sound & vision
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BAR BUI 39/2 Pham Ngoc Thach, Q3. Tel: 3824 1963 lodgebui@gmail.com 10am to 12am Also known as Dust Lodge, Bar Bui resembles Seventeen Saloon with its red and blue neon lighting, bricked walls, wooden roof, columns and beams. It hosts live flamenco and country music every night from 8.30pm courtesy of three Filipino house bands.
Rules
BOOTLEG DJ CAFÉ
Pat Joynt, of Saigon Scooter Centre, has been in Vietnam for 15 years, and working in the scooter and motorcycle industry for 30 years, restoring classic bikes, importing and producing parts. To ask Pat a question about your motorbike, email roadrules@wordhcmc.com HEY PAT, I SAW A FEW BONUS BIKES AROUND TOWN AND MY FRIEND HAS ONE BUT IT KEEPS BREAKING DOWN ON HIM. HE WANTS TO SELL IT TO ME FOR CHEAP, VND4 MILLION. IS IT WORTH IT? WHAT ARE THEY AND WHO MAKES THEM? The Bonus MB125cc bikes were produced by the well-known Taiwanese company SYM in the 1990s. They’re a basic 4-stroke motor with a 4-speed gearbox and an electric starter. The going price used to be around VND9,450,000 but recently they have come down in price to between VND5 and 6 million. They used to be popular with short-term residents and by many for touring and are still used by many of the Easy Rider tour groups. They can be bought for cheap but I’d recommend spending more on a bike that has been well maintained and kept in better overall condition than buying an unreliable bike that you’ll need to spend money on. A downside to any cheap bike is that most owners who buy a cheaper bike do so for financial reasons and therefore usually they have had the minimum amount of preventative maintenance. Shop around, there
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are many advertised on local buy & sell websites for VND5 to 6 million that are in half decent condition. HEY PAT, I RECENTLY HAD A BIKE ACCIDENT AND THE HELMET I WORE SPLIT IN HALF EVEN THOUGH IT WASN’T A HARD FALL. WHAT HELMET DO YOU RECOMMEND TO WEAR THAT ISN’T HEAVY ON THE HEAD AND DOESN’T MAKE MY HEAD BOILING HOT? The problem with helmets here is that they are produced for the local market and local budget. After 10 years of trying to enforce the helmet law when it finally did come to fruition it was for the simple reason that the price of a VND50,000 helmet was a quarter of that of the fine! There are only a couple of places where good imported helmets are available. There are a couple of Korean and Thai brands that produce budget helmets offering slightly more protection than the locally produced ones. Check out the shops near The New World Hotel; prices range from VND350,000 to VND500,000. Saigon Scooter Centre also has a wide range of quality imported helmets.
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9 Le Thanh Ton, Q1 8am to 1am This sleekly designed café morphs into a trendy live music nightspot with a selection of resident and guest DJs to be found behind the Sarato-programmed decks. Expect a multitude of electronic sounds, from deep and liquid house to lounge, disco, chill out, hip-hop and a bevy of instrumentals you’ve heard before but can’t quite put your finger on.
CACOPHONY
If you’re looking for a European or imported helmet with international kite marks such as DOT, SNELL and BSI testing then be prepared to pay anything from VND3,150,000 for a composite fiberglass open face helmet up to VND10 million+ for a full race spec Kevlar helmet. For something for daily city use any open face style is ideal preferably with a visor. The better quality the helmet is then generally the lighter they are. Thermo plastic helmets offer more protection than fiberglass and with top of the range Kevlar come the lightest helmets offering the highest protection. For an open face Kevlar helmet with a quality visor from a reputable European/ Italian manufacturer expect to pay somewhere around VND5,250,000. At the end of the day you need to weigh the sweaty head option against the cracked skull scenario and buy the best helmet your budget can afford. To quote an old 1970s Schoei helmet advertising campaign — a five-dollar helmet for a five-dollar brain. Do you have questions related to motorbikes? Email them to Pat Joynt on roadrules@wordhcmc.com
57H Tu Xuong, Q3. Tel: 3932 2797 9am to 11pm This unique establishment sets itself apart from other live music venues in Saigon as the city’s first 3D-themed café. Each floor of this French-colonial three-storey villa has been designed as a homage to both Sagionese and Hanoian street café culture. The ground floor is where the live music happens every Wednesday to Sunday from 9pm to 11pm with pop, rock and country sets performed by the growing plethora of local bands.
CARMEN 8 Ly Tu Trong, Q1. Tel: 3829 7699 6pm to 1am The inspiration for Carmen is the popular opera named, naturally, Carmen. In place of European leads are the musical talents of a local band as well as Filipino and Vietnamese lead singers crooning to Latin beats. As if being a venue built on Flamenco music was not enough to stand out in Saigon, it further differentiates itself with a cabin-like exterior, steep stairs, a small cavernous-type entrance and an interior highlighted by rough rock walls, wood beams and candle-lit beer keg tables.
garden positioned next to a tiny raised balcony where a pianist serenades customers every Monday night. Romantic ballads can be heard every Tuesday and rock every Friday.
LA HABANA 6 Cao Ba Quat, Q1, Tel: 3829 5180 www.lahabana-saigon.com Saigon cover band stalwarts Carmen & Brothers play an eclectic selection of well known hits by the likes of Michael Jackson, Leona Lewis and Bon Jovi every night of the week except Mondays. The music usually starts at 9pm but arrive early to ensure prime seating in the lounge.
METALLIC BAR
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41 Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, Q3. Tel: 3930 3154 www.metallicbar.com 9pm to 1am A popular destination for both locals and foreigners with a hankering for live rock music and a totally smoke-free atmosphere, Metallic Bar is one of Saigon’s most established live music venues. Longtime house band, The Yellow, a host of Filipino singers and numerous local Vietnamese bands can be seen rocking out to ferocious covers of Metallica, Guns N Roses and CCR on a nightly basis between 9pm and 12am before a DJ takes to the decks to perform a selection of contemporary dance, hip hop and r n’ b tunes through to the early hours.
NAPOLY BAR 7 Pham Ngoc Thanh, Q3, Tel: 3829 0583 www.napolybar.com 7pm until 12am Named after the famed southern Italian city, the ground floor seating of this popular and somewhat upscale café looks and feels like it came straight out of Italy itself. The upstairs bar in the back is the place to catch local Vietnamese band Quoc Anh play classic 1980s hits every night from 9pm to midnight.
NIGHTSPOT 23rd Floor, Sheraton Hotel & Towers, 88 Dong Khoi, Q1, Tel: 3827 2828 www.sheraton.com/saigon 7pm to midnight (weekdays). Open late on weekends. One of the chicest venues in the city, this hotel bar offers nightly live music courtesy of the six-piece Transit band and Filipino group Sound On Fire. As the name implies, Transit play a range of Top 40 hits across the spectrum of popular music every Tuesday to Sunday from 8.45pm until 11.45pm (1am at weekends), while the usually heavy-rock inclined Sound On Fire tap into their Latin-dance side every Monday night from 8.45pm until just before midnight.
PACHARAN
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97 Hai Ba Trung, Q1, Tel: 3825 6024 9am to midnight Wednesdays and Fridays are the nights to catch local favourites such as cover band circuit legend Juram, and latin pop group Warapo. Juram is known for his gravelvoiced versions of anthems by Nirvana, Pink Floyd and Metallica, while Warapo serve up a very physical offering live and exotic Cuban salsa music.
ROCKFANCLUB BAR 25C Tu Xuong, Q3 Formerly Tadao Coffee Bar, the promoters behind RockFanClub, the long-running underground Vietnamese hard rock and metal night, have moved in, finally giving the city’s moshers a home of their own. Local hard rock and metal bands can be found playing every night of the week from around 9pm at this tiny yet comfortable and cool venue.
SAIGON SAIGON BAR 9th Floor, Caravelle Hotel, 19 Lam Som Square, Q1. Tel: 3823 4999 www.caravellehotel.com 11am to 2am Cuban bands are a mainstay at this
JARDIN D’AMOUR 8Bis Nguyen Van Trang, Q1. Tel: 6679 2406 9am to 11pm A quirky, French-style café with a subdued and relaxing atmosphere. Each evening from 8.30pm the self-titled ‘Garden of Love’ houses live music with different themes such as Tien Chien Night (pre-war Vietnamese music), International Covers Night and Lovers Night. The stage is a quaint miniature theatre-style set up with white picket fencing and a painted backdrop of a
ICONS 101 AIRCONDITIONING WI-FI NON-SMOKING AREA DELIVERY
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HAPPY HOUR LIVE MUSIC DJ
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