HCMC-the city of cool rooftop bars

Trip Start Apr 06, 2008
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Trip End Jun 20, 2008


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Where I stayed
Giang Hotel
(Ho Chi Minh City hotels)

Flag of Vietnam  ,
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Ho Chi Minh City is the place of the nice rooftop bars, Saigon Saigon bar on the top of Caravelle hotel, or the more famous Rooftop garden bar of the Rex hotel, voted as the best bar of South East Asia by the Newsweek Magazine in 1996.Well-known  also as one of "1000 places to see before you die" listed by Patricia Schultz - the famous American travel writer.Overlooking the main shopping streets, as well as the lovely Cathedrale and the dominant City Hall building.
Cholon is the name of the chinese district of  HCMC, the biggest Chinatown in Vietnam and probably the most hectic place in the city.In the old days, Cholon was an independant city, but it was merged with Saigon in 1931 by the French colonial administration.The days when Cholon meant opium dens, prostitutes, and gambling are gone, but it is still an exciting place to spend a few hours.It has Vietnams biggest concentration of chinese temples, the Quan Am Pagoda is the oldest and most famous shrine in Cholon. It is artistically very rich, including gold and lacquer panels of some of its guardian spirits.Its not so easy to find the various temples and pagodas in the small alleys of Chinatown Saigon.
Another building of interest is certainly the Reunification Palace, the former residence of the old saigon regime.There are about 100 banquet and reception rooms.It was this building that was overrun first, on the historic day of April 30th 1975, when the North vietnamese army  finally liberated the city of Saigon.

 
 
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