My home address is a small apartment in Fair Oaks, California but I'm here in Ho Chi Minh City right now staying in a rented room and this is where I spend a good part of every year.

Ho Chi Minh City is crowded, noisy, untidy and chaotic. I miss the orderly life of suburban America and the comfort of my apartment and my truck when I'm here, but when I get back in the USA I miss the craziness of Ho Chi Minh City or Bangkok.

I'm divorced and have a son and a grandson and it is a problem being away most of the time. Living as I do, if I had a wife and children I think it would be really hard to do.

The visa thing can be an issue, if you're going to work for someone here make sure they will help you with this. However, so that you know what you need make sure you research the visa issue on your own. A 90 day visa is not a problem and I saw six month visas being offered through the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, but nothing about one year visas or temporary residence cards. Of course you are probably aware that you need some sort of visa in advance just to gain entry into Vietnam.

Some 30 years later I found myself back here again [in Vietnam] on what was to be a short visit that lasted months, and since then I've been living my life with one foot in Ho Chi Minh City and the other in Fair Oaks, California.

For the most part Ho Chi Minh City is safe but like any large city you need to pay attention to what's going on around you.

Born in the Flint, Michigan, big boat sailing on the Great Lakes and skiing in the winter was how most of my youth was spent.