The taxi veered past the twin spires of Notre Dame Cathedral, shot along Dong Khoi Boulevard, and finally stopped under the portico of the Caravelle Hotel opposite the Opera House. "Cam on," he said and climbed out, relieved to be in one piece.
Caravelle Hotel and Opera House
When Robert Anderson arrives in Ho Chi Minh City (everybody still calls the downtown area Saigon), he checks into the five-star Caravelle Hotel. What he doesn't know is that a government agent trailed him from the airport, and his visit to Vietnam isn't going to be anything like he expected.
A bit of history: The original ten-story hotel (right) opened in 1959. Anderson stays in room 814, so he has a nice view of Lam Son Square. On the morning of August 25, 1964, a bomb exploded in a fifth floor room. Luckily, nobody was killed. But Anderson needs more than luck to escape the deadly trap set by a vengeful North Vietnamese colonel of the secretive Ministry of Public Security.
Adjoining the originial (but updated) building is a modern 24-story tower. From the Saigon-Saigon Bar atop the older section you look down on the classic opera house (it's in the upper right corner of every page), where the second and most recent film version of "The Quiet American" had its world premiere.
