Lunch (chicken on a stick/or something thai, some friend banana, a drink) is $0.50. Dinner will be $3-4. The view is nice, and so are the sunsets.

You're a westerner (I assume white), and the Thai people know you're their lifeblood. Unrest stays well away from the tourist areas of bangkok. Besides you'll be out of bangkok on a beach. No one will go to any effort to blow up some sand.

Another option is the perhentain islands, tioman island or siporna archelegpo in malaysia. Malaysia has better infrastructure compared to most of south east asia. You can get unlimited 3G internet for certain ($6.50 a week USD prepaid) with celcom on those islands. (not sure with siporna).

His only complaint is that his favorite shopping mall was torched during the riots, but other than that now is a perfect time to go as any.

Yeah, but for anyone going to Thailand: Don't pre-pay for a month anywhere, there's a decent chance you won't like the first city you wind up. I was going crazy in Bangkok after a week so I caught an overnight train to Chiang Mai and much preferred it there, stayed there for the rest of the month my visa was good for. Staying flexible is good travel advice anyways, but especially in Thailand where various places are very, very different.

Only now I go for a week.

Pinball and micro-brew cider in every pub, seriously laid back but lots going on artistically, musically and otherwise.

The public transportation is ample (and growing) and everywhere else is bike friendly. Good food is abundant and cheap if you hop between the many food carts. Plenty of unique bars which all serve some sort of food, too. The selection of beers brewed in and around here are endless.

It does rain a fair amount, but almost never more than a trickle during the day; I don't wear anything more than a sweatshirt most moist days. All the precipitation isn't without benefit and makes the city and surrounding areas absolutely beautiful in the spring, summer and fall. Real, dense forest and the coast are only an hour and a half's drive away and the city is littered with well maintained parks.

We don't get quite as many musicians coming through as Los Angeles or Seattle, but a fair amount (of the ones I'm interested in at least) do stop-in. I do find the local music scene lacking. I'm sure there are more events like these, but all of the art galleries have open houses (with free booze) the first Thursday of every month Downtown, and the last Thursday on Alberta.

We are heading back home to Los Angeles soon, but only to be closer to friends and family for a bit longer. Portland has definitely made the list of places to return to.

It's weird, I saw the best show of my life at Dante's (Extra Action Marching Band) but I've now been back four times and have never been tempted back in. It always just seems like trashy bar bands?

In KK you are an hour away from hiking in the mountains, white water rafting, going to an island to snorkel/scuba by the coral reef, etc.

Taiwan is another option - you can do it very cheaply if you want or live lavishly for a reasonable price. I would recommend this option if you want to travel around more rather than stick in one place. Spend a few weeks in Taipei, a few in Kaohsiung, and a few elsewhere. Rent a scooter and explore.

If you are going now - consider it is the hot season in SE Asia and the rainy season is just about to start.

The broadband is decent these days, albeit quite a bit pricier than US or European broadband equivalents, but it should be suitable. Cape Town also has a fairly active start-up community, if thats important to you.

Others may have had a different experience, of course, but I've always found the area around Cape Town to be incredibly relaxing and conducive to good ideas.

Opportunistic crime does exist, but provided you use the same kind of street smarts you would use in most big cities and don't do things like walk alone in unfamiliar areas after dark, don't make yourself an easy target and don't be oblivious to your surroundings, you should be able to avoid being the victim of opportunistic criminals.

I'm not a fan of driving. I'm looking to avoid cooking my own meals (so a nice set of restaurants in walking distance would be great). Also, per the earlier comment, I'm not bilingual, so I'd like to avoid places that are hostile towards that (I've heard rumors about Paris, but I'm not sure how true they are).

Not sure where I fall on urban versus scenic. I wouldn't want to be out in the middle of nowhere, but if all the niceties of civilization are there then a scenic environment would be nice.

The best vacation I've had by far were two months I've spent in northern India - getting around with just English was not a problem, violent crime is uncommon enough to not be an issue at all (especially outside of Delhi) and it was dirt cheap (that was 6 years ago - I've heard prices have risen since then but it should be still extremely affordable if you're from a western country).

It was a bit of a culture shock at first, and India's big cities are definitely not for the faint of heart (or cleanliness-obsessed) but the Himalayan hill stations offer great scenery, a very different culture & generally very friendly & helpful locals.

The food is also great and extremely cheap (<$1 for a basic and very filling main-meal at a typical dhaba).

Most Indians don't own a vehicle, so mass transport is plentiful (if not very efficient). I didn't have a car there and never wanted one either.

Many people seem to consider the San Francisco area pretty scenic, and kinda urban, and conducive to hacking, and tons of good, cheap food... The only problem is that it's an alternate climatological universe where it can seem very cold in the summer.

I liked the Czech Republic. Cheap, good beer & most people speak good English.

Everyone I know who's been to Croatia has loved it, too.

The Netherlands is fantastic, too, and people there seem to speak better English than a lot of supposedly-native-speakers.

If you want English speaking, then Australia & New Zealand might work, or various Pacific islands.

Croatia is ok too. I've been pretty much everywhere in this country (I spent week on different location each year for past 15 years). Great weather and landscapes, but during the summer there is crowds and crowds of tourists.

If you want to travel and see things then I recommend Morocco, very very cheap country and also safe. There are numerous internet cafe in each village (1 hour costs around $0.5 - $1). I spent one month last winter there and love it. I travel more then 2000km, see waterfalls, deserts, mountains and there is also some beaches too.

For a traveller, you'd want wireless. If you want fast Telstra's prices are high but they give you the best datarate: http://www.telstra.com.au/bigpond-internet/prepaid-wireless/...

If you want cheap, you can get similar datacaps for about 50% of the price (but generally the speed & coverage isn't quite so good).

That said, I'd give a big +1 to the Australia suggestion. I'm a Brit, but I've emigrated to Oz after I came on holiday here a few years ago. It's definitely a relaxing place to live and there's loads of nice locations (the typical travellers route is down the east coast with a detour to the outback). There shouldn't be much of a language problem (once you work out what Ozzies mean when they talk about their thongs), prices can be anything from fairly cheap (shared dorms in a youth hostel, but not as cheap as SE asia) to very expensive. There's a huge variety of stuff to see.here (beaches, mountains, deserts, weird animals).

A relatively simple but interesting and easy-to-branch-from trip would be to hit one of the big Mediterranean cities; say, Rome, Marseille, Barcelona, Mostar, Athens, Istanbul, Tunis, Tripoli, even Cairo. Hang out there for a bit and then take a ferry to another one (or a smaller place). If you get bored of the Med, you can make trips inland.

The bigger piece of advice than "where?" is "how?" How you travel makes all the difference. You're probably going to make tourist mistakes when you start traveling, and pay between twice as much and five times as much as you should for what things cost and get lower quality in the process. Hey, it's how it goes, I was staying in a so-so hotel in London near Victoria Station the first time I went, and I wound up paying 12 pounds for bad Mexican food in Leicester Square. Ouch. Now if I was going back I'd either short-stay rent an apartment, or if I was going cheap I'd stay at Picadilly Backpackers for cheap. I'd eat at all you can eat Indian and Chinese buffets once a day for a very large meal, and have a small meal from a grocery store the other meal. I'd live really cheap in London and save any/all money for when it can be better spent elsewhere.

But you learn those things over time. Don't book too far in advance at any hotel if you don't know the area. Like, if you booked "downtown" in Los Angeles, you'd be staying in the middle of nowhere. LA has no real center, but the area called "downtown" happens to suck and not have anything really significant, whereas Santa Monica and West Hollywood areas are more interesting. But again, you wouldn't know that if you didn't know that, so don't book too far in advance. If it's a walking city, I like to just turn up and ask people in the airport what area is nice, then go walk around that area until I find somewhere to stay.

That sounds crazy, but it's not. You can always find an internet cafe and start making calls to places if you don't find a place within a few hours. One time I showed in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia without anywhere to stay, and it happened to be their 50th anniversary of their independence, and a major air-and-space convention was in town. That was the hardest it ever was for me to find a room, but I still found one after a number of hours. Usually it's much simpler.

Very, very glad my first time to Taipei I just showed up, because Guting doesn't show up as a "top area" on anyone's tourist lists, but I love it and it's perfect for me. Again, showing up and walking around (though I got into Taipei in the middle of the night, so I stayed at an airport hotel the first night).

Anyway, how is more important than where. How - stay flexible and mobile on your accomodations so you can move around if you don't like the area. Eat where the locals eat, especially laborers if you can find them. That's the best value for healthy, high energy food. If I see construction guys going somewhere at lunch, I know it's going to be good value for good, hearty food.

Street food can be very good for cheap in some countries. Walk into all sorts of small, local restaurants that you can't understand the sign with no English and look at the prices. If you're not a picky eater, just point to something and there's a decent chance it'll be okay. (I used to do this before I refined my diet down to just a few things) Convenience stores or grocery stores sometimes have really good value, depending on the country. South Korea and Taiwan both have flavored hard boiled eggs for quite cheap that are delicious. You pick that stuff up when you get around.

If you have a return ticket from a major airport like Schripol in Amsterdam or anywhere in London, you're free to bum around Europe and and find somewhere that suits you. Also possible in Japan, but less possible in most of Asia. These days I'm pretty comfortable going one way and I figure I'll get a one way ticket to return whenever from wherever I'm at, though occasionally (rarely) you get burned on price, especially if you have to get back on a certain day. Again, I'm usually okay doing it this way, but I remember once or twice I paid a fair bit. I still think it's worth it and still usually do it this way.

Ah, there's so much more to say... look at travel lists of recommended places from people who have similar tastes as you. My recommendations:

-Easiest to get around with just English: London, Amsterdam, Toronto, New York, Hong Kong, Taipei (Taipei less so than the rest, but really it's not bad at all, my Chinese is almost nonexistent)

-Good beach weather: Italy, Spain, Southern France, Austin (need car), Los Angeles (need car), Thailand depending on the season

-My favorite cities overall: Tokyo (by far, but it's not relaxing), Barcelona, London (not really relaxing), New York (...maybe not relaxing), Nice France, Florence Italy.

Southern Europe might get you the best bang for your buck, get a return flight from a big city and you can travel until you find a city you really like and then spend most of your time there. Taipei is a fine choice if you like Asian culture, it's extremely clean, safe, modern, and inexpensive for the quality you get. Japan is amazing but can be crazy. Thailand is hit or miss - I actually wasn't crazy about it while I was there, but in retrospect I had a great time. Note that some people do really dislike Thailand, it's kind of... in your face. Sensory overload at times, lots of vibrant smells, prostitution is everywhere and very aggressive, lots of drinking and drugs in the tourist areas. The type of traveler in mid/low end places in Thailand is different too - not really my kind of people, I like the people I meet in Europe and Taipei much more, lots of very hippie stoned out people but to each his own.

Lots of thoughts there. Drop me a line if you've got any questions or reply here and I'll try to check it, I've been to a fair number of places in Europe, North America, and Asia over the years.

This is a very important point. You probably want to go to a walking city, or else you need to think in advance about how you are going to get around.

In SE Asia it's cheap enough to get taxi's around.

In the UK, you really want to be careful - if you are in London get somewhere near an underground station and you'll be fine.

http://www.villascarrizalillo.com/

- not a tourist trap - authentic (but not "too" authentic) - relatively easy to get to - wifi - quiet and you can be left alone with your thoughts

Enjoy your vacation.

July / August = peak season.

Peruvian food is delicious.

You can catch Peru's Independence day(s) at the end of July (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiestas_Patrias_%28Peru%29)