Thanks for writing this!

I have been roaming around Asia for a while too, but I cannot mention details, but then again the big picture is what counts!

Your experience around actually building businesses is something I can relate to, been there done that to often. What I ended up doing when 2020 hit was to walk away from 3 businesses, a new business deal, and most stuff I've ever owned.

Why? None of my business partners understood that the world had changed, and that we would have to adapt hard, in a short amount of time. This was mid April 2020, I got to have my 100% legit business, with a visa and work permit, I literally had a guy tell me "oh, you're golden then!"

Closing a business in a totally alien country when you're locked in? On a visa that is about to expire when the panic is peaking? I will never do anything close to that ever again...

I have been to Vietnam 3 times, twice recently. I've researched visas and so on a bit, but I have not gotten deep enough to fully understand it.

Your experience really shines through here, in a way that I recognize. When getting into the practicalities that are not published in the open for a country there is this stage where you start getting the real picture from experienced expats.

That picture is so often very different from the impression you get online! Most people in forums and so on have a very shallow take on things, but once you get used to identifying those who really know then that changes. Some things that you'd think are super dangerous are not, and vice versa!

Vietnam is not on my map for this and next year, but I'm still tempted, and if I do I'll probably search for that "deeper layer" of knowledge, shopping around for visa agents and more is of course an essential part of that.

I'll check the rest of your posts here now!