"2. Hiking in the mountains. Not crazy "carry all your camp gear" hiking; I'd settle for day hikes. Not sure what mountains either. Maybe Canadian Rockies? I've been hiking in the Alps before- that was incredible."

I would highly recommend Nepal. I hiked the Annapurna ciruit in spring '05 and had an incredible experience. It takes 10-20 days to make the whole circuit, depending on how fit you are and what kind of pace you enjoy. Don't rush if you can afford to take the extra time though.

The route just follows the trails that run between the villages in the area. Great mountain views of something like half of the worlds' 8000m peaks, trails carved into the cliffside with long drops right alongside you, deep valleys, lots of water/rivers and rickety old suspension bridges to cross, paths through old forest, etc. Just consistently stunning scenery the whole way through.

There are villages pretty consistently every few hours and there are always a few small tea houses and lodges in each that cater to hikers and offer food and a place to stay. Lodging is extremely cheap, literally $2-3 per night as these places make their money mostly on meals, and the food is also pretty cheap by western standards. You can (and will probably want to given all the exercise) eat four large meals a day for maybe $10-15. So a budget of $15-20 dollars a day is plenty to have a comfortable trip.

Really everything you might want in a mountain hike, plus a lot of interesting and picturesque villages.


Downsides:

-Altitude generally makes carrying a sleeping bag and warmish clothes a necessity, even though the lower sections of the circuit can be as hot and balmy as a jungle. It sucks when half the weight you carry is from a sleeping bag/clothes you won't need for 35% of the trip. You will cross over a 5400m/17500+ft mountain pass though, and sleep several times above 12000ft in generally unheated rooms, so the warm clothes are pretty important. I am sure you CAN rent a sleeping bag/blankets somewhere in the colder villages, most people just bring their own for convenience's sake. All that stuff can be bought decent quality for very cheap in the capital (Kathmandu) though, so if you don't want to carry it anymore, it's not absurd to just donate it to the next lodge you stay at after you get through the colder section.

I would guess that traveling fairly light, but still carrying my own sleeping bag (and down coat/snow pants/etc which I only wore twice for the snowy parts), my pack weighed ~10kilos or ~25lbs. Whether that fits your definition of a light day-hike is up to you, but remember you can always hike a few hours to the next village, leave your pack in the lodge, and spend the rest of the day exploring and doing day-hikes. Locals will always be glad to point out interestig side trips.

-People. This is mostly a serious concern only if you are looking for a very solitary experience. You may run into an obnoxious person/group once or twice over the entire 3 week circuit, but mostly the people you meet on the trail and in the villages will be pleasant, interesting people from all walks of life and all parts of the globe.

It is not at all hard to keep to yourself or be alone for hours at a time on the trail, but if you don't want to even SEE other people this might not be the right kind of hike. Even if there weren't any other hikers (and there will always be a few), you will see nepalese porters pretty frequently as there are no roads between villages and porters are the only way supplies come in or out.

-Water purification. Very minor concern imo but you will be drinking a lot of water and will need to refill your bottle regularly. There are filter stations set up every few villages that will refill with clean water for something like $.10 and donate the money to conservation, but you will also want to carry iodine tablets with you to purify any water you fill up with between those stations. I found myself using tablets regularly so I could drink whenever I was thirsty, rather than going without until the next station.

Some people don't care for the taste after the tablets are added and use Tang, kool-aid, etc to mask the flavor. It's not hard to buy a small jar of Tang if you find it necessary but if you try some iodine purified water before the trip and don't mind the taste, don't worry about it.

I'm sure there's a lot more if you have any questions but I hope this helps, I think it might be the kind of hiking experience you're looking for. Also I got a lot of good, common sense advice from http://www.travelindependent.info/index.htm before I went, and I'd really highly recommend that site for most travel related stuff.