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.

The Wikipedia article refers to 13 cues total. Only 2 of which are under our physical control - convergence (our eyes crossing to focus) and accomodation (changing the lens shape). Providing separate images to each eye, triggers the 3d processing mechanism in a way that TV doesnt. For lifetimes, we expect if objects approach or recede, we adjust our focus, ie converge and accomodate (there's obviously a very high evolutionary advantage to getting the distances right). From what some describe, we keep attempting to focus when watching 3D and failing. Also, they're both feedback loops, there's some convergence/lens bending, the image gets a bit clearer, we keep going in the same direction, I'd guess that the brain keeps trying, fails and then reverts to focus on the 2d planes presented, 1000s of times throughout the movie, this is what causes the brain and eyeache. Possibly we can adapt, and naturally switch in and out of movie mode without discomfort, but we'd need to have movies worth seeing.