Wheres Your Favourite Creative Hideaway ?

Hey gang, wonder if you can help me. I'm looking for a quiet creative hideaway to spend 3-4 months starting 02/2004.

After being on the road now for 371 days i'm suffering from coding withdrawals, as i aint had the chance to do any programming for some time now. Wanna find somewhere quiet where i can concentrate for a few months. The perfect place would have these attributes:
1. Holiday entry visas of 3 month minimum, so i dont have to skip out and skip back to renew. Easy or automatic entry visa procedures for aussies. This would rock as i am australian . (This aint too important, i got time to do the visa dance).
2. Nice and quiet - no backpackers or buses filled with rich elderly yanks to get on my nerves and disturb me.
3. As cheap as possible, my upper limit would be (GBP£125==US$207==AUS$305)/week. Maybe a little more.
4. Reliable access to electricity. Internet access of any form would be a huge plus.
5. An absence of civil war, too much overt anti-western sentiment, and other activities which have the potential to interrupt ones train of thought.

At the moment i'm thinking somewhere in africa like SA or zim, or asia such as thai, laos, vietnam, philipines etc. India..perhaps..

Geographically i am flexible, anywhere in the world is fine, long as theres transport of some form from Europe to there, and even better, from there to Australia (beautiful sunburnt country of mine).
Preferably not in Europe though, after a year here its wearing a little, allthough some of the eastern european countries would be okay for this sort of thing right now (catch them before the evil euro takes them!!!).

Have you been anywhere lately that you would recomend for this purpose ?.

Thanks in advance peoples

I've always thought that a smaller in Brazil would be this. Maybe even large towns such as Recife or Salvador da Bahia. But particularly a few towns down the road from either would be cheap, western-friendly, and relatively inexpensive.

However..if theres one thing i dont wanna be at the moment, its an
American. Allthough they seem to be great people on the whole (even though they did produce the evil, brain destroying, yet addictive TV program known as "Friends", i always feel sorry for them when i bump into them in various countries, and watch them passing themselves off as canadians to avoid hassle. Poor buggers. Even i was once attacked by a group of locals in eastern europe (small village in czech) when they thought i was US origin. Luckily one of them spoke a tiny bit of english, and i spoke a tiny bit of czech and german. Finally we shared the concept that i was in fact Australian . After which they threw up their hands in apology and we retired to the nearest drinking establishment for ein pivo and a hashpipe. Excellent night actually drinking buddies of all . Seen/experienced the same thing in even more westernised countries such as Spain (Granted, it was when i was escorting an american lass to a less glamourous part of Barcelona to get some hash off a group of Morrocans). Maybe i should just stay away from hash. Actually the weirdest one i saw was also in Spain. I was keeping company this american lass, when this american guy came up (severely drunk of course) and starting complaining about being a jew, and how hard it made his life and all the discrimination he had suffered. Well, this american chick just turns to him and says well
"thank god I had it easy growing up as a black girl with a crack whore mother in a bad neighbourhood", at which point he pushed her over and run away. I followed him but she called me back. Strange lot these americans. Sorry for rambling, Totally off topic, had net time to kill. Better go.

The young British man currently being held by the Colombian rebels

him.
On topic, Zanzibar is a wonderful island as are parts of the Kenya coast.

My thoughts exactly!

Uganda used to be called the "pearl of Africa". To some extent it still is.

Thanks for the idea guys, I'm checking it out now. Looks pretty cool !. Seems to be lots of nice beaches and blue skies there...just like home !.

I never even thought of south america, great idea, thanks !!! Lots of interesting countries down there. Just gotta avoid getting kidnapped by columbian rebels, as this would most certainly impair the flow of the creative juices.

Thanks for the ideas mate. Yeah, after looking into Zanzibar a little more deeply i came to the same conclusion. It would have been fine 13 months ago, but now the old bank account is starting to look a little battered . I still have 3 more months of travlling in Europe before i put this creative hideaway plan into action. By this time i will be approaching brokeness. Therefore my goal now is getting maximum distraction free creative time for my cash. I will have minimal interest in the local culture and environment, so those factors are important only in that they are not distracting. I'll be travelling through the eastern European countries you speak of in november and december, and i intend on investigating their suitability for this concept. It would certainly be conveniant if they were suitable, as i really have a STRONG urg to just stop and pour out and solidify all the ideas that have been bubbling away in my head !!. I'll research the african options as well, sinai sounds particularly intriguing,. as i have heard nothing but good things about egypt .

If you want to live cheaply anywhere, you need to live by local standards, local style accomodation, local food etc. This is difficult in many places, particularly where you dont speak the local lingo.
Your comment about Sydney got me thinking about Australia as a place for this. For anyone else wanting to implement such an idea, Australia would be perfect. Its very cheap compared to here (Europe), with every climate and terrain you can think of, and excellent infrastructure.
Allthough, having lived in every Australian capital city except
Brisbane and Horbart, i can say with authority: screw Sydney (and melbourne). Go to Perth instead. Cleaner, prettier, more/better woman.
And awesomely cheap rent last time i was there, beautiful beaches as well. If you must be near Sydney, live in the mountains instead, gorgeous and only a couple hours down to yucky Sudney. As for
Melbourne, just forget it, its almost as filthy as London. When i was a student in Australia i lived quite comfortably on (AU$200:GBP£80)/week. Dont feel like going back to Aust for a bit though, so i got to thinking about kiwiland (New Zealand). I have never been there, but everyone says its wonderful, prettier than
Australia maybe (nahhh - no way!). I looked at some cost of living indexes for the world and New Zealand is even cheaper than Australia !. And Australia is pretty damn low . Actually, according to many of these indexes (sadly i did'nt keep the URL's and am too lazy to look them up again), Aust and Kiwiland are quite incredible in the standard of living for cost of living equation, possibly the best in the world.
I have checked out rents in New Zealand, and holy shit, it costs nothing to live there. As an Australian, i have no visa worries there, speak the local lingo, wil have no problems obtaining local standard accomodation and food. It seems ideal. Therefore, if no other country takes my fancy over the next 3 months (and it'd have a hell of a lot to live up too), New Zealand will be hosting me for several months of coding time. Also i wont feel guilty not seeing very much of it, as i can easily pop back over there anytime i choose in the future as its so close to Aust. Funny how my search has led me virtually back to my own doorstep. This search sure has showed me thus far how fantastically lucky i am to be Australian.