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Published on September 1, 2007

Five dollars doesn't buy a whole lot these days. A blushing-ripe, delicately packaged winter melon    in Tokyo will set you back more than US$150 (Bt5,150).

Get that to Hong Kong and there is the carnage of screaming hordes of girls trampling all over you for a photo-op, in 10 mega-pixels, with the world's most expensive fruit.

A cheap Hong Kong-Bangkok round trip on a full-service airline - the kind that actually has engines and flight attendants - works out to around $350. And then there's fuel surcharges, airport taxes, insurance premiums and other bits and bobs that work out to another $100.

All this for the pleasure of watching the latest episode of "CSI Miami", featuring a cameo appearance by David Caruso, and frequent gripping revelations from the pilot about flight path, barometric pressure, tailwinds and air-traffic congestion. You learn the outside temperature is a numbing minus-30 degrees Celsius.

Suddenly the 10-degree-centigrade cabin temperature and the icicles hanging off your nose seem cosy and romantic. Your girlfriend is so chilled out she hasn't moved in an hour and probably won't again. This is the stuff of adventure.

So you've paid $450 to head to the City of Angels, carrying your prized Japanese winter melon. Not a bad price in this day and age.

Of course the screaming Hong Kong girls will still interrupt their Hello-Kitty tour to stampede in your direction. Well, it's one way to meet girls. If you survive the mauling, it's $150 well spent.

But, melon plus ticket: $600.

Which brings us back to the original question: what does $5 buy? In Hong Kong, a short taxi ride. In Bangkok, a T-shirt. Only in incredible India can you can extract incredible value and stretch out a meagre $5 for about a year - by borrowing inventively from your brother-in-law.

Or you could fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on an AirAsia special. The slew of budget airlines now zinging across the skies is opening up new possibilities - holiday flights for the price of a well-packaged fruit. Bangkok to Singapore for early-bird bookings is a shade more than $10, about the price of three beers in Patpong.

Viva Macau offered its inaugural Macau-Maldives flights in December last year with a one-way price of just 888 Macau patacas (Bt3,785). This is a useful saving for an island destination where a one-night stand on the sand at one of the cheaper establishments is upwards of $400.

In India, struggling Air Deccan still serves up outrageous $15 fares. This is while it is still more expensive to fly from Delhi to Bangalore on a regular airline than it is from Delhi to Bangkok.

Air Deccan is being propped up by Kingfisher Airlines, a full-service operator with lofty ambitions. Penang-based Firefly services Langkawi, Phuket and Koh Samui with 50-seat Fokker 50s.

And, hoping to carve out a niche for itself, Thailand's Nok Air plugs its Bangalore to Bangkok route as the "shoppers' airline". Passengers originating in India are offered discounts of up to 50 per cent at Siam Paragon and Emporium.

Now, in the United States, spunky no-frills carrier Skybus is once again rewriting the rules. If you happen to be in Columbus, Ohio, the airline's headquarters, you can fly from there to a growing list of US destinations for just $10, though you may pay more for a drink and a pillow. Skybus chief executive Bill Diffenderffer bravely believes passengers should pay only for the space and services they use. The airline's A-319s feature six-abreast seating in a three-three configuration with a wide centre aisle. Meals cost extra and checked baggage is $5 apiece.

Diffenderffer says: "Why should you pay for sodas and blankets other people use and you don't?" Exactly. While all seats are not priced at $10, at least 10 on every flight are.

Mirroring AirAsia's success in landing at secondary, lower-cost airports close to major cities, Skybus flies to accessible locations like Oakland, near San Francisco, Burbank near Los Angeles and Portsmouth near Boston.

Not only does this dramatically reduce costs, it eliminates taxiway delays. At New York's John F Kennedy International, average taxiing time is around half an hour, compared with 10 minutes at smaller airports.

Skybus has abandoned the popular hub-and-spoke system, too, offering direct, non-connecting flights only. This means fewer lost bags and fight delays.

Why is Diffenderffer offering such cheap rates? Well, for one, with a name like that, it's impossible to get a date. Bill Clinton's out and about, too, mopping up the talent. Winter melons are expensive, so cheap flights are a great way to get women to stampede in your general direction. It is also good economics and savvy marketing.

Vijay Verghese is an editor of Smart Travel Asia - an online travel magazine. Visit http://www.smarttravelasia.com