BANGKOK, Thailand - It turns out flying to Asia is a lot less taxing than coming back to America.

Yes, the trip is longer -- more than 14 hours from San Francisco to Hong Kong and then a few more hours to Bangkok -- but by leaving the United States at 1:30 a.m., my body clock seemed a lot less confused during a March trip. Less confused, that is, until I fell into a narcoleptic stupor at 7:30 p.m. the evening we arrived. I was riding in a tuk-tuk at the time and almost toppled out onto a busy Bangkok street. But I'll get to that near disaster in a bit.

Our trip began two years ago when my fellow traveler Justin suggested a Thailand vacation. I hadn't been outside North America, so my immediate response was, "No way." I feared a repeat of the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in Southeast Asia, including tourists in the Thai resort town of Phuket.

But when I mentioned Justin's cockamamie idea to globe-trotting friends last summer, they sang the praises of Thailand, particularly noting what an inexpensive destination it is. As a fan of bargains, dollar signs flashed in my eyes like a cartoon character. Any cataclysmic weather concerns evaporated, and I was on board with Justin's suddenly brilliant idea.

The timing was ideal. We bought plane tickets last fall on Cathay Pacific Airlines for about $1,000 per person round trip from San Francisco to Bangkok, including tax. In August, the same flights totaled more than $1,800 per person, but the price has since fallen back to about $1,100. Even better news is a still-favorable exchange rate: Travelers get 34 Thai baht for a U.S. dollar, so everyday purchases, including food and lodging, remain relatively inexpensive.

Almost 20 hours after leaving San Francisco, we emerged from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, blinking into the bright sun as we tried to find the driver who would take us to our hotel.

The Classic Place Hotel, located one subway stop away from the popular tourist area of Sukhumvit, was a wonderful oasis. For $46 per night -- booked through a Thai travel agent -- we had a comfortable room with wood floors and a bathroom, access to a swimming pool and a tailor. (I bought a custom-made suit, three shirts and a tie for $209.) Our rate also included a vast breakfast buffet featuring American, European, Chinese and Thai morning staples.

The hotel's only downside for future travelers: It shut down two weeks after we departed and is being converted into condominiums. Regardless, Bangkok caters to foreign tourists of every economic class, from the backpacker ghetto of Khao San Road to the opulence of the famous Oriental Hotel, often acclaimed as the best hotel in the world. But be warned: The Oriental staff won't let anyone on the grounds wearing shorts. (We learned that lesson the hard way.)

Our first stop in Bangkok was the Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is most popular and busy on weekends, although some small portions are open during the week. If you can imagine an open-air Super Wal-Mart, that's the Chatuchak Market, where you can buy everything from a pair of jeans to a cute beagle puppy. The experience led to sensory overload: The scent of street vendor charcoal mixed with the smells of seafood, grilled chicken and an unpleasant odor wafting up from the sewer below.

At the Weekend Market we also treated ourselves to our first Thai massages (more expensive than in other parts of town but still only $13 for 90 minutes). Justin compared it to forced yoga as the masseuse manipulated my limbs into strange yet relaxing positions. Justin's masseur wore a shirt that presumably came from a Goodwill-type store. It read: "Latoya, Atlanta Airport Authority."

That day we also visited Siam Paragon, a shopping mall filled with a mix of local and Western restaurants -- Swensen's Ice Cream, Starbucks and Burger King are popular in Bangkok -- and conveniently located near the Siam SkyTrain stop. The SkyTrain is Bangkok's above-ground monorail system. An extension to Suvarnabhumi Airport is expected to open in 2009.

It's difficult to imagine how one would get around the congested, gritty streets of Bangkok without the SkyTrain or the subway. Both were clean and easy to master, but they did have their quirky differences in how customers purchase a ride. Security guards were on duty at the entrance of every subway station -- but not at the SkyTrain stations -- giving bags a cursory check, presumably a safeguard against terrorists who have staged bombings in other, more volatile parts of Thailand.

We used public transportation almost exclusively in Bangkok, especially after the first night when we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us around the city's palace area. A tuk-tuk, so named for the sound it makes (tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk), is essentially a three-wheeled motorcycle with seating for two behind the driver. There are no doors on the side and no seatbelts, so when I fell asleep from jet lag at 7:30 the night we arrived in Bangkok, I easily could have fallen out of the tuk-tuk if Justin hadn't steadied me.

In the next couple of days we saw all the usual sights on a tourist's itinerary, including the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo; Wat Po, Temple of the Reclining Buddha; and Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn ("Wat" means "temple" in Thai).

We also learned first-hand about the scam artists who station themselves across Sanam Chai Road from the Grand Palace. They tell unsuspecting tourists the complex is closed for a national holiday in the morning, and, by the way, they'd be happy to drive us somewhere to go shopping for discount jewelry. Don't believe them. A map we picked up at the airport warned, "You may risk buying fake goods or other forms of deceptions." Thailand bills itself as "the land of smiles," but sometimes it's also the land of smiling scammers.

It's worth it to take a day trip outside Bangkok to the famous floating market at Damnoen Saduak. After a van ride about 64 miles southwest of Bangkok, tourists are loaded onto long-tailed speedboats (think: James Bond in "The Man With the Golden Gun") that cut through canal waters on approach to the floating market (note to future tourists: the front of the speedboat appeared to be drier than the back, where we sat).

Once at the floating market, we hired a smaller boat, paddled by a local, to take us through the market. Along the way, sellers hawk their wares. Some even have a hook on a stick that they use to pull your boat to shore where their products for sale are displayed. Other boats glide by selling fruit, soda and even fried food for lunch. (We decided to play it safe and not eat fresh fruit while in Thailand. We also stuck to bottled water.)

Many Thais in Bangkok speak fluent English, but we encountered more of a language barrier at the floating market. Commerce straddles all languages as sellers quote prices by typing the amount into a digital calculator. They pass the calculator to the potential buyer, who types in a counter offer, and so it goes until the sale is complete or abandoned.

We booked the floating market trip through a tourist desk at our hotel -- about $55 per person -- as part of a package that also included lunch and stops for an elephant show, a teak woodworking showroom, a crocodile show and a Thai cultural show at a venue called The Rose Garden. The trip ended at a jewelry store in Bangkok, where tourists were encouraged to shop before transferring to another shuttle to return to their hotels. After a long day, this unscheduled, unannounced detour was a nuisance. We found that polite, persistent requests to return to our hotel worked wonders.

At night we strolled through Bangkok's Patpong Night Market, which is filled with hawkers welcoming tourists into adult-themed, gentlemen's clubs. The best mangling of English on a sign: "Women dancing with coyotes," which was a puzzler until I realized they meant to promote Coyote Ugly-style dancing.

Although prostitution is illegal in Thailand, the law seems unenforced. Brothels and sex clubs operate in the open. One of the most fascinating aspects of travel in Thailand is watching johns take local prostitutes on tourist excursions as if it's a date. The johns ran the gamut from a bunch of overweight Slavic slobs to well-dressed young Europeans who you wouldn't expect to have to pay for sex.

For visitors seeking a window into everyday life, a Bangkok best bet is the upscale grocery store on the top floor of The Emporium department store on Soi 24, just off Sukhumvit Road. (Imagine a Whole Foods on top of a Macy's.) We took a sample-fueled stroll through the store -- a piece of octopus tasted just as rubbery as you might imagine -- and bought a few foreign candies, treats for friends and family back home.

After two weeks exploring Thailand we'd had our fill and were ready for our flight back to America. Security was tighter than on the trip over -- even empty water bottles were confiscated before boarding the second leg of our flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco -- and because the trip was shorter, we got even less rest. It didn't help that we had left Hong Kong at 4 p.m. local time and only briefly flew through a dark sky before we encountered light again, touching down in San Francisco in midafternoon, groggy and sleep-deprived.

But this adventure was worth the jetlag.