checked out, so I headed to the hospital. In Canada, you only go to the hospital when you have a serious problem because there are little clinics of all types all over the place, but in Thailand, you just generally go to the hospital for any ol’ thing.

Anyway, since it was a minor problem, I chose not to go to one of the higher-end hospitals like Bumrungrad or Samitivej, and opted instead for a facility a bit lower down the ladder on the luxe scale. I won’t say the name of the hospital, but I’ve been there before, and, despite its relative lack of slick international ambience, I’ve always found it a perfectly serviceable place. My visit was fine (total bill: $30) and I got my meds, and took the elevator back downstairs. That’s when I noticed a charming do-it-yourself solution to getting stuck in the elevator.

I mean, I guess technically it would work just as well as a standard in-elevator comms system – but just think of how much those cost! And here we have a somewhat less elegant (but far more charming) solution to what happens if you get stuck in the elevator, and it probably didn’t cost more than a few bucks at the Tesco.

Thai ingenuity at its finest.