[jajaBinks]

That is a very informative post! However, if you are willing to spend $900-$1000 per month on housing, you can technically look at almost every Asian city (perhaps not the very center of the city, but a decent neighborhood). Because $1000 is indeed a lot of money for accommodation when compared to the standard of living in most of the world. I live in Seattle and pay $1500 for 2BR2BA apartment that I share with a roommate in a nice neighborhood (not Capitol Hill - that place is going out of the roof!)

I am from India and I worked in Bengaluru and Delhi before this. I used to pay about ~$500 for a studio 3 years ago. In Bengaluru, you now have tremendous access to Venture Capital (including the Silicon Valley names like Sequoia), great incubators, work spaces, and a lot of talent and IT type crowd. English is no-problem.

On the negative, you must be willing to spend inordinate amounts of time in traffic - you can own bikes just like in Saigon, but the roads have potholes :-D - breathe polluted air, potentially fall sick because of poor hygiene and eating outside food.

[jonmy]

Thanks buddy. Price alone really wasn't the impetus for me writing the article. For $1,000/ month you can look at most asian cities - and yes, you can look at US cities. You could bootstrap in Columbus, Ohio - Detroit or Omaha for a similar price point.

What I was getting at is - the scene - the people here, the combination of factors and overall value.

That coupled with a lot of the other factors - is the distinguishing point not just price.

Like I said below though, a lot of things have change - imo - for the better. I need to update the article soon.

I need to get back to India. I lived there for a year in 1999. I can't imagine how it has changed now.

Cheers.