[pso]

If you've not travelled much, then perhaps South America might be an easier introduction than asia, and some basic Spanish is probably easier to pick up than the majority of non-European languages.

Im currently in medellin, colombia, 2Mb/s broadband with cable tv,phone, costs around $50/month, and my reasonable sized apartment is $370/month (6 month contract). In buenos aires, rentals were almost double for something similar (capital city pricing), and rio was slightly more expensive again (the Brazilian Real is very strong at the moment). If you would prefer not to stay in one place then most countries have 3g in major cities and usually you can find a prepaid plan which is reasonably priced as long as you use it for browsing rather than lots of youtube.

India, and thailand are less expensive than latin america, but it would be harder to learn the language and you'll more likely be spending time with other travellers. Although, given you're on a gap year, then travellers hangouts in asia (beachs, mountains etc) could be fun. I enjoyed Salvador in Brazil, lots of live music and dancing, Rio not so much, Buenos Aires feels very european in a good way, and it has the liveliness of a capital city. I've heard good things about Chang Mai and the islands in Thailand. I spent several years in India and it is very cheap and very different , but except for Goa is generally not so much of a party place compared to say, Thailand. In some places, craigslist will give you a rough idea of apartment pricing - although often there are many agents charging ridiculous prices, so find ads from private landlords to get a rough idea. Otherwise use hostelbookers.com or hostelworld.com , as a proxy for rental prices. Lonely Planet thorntree forums are probably worth a search to get some kind of idea of a destination and/or prices.

[faz]

I don't think language is a problem in India in cities like Bangalore [I'm currently staying here]. Anyone knowing English can survive here.

In terms of expenses also the broadband along with phone would be under $50/month. Also in terms of accommodation you could get a good sized apartment for $300/month.

And there are other places to look around in India other than Goa :) Can't speak much about places outside of India though.

Although it would depend on what @hacktravel wants to do while travelling too.

> 3. If there are any programs that would speed up my learning that would be great but it is not required. I don't even know if there are things like this...

I'm not sure what you [@hacktravel] mean by this. Are you talking of training programs of some sort? Or tech conferences?

[hackandtravel]

Thanks for the helpful response.

How has your time in Bangalore been?

While traveling, I would like to eat tasty food. Having a good night life in the city I am is ideal. Being able to visit beautiful nature and sites to see in and around where I am staying is great. Still not 100% sure what I want out of my travels 100% but I hope that gives a bit of a better picture.

As far as a program, it could be anything from university classes (unlikely to work on my timeframe, to the ability of getting quality local tutors to help me, to something like the Hacker Dojo http://wiki.hackerdojo.com/w/page/25437/FrontPage). Anything that could accelerate my learning.