Great homes and destinations - NY Times

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — To Peter Arts and Hedwig Pira, it doesn’t feel all that long since they uprooted themselves from a comfortable existence in their native Belgium and took on the formidable task of building a business, a house and a life in a foreign country.

Now, more than a decade later, Mr. Arts, 51, is the director of Saigon River Factory Vietnam, a company that employs more than 100 people creating handmade furniture and tiles for worldwide distribution, while his wife, also 51, is the art director and designer.

With such an ambitious operation, their goal for a home was modest: all they wanted, Ms. Pira said, was “an oasis from the hectic life of Vietnam.”