Hanoi’s Metropole Hotel, opened in 1902 during the heyday of the French colonial occupation of Indochina has seen many interesting comings and goings since day 1.
Many heads of state, government officials, movies stars have stayed in the hotel over the years. Heavily reinforced bomb shelters were built beneath part of the hotel to protect North Vietnamese officials from American bombs. Joan Baez visited during that time (and donated one of her paintings as reminder)
as did “Hanoi Jane” Fonda. But perhaps the most notorious was in 2019. In August of that year, North Korea’s “Outstanding Leader” (Kim’s official nickname) met that other “outstanding” (self-proclaimed) leader for their breakthrough summit that never broke through!
Today the hotel is tourist ground zero - a base for the many European and American tour groups that pass through Hanoi. We see a few obviously wealthy Vietnamese, mostly Gen-X’ers taking social media selfies. Otherwise, the very European hotel bears little resemblance to Vietnam
Bac Ho
Unlike Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan, Ho Chi Minh’s legacy is still very much intact. Bac (“Uncle”) Ho is revered as the “father of the nation” having played a key role in Vietnam’s struggle to free itself from French colonialism. His name is very much associated with Vietnam’s “victory” in what is described here as the “American War” and the reunification of Vietnam. Ho died in 1969, several years before the war’s formal end in 1975 which also resulted in the reunification of the two halves of Vietnam the following year
Hanoi while the capital of Vietnam, a nation unified since the end of the war in 1975 is not the country’s largest city (that honour falls to Ho Chi Minh City) it nevertheless symbolizes Vietnam’s transition from a Marxist/Leninist state to a market-driven economy. The economy appears to be booming, at least judging by what we see in Hanoi (including at least one new looking Rolls Royce). Indeed Vietnam is considered one of Southeast Asia’s “tigers” and is rapidly becoming (if not already there) a middle-income nation. What a remarkable turnaround from the massive destruction caused by the wars - both the “American War” and the following civil war between north and south that preceded unification and the years that followed.
We’re in Hanoi in the days leading up to Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year marking the start of the “Year of the Cat” (in China, the Year of the Rabbit). Preparations are in full swing, most notably the stunning arrangements of orchids and other flowers, cumquat trees and peach and apricot blossoms, all considered to bring good luck and good fortune for the advent of the new year
