Fusion Original Saigon Centre, Ho Chi Minh City Hotel

The Fusion Original Saigon Centre is one of the best located hotels in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon located right within one of Saigon's most upmarket shopping centres with a Takashimaya department store and a wide and varied food court, Royce Japanese chocolate and McDonalds. And if you love shopping, spa or need to check in early or check out late then you need to know all about the new offering; The Nest on the hotel's 15th floor.

It's bright and early when Mr NQN and I pull up to the Fusion Original Saigon Centre. I had previously stayed at another Fusion hotel called the Fusion Maia hotel in Da Nang which I absolutely loved. The hotel is located in a shopping centre so there are several ways to enter. The main entrance to the hotel is at the Saigon Centre's main entrance just adjacent to the Chanel and Marc Jacob's boutique. We walk through a passageway with white mirrors up to a giant purple bulldog statue splayed on the floor. That's Louis.

It's 9am when we arrive so our rooms aren't ready (understandably) until check-in at 2pm at the latest. But that's no problem as we have access to The Nest. This lounge set high on the hotel's 15th floor is a serene oasis away from the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City below. Access to The Nest is 1,200,000VND or around $70AUD/$45USD per person and you can have unlimited access to this space where you can work, shower and snack to your heart's content. And there's an additional perk: all guests with access to the Nest have a complimentary facial or massage.

In the Next there are 12 comfortable recliners to choose from and you can separate these with the sheer curtains for privacy. Each recliner has an ottoman and a double international adaptor and small table. There are also leg massage machines that you can also use.

There's a small selection of snacks available to help yourself to or you can also order coffees with the friendly staff. We order two Vietnamese iced coffees with condensed milk and help ourselves to the dried nuts, nuts, cookies, energy bars and chocolate bars by Vietnamese chocolate Marou.

At 10am I head into a nearby room for my facial. I drift off and relax while the spa therapist Jenny does a fantastic facial with a lot of facial massage to relax me. After the 45 minute facial I head into another room where I am invited to sit in a Japanese massage machine for a 15 minute automated massage. It's surprising how well it works and when they offer another spin on it I happily accept. However I will say that at 5 foot tall, it was really built for me whereas 6 foot 2 inch tall Mr NQN found that it didn't work quite as well on him.

As I finish up, the lovely staff have prepared a little snack display for us with yogurt, fruit and nuts to tide us over before a selection of sandwiches arrive. These sandwiches are presented beautifully in a pink woven box with four compartments. In one compartment is a cheese, ham and mayonnaise sandwich.

The other triangle sandwich is filled with lettuce and mayonnaise and I add some salami and cheese to it. In another compartment there is a savoury tart, yogurt with fruit as well as a divinely moist banana bread that is so moreish I devour all of it quickly. This is a good sized snack that sates the appetite but doesn't ruin it for a meal in a few hours.

By now it's 1pm and the lovely staff member at The Nest Han approaches us with our room keys as our room is ready. We are staying in room 1713 on the 17th floor. This is a king deluxe room that is spacious. The bed is extraordinarily comfortable with soft and smooth sheets and downy pillows.

Mr NQN parks himself on the lounge by the view of the city below - there's also a good sized work desk and plenty of space for luggage too plus a retro style Bluetooth speaker which I love as I like listening to music when I travel.

The bathroom is large with a spacious walk in shower, separate toilet, good sized sink area with a comprehensive amenity kit and good quality toiletries.

There's also a complimentary mini bar with soft drinks and access to the reloadable pantry just around the corner. This is where guests can make themselves coffees, teas or help themselves to ice, snacks or fruit for free.

There is also a pool on the 6th floor as well as a gym. The gym is actually not a part of the hotel but a separate business called the California Centuryon located within the shopping centre also on the 6th floor.

Breakfast is at the Miss Thu restaurant on the 24th floor. I'm not a dinner buffet person but breakfast buffets are another matter especially if they have an a la carte selection alongside the buffet choices. You can also help yourself to smoothies (the banana one is delicious) and pre-made glasses of iced coffee Vietnamese style. All of the fruit and pastries and some hot foods are available via the buffet but there's also an excellent a la carte selection. There are lots of Vietnamese and Western options from eggs benedict, vanilla waffles to pho soup. We start with some corn fritters that are like little corn pikelets with a spicy tomato relish drizzled on top. These are nice and I like that the servings aren't huge so that you can try a few things.

I go straight for the Vietnamese choices, particularly the soups as I have laryngitis and I want something soothing. The Mien Ga or chicken noodle soup is fantastic with a delicious broth, slippery noodles and soft poached pieces of free range chicken with herbs, chillies and chilli sauce if you want to add that in. We also try the Com Tam or broken rice with pork which is nice but I would have loved there to have been a bit more pork for the rice and for the pork to be a bit more tender. The corn fritters are quite thin but they are very tasty and the thinness makes them a bit lighter so that you can try more. Because of course, we want to go out and explore everything that District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City has to offer!

So tell me Dear Reader, would you pay extra for access to The Nest or stick with the standard check-in? Have you ever stayed at a hotel inside a shopping centre?