For the war historian, the war room is lined with maps showing the progressive loss of territory to the Viet Cong, and there is a great array of photos from the period immediately after the American War.

While it is easy to forget that Ho Chi Minh City is anything other than capitalist, it is tours such as this that remind you otherwise.

The new building has a fantastic late '60s feel to the architecture and an early '70s feel to the décor. The palace has pretty much been left as it stood on the famous day when the first Communist tanks arrived in Saigon on the morning of 30 April 1975 and crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace. An NVA soldier ran up the steps and unfurled a VC flag of the 4th-floor balcony, and the palace was renamed the reunification palace.

The palace is a must-see when in Ho Chi Minh City, not only for its historical importance, but also because it is just a fantastic building stuck in time. It’s also good value at 15,000D (a guide/brochure is 5,000D extra), which includes an English-speaking guide inside that gives you a potted history of the building. There is also a film shown (in several different languages) at the end of the tour. The film, however, is rather unintelligible and will confuse rather than educate.

The Palace is no longer used as a presidential palace, which is now in the capital, Hanoi; however, be aware that it is not open when there are official meetings taking place. If you find it closed to visitors, it is well worth making the trip back, especially as it was only 66p each for the entrance fee.

It will come as no surprise that the tour focuses on the period of the American War and includes the war room, communications room and a photo gallery of war images. But one of the most interesting things about the building is that it has been frozen in time. Many museums around the world focus on ancient history, but here you get to see the décor and technology from the sixties and early seventies, still maintained as if they shut up shop yesterday.

The tour takes you around many areas of the building, including the obligatory souvenir shop (prices are not bad) and a traditional music demonstration where you get to play the instruments – good fun but a bit out of place here in the palace.

The tour finishes after a walk through the basement, again if you don’t mind a good dose of propaganda then its worth the extra half hour to see the documentary which has some excellent archive footage.

We timed our visit a bit wrong and arrived late morning – unaware that the palace closes for lunch. You need at least an hour to do the tour plus an extra 30 minutes for the film.