Where to drink in Ho Chi Minh City, from historic haunts to new hotspots

The rooftop bar at the art deco landmark Caravelle Hotel was a favourite of journalists during the Vietnam War, and black-and-white photos of war correspondents hang in the stairwell as if they are queuing up for a happy-hour beer.

Opened in 1959, the Caravelle was once the tallest building in Saigon, and it still commands some of the best views (pictured) of the city - providing you look towards the Opera House and Notre Dame Cathedral, rather than to the rear of McDonald's and a backwall-scape of satellite dishes and air-conditioning units. The Caravelle has not suffered as badly as other historic pubs from kitschy, blingy renovation, and the bar remains my sentimental favourite.

caravellehotel.com

Graham Greene wrote his classic Vietnam novel, The Quiet American, at the Rex. I finished my own Vietnam novel here, too. It's a thrill to drink at the same bar as one of the greatest authors in the English language (I'm talking about myself, of course) even if the cover band is annoyingly loud. From 1964 to 1973, the Rex was the venue for the "Five O'Clock Follies", the name mockingly given by war correspondents to press briefings in which the US Army claimed to be winning a war they were clearly losing.

Despite the cheap and chintzy new furniture, you can still feel the history of the Rex. The hotel was a stage on which the world changed, culturally and politically, and the views stretch across the city all the way into the past.

rexhotelsaigon.com

Crowded and clamorous and on the edge of an infinity pool (pictured), the 24th-floor Social Club, which opened in 2015, has a buzzy, youthful glamour that's a bit lacking in Ho Chi Minh City's classic rooftop bars.

The pool is supposedly for house guests only, but it's difficult to see how this rule could be enforced. DJ sets bang out (although there's not much room to dance), people smoke cigarettes (which seems so strange) and the bravest drinkers teeter across the glass bridge that links the hotel to the building next door.

Drinkers are exposed to the breeze, and the views are less great here, a couple of blocks inland from the river, but the city still dazzles in the dark.

hoteldesartssaigon.com