Bangkok is a fascinating place to begin your journey, since so much of what you experience here—from the general friendliness of the people and the efficiency of the infrastructure to the particular blend of heat and sugar that distinguishes the flavors of this region—will resonate for you in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. And yet in other ways, Thailand is sui generis. For one thing, it is the only country in Southeast Asia that has never been colonized by the West. For another, it alone among its neighbors is ruled by a king. One of the great pleasures of this trip will be charting not only the similarities but also the differences—sometimes subtle, sometimes surprisingly profound—among these countries and cultures that lie in such close proximity to one another and whose histories are so inextricable.

Probably the first thing you'll notice about this city of nine million, however, is its apparently seamless marriage of the old and the new. If last night's trip from the airport had you zooming over pristine elevated highways, this morning's ten-minute drive to your first stop, the Wat Traimitr complex, sends you creeping through Chinatown, whose streets are faced with examples of beautiful old architecture, often with a distinctive Portuguese flair (traders and missionaries from Portugal arrived in the sixteenth century). The complex is home to a number of temples, the largest of which houses one of Thailand's most prized national treasures, the Golden Buddha, a five-and-a-half-ton icon that was constructed in the thirteenth century and rediscovered only in 1955, encased in a crust of stucco (probably to protect it from the invading Burmese in the sixteenth century). Inside, crowds of tourists mill past the great statue, talking and laughing as if at a cocktail party.

Muscle your way to the front and spend a few moments in the gleam of the long-limbed, graceful Buddha (pictured right). The Thais practice Theravada Buddhism, which came to the country around the third century b.c. from India, where the Buddha, a Hindu prince, had been born 200 years earlier. This sect of Buddhism is recognizable for its Hindu overtones and exuberant palette, a marked contrast to the stripped-down asceticism of Mahayana Buddhism, which pervaded eastern Asia.

By 9:45 a.m., you're en route to the flower and vegetable market, which provides a crash course in the diversity of Thailand's colors, scents, and flavors, not to mention its fecundity. Your guide will lead you down the main thoroughfare of the flower market, where the breadth of offerings is so extravagant that it seems almost comical: Every few paces there are vendors stringing thick garlands of achingly fragrant, pearly Arabian jasmine or jamming clumps of furled, shell-pink lotus flowers into overstuffed plastic buckets—which, as you'll see, are as plentiful throughout the region as dandelions. A 15-minute stroll takes you to the produce end of the market, where the visual feast begins all over again: baskets of fiery bird's-eye chiles; containers of pale-green cabbages; eggplant and watercress arranged like jewels on plastic sheets.