Checking in to this Ho Chi Minh City hotel is like going back in time

The Majestic Saigon celebrates its centenary this year, but the hotel won its part in the cultural history of the world in 1955 when author Graham Greene chose its rooftop bar as a drinking spot for the conflicted anti-hero of his classic novel, The Quiet American.

The Majestic is spectacularly placed near some of Ho Chi Minh City's newer attractions: just across the road from Saigon Riverside Park; a two-minute walk from Bach Dang Waterbus stop; and with great views of the colour-shifting, cable-stayed Ba Son Bridge. But the hotel is also close to many landmark Colonial-era buildings such as Saigon Opera House, Ho Chi Minh City Hall and South Central Post Office, and the blissfully pedestrianised Nguyen Hue Walking Street. It couldn't be more convenient, really.

The Majestic is an original art deco hotel, decorated over with dubious Chinese bling. The marble lobby is almost convincing, with a pleasing row of wall clocks and some passable leadlighting, but it's brought down a bit by laughable statuary. Despite this, the public areas display a certain commercially savvy sense of the building's history. If you squint hard, you can almost see things the way they were. In the Colonial wing, a plaque by the door of room 103 remembers Japanese writer Takeshi Kaiko, who lived there for a time in 1965-66 and wrote a series of articles that fired up the anti-war movement in Japan. The hotel claims it has been preserved as Kaiko left it, although this seems unlikely since there are several large pictures of the writer on the walls.

I'm staying in a Colonial Deluxe room with an extraordinarily high ceiling and a comfortable bed. The windows look out onto nothing much, but many other rooms have views of the Saigon River. The marble bathroom includes a pleasing bath step and other slightly weird grace notes such as a toilet roll wrapped in bronze satin and tied up like a bonbon. None of the three Bergere-style chairs fits under the writing desk.

Guests enjoy comprehensive buffet breakfasts in the fifth-floor Breeze Sky Bar overlooking the river. The menu changes daily, but dishes during my stay included a Vietnamese chicken curry, a beef-in-red-wine stew, pork spare ribs, veal sausages, chicken katsu, spring rolls, chips, noodles, crumbed sardines... just about everything. There's even a banh mi truck and a pho-and-omelette kitchen. Bar snacks in the evening at the eighth-storey rooftop M Bar are pedestrian Western offerings. The evening speciality at Breeze is a barbecue mixed grill.

Ho Chi Minh City is all action, especially around District 1 where there are literally (as the kids say) thousands of restaurants, coffee shops, bars and massage parlours. If anything, the Majestic offers a welcome break from all the action, with a relaxing outdoor pool, a gym, a spa and a quiet, underused lobby coffee shop and bar. However, both the Breeze and the M Bar have great open-air areas with views of the city and the Saigon River.

The chance to enjoy a cocktail while looking down on Ho Chi Minh City street life from the M Bar, following in the drink-steps of one of the greatest authors.

The writer stayed at his own expense