sabbatical13

After reading the comments, I'm considering doing Singapore as more of a smallers trip (not suggesting that you can experience all of it in a few days). Curious to know more on why you suggested Taipei?

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the cost information, definitely within my budget.

  the rent is low and the women love foreigners :)

Love that part ;) and thanks so much for the kind offer olalonde. I'll look more into Shenzen as you're not the first person to suggest that. Are there a lot of hacker types around? And how about the night life?

I'm still considering China too; definitely not out of the question. Curious to know more about why you think it will be more attractive than Thailand or Indonesia?

Forgive me if its a n00b question, but how easy is it to meet new people; and are there particular destinations expats frequent?

One of the things I'm slightly nervous about is not knowing anyone or the language; and thereby finding it hard to do even the most basic things like finding a nice cheap place to crash.

Thanks for the tip about Singapore, that seems to be a general consensus. I'm also planning on taking some weekend trips around the region if flights are cheap, and may relegate Singapore to that leg of the trip.

Thanks for the tips toumhi, it seems like a general consensus that Signapore will probably be too expensive.

Thanks also for that last part, its been weird discussing it with friends/family cause they think its crazy taking the trip without a plan of what I'm going to do after; but that's just something I'll have to live with.

Besides housing and food, do you have any other big expenses? Also, you mentioned you've moved between Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, how easy and expensive is it to move around? I'm considering being in Thailand and taking a few weekly trips to visit the surrounding regions.