Help me and my friend with our trip planning

[Yosoce]

Me and a friend of mine have decided that both of us need to see more of the world before settling down to the grind of our careers. We have thrown around some ideas but he is coming into town next week and we have decided its time to start planning hard. This is hopefully going to be between 2 and 3 months long either next fall or the year after.

My initial idea was a bike trip around part of the coast of Australia. There was a series in National Geographic years ago about a guy who did this and that really is the beginning of this whole plan. My friend suggested something smaller like New Zealand.

We are both guys in our early 20s. We are both in reasonable physical shape. Between us we have decent Spanish, and very basic Russian and Greek. Both of us are willing to learn new languages. We want this to be as cheap as possible but we have enough money that we arent going to go broke in the middle of the trip and be stranded.

In any case, I have lurked on this forum for years and I know it has a wide variety of people who have been just about everywhere so I figured here would be as good a place to ask for advice and ideas as any. We are open to any and all suggestions especially regarding 1--place 2--length of time 3--mode of transportation. Anybody who has done something similar and has tips to pass on would be greatly appreciated.



To answer the inevitable question, neither of us is gay

 

[axelfox]

You want cheap? Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam your dollar goes far. The most expensive thing will be the plane tickets.

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: axelfox
You want cheap? Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam your dollar goes far. The most expensive thing will be the plane tickets.

PHO is only 50cents!!! OMFG I wanna go 🙁

 

[Yosoce]

Is Southeast Asia safe for two white guys to hike/bike through?
Our initial choices of Australia or New Zealand were based on being easy to get around in and the language issue. I realize we wont be able to blend in anywhere, but both of us are over six foot and would stick out anywhere in Asia. I was also thinking somewhere in South America would work pretty well, but I dont have any idea what the different countries are like.

 

[isasir]

Any reason you didn't mention Europe?

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: Yosoce
Is Southeast Asia safe for two white guys to hike/bike through?
Our initial choices of Australia or New Zealand were based on being easy to get around in and the language issue. I realize we wont be able to blend in anywhere, but both of us are over six foot and would stick out anywhere in Asia. I was also thinking somewhere in South America would work pretty well, but I dont have any idea what the different countries are like.

you want to chill or adventure?

 

[Yosoce]

I didnt mention Europe because we are looking more for a low tech small towns and open roads type of trip, although a few weeks spread between several big cities would be fine. Also we both have travelled in Europe before. Eastern Europe may work however...

As far as adventure or chill, we really are looking at this is one final bang before settling into careers, so adventure is the emphasis. Not "oh look theres a civil war here" adventure, more like "hey that dirt road into the forest isnt on the map, lets go down it"