Welcome to Fodors mmohan: OK -- many countries have very strict rules about visitors not being able to work. And many have VERY stringent visa requirements -- for instance you can't stay longer than 90 days w/i any 6 month period in much of Europe. That doesn't mean 90 days in one country -- it is 90 days total. And you cannot work during those 90 days. Do a google search on 'Schengen' and you'll get all the details.

I'd re-post your questions on the individual region forums (Asia, Australia, Europe, etc) and you'll get lots of specific information. See the 'Change Forum' pull down menu --click that and move to the other boards.

As above, I think legally finding paid work is going to be your trickiest bit to figure out. Many (most?) places that is not allowed by foreign visitors. Second is about how long you are legally allowed to stay in various places (like the 90 day Schengen restriction in Europe).

You might find these sites interesting:

http://indietravelpodcast.com
http://www.neverendingvoyage.com
http://aswetravel.com
http://www.theaussienomad.com
http://www.legalnomads.com
http://www.nomadicmatt.com

And a bunch more - spend some time on twitter and you'll find plenty.

Paid work in any country depends on the internal policy of the company in which you want to do work .Also each contry has different set of rules and regulations for their corporate world.

hostpitalityclub.org good site for you.

escapeartist.com internationalliving.com

Save a lot and travel you cannot legally work without a visa

Develop a web based income source what I do.

Renting your house from a distance is a nightmare

sell it and put the money into travel you will need it.

All the places you want to go to are expensive.

Go to South America beautiful cheap Ecuador Colombia my favs

saexplorers.org/clubhouses/quito

You definitely need to rethink your options and investigate the various immigration/visitor policies of all of the countries that you are interested in visiting.

Get a temporary work visa for Australia and you will be fine; we're not unreasonable, just protective of our 5% unemployment rate! You will need to get the visa anyway to get past the 90 day visa waiver, but it is fairly easy to get a work visa if you have an outbound ticket.

For a different experience in a small town, try the towns up to an hour or so from Canberra. Since Canberra is the nation's capital a lot of the well paid public servants live in the country and commute. What appears to be a small country town may well be crying out for casual labour because most of their citizens are on the 7am bus to Canberra every morning!

This area has the added advantage of being less than 2 hours to beaches and about 2 hours to skiable snow in winter. Canberra has good night life but average household income is $A135,000 per year (USD 150,000) so nothing is cheap. There are good backpackers hostels right in the city.

North Queensland, the Riverina in NSW and country Victoria and South Australia are often looking for fruit pickers.

You will probably enjoy Australia but will need an Australian income to survive; even Macdonalds pays over $18 (nearly USD 20) an hour. Enjoy!