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Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk – Bomb Shelter

December 11, 2019

Metropole Hotel Hanoi certainly is one of the best hotels in the world and Sofitel is doing a great job keeping it alive. We should always remember and respect the history of famous hotels. After all, this is our mission – show to travelers what is the best hospitality can offer. Usually, heritage hotels are a great match for our blog, we have even a dedicated category History of Hotels, where you can get to know more about these heritage hotels. The history of hotels can be magnificent, but there are always these dark moments. Metropole Hotel Hanoi has a rich heritage as well, this hotel is one of the famous here in Asia. It can be taken seriously the same as Raffles Singapore, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok or Majestic Kuala Lumpur. To show you the real value of this heritage hotel, they have this Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk tour which ends in the darkest Vietnam era – American War (1964 – 1973).

Metropole Hotel Hanoi 1901
Metropole Hotel Hanoi is one of the best hotels in the world.
metropole hotel hanoi room
Don’t just stay in your room. Explore more about this stunning Metropole Hanoi.

Metropole Hotel Hanoi Has it’s Own Bomb Shelter

Surprised? We didn’t know that before our Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk, which is now a part of a daily tour at this gorgeous hotel. Metropole Hotel Hanoi’s bomb shelter was accidentally discovered in 2011, by the hotel engineering department during the renovation of the Bamboo Bar. It was used during the American War (1964 – 1973) and lately sealed. This bomb shelter was not only for guests but also for employees.

bomb shelter
Part of the complimentary heritage walk is also entering the hotel’s bomb shelter, which was rediscovered in 2011.
Metropole hanoi bomb shelter
Metropole Hanoi’s bomb shelter is big enough to take 40 people and provide enough fresh air for more than 30 minutes.

You might ask, who in the world was staying there between the war? Journalists, negotiators, activists and most famous American singers. What? Yes, Joan Baez was in that bomb shelter, just in the middle of a great air raid. Another famous person hiding there was Jane Fonda.

jane fonda hanoi
Jane Fonda got some enemies after her anti-war activism in Vietnam.

Joan Baez

American folk singer and antiwar activist was in this bomb shelter during the December bomb raid in 1972. She was even singing and playing on her guitar to calm everyone and cover the horrible sounds of the bombing and sirens. She did also some recording of sounds during the raid. Those sounds she used later in her famous “Where Are You Now, My Son” song. This song refers to the cries of a woman Baez saw one morning searching for her son lost from the night’s raids.

Joan Baez painting
Joan Baez oil painting of a young Vietnamese boy, a novice monk is incredible. The singer stayed in Metropole Hanoi Hotel during the Vietnam war and hid in the shelter during the bombings. When she returned, she painted this masterpiece.

Bombing of Hanoi

Hanoi was bombed together with Haiphong city for 12 days. In the 12 days between December 18th and December 30th, the North Vietnamese News Agency estimates, some 100,000 tons of bombs were dropped. That makes one of the biggest air raids in history. Just to imagine – that’s more than the total tonnage dropped on England during the six years of World War II.

B52 bomber
B52 bombers were at their first and the bloodiest mission
bomb shelter hanoi
Bomb shelters like this were all over Hanoi.

I can’t even imagine how crazy that must be, but a lot of people still remember. Our tour guide cried at the end of this Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk. That memory probably will never disappear and our duty is to remember it and make sure something like this won’t happen again.

Life magazine vietnam cover
This photo was taken in front of the Metropole Hotel Hanoi. These bomb shelters are today’s tree pots.
Metropole hanoi sidewalk
Once bomb shelters, now beautiful trees.

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Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk As a Must

If you are in Hanoi, make sure to stay at the Metropole Hanoi Hotel and be a part of history. I warmly recommend joining Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk to get more at this already unforgettable stay.

Metropole Hotel Hanoi
Much better with trees, right?
Vivi in the bomb shelter
From that look, you can say Vivi is not a fan of wars. Who is it anyway? Aaah heartless capitalists and maniacs of course.

AsiaHanoiheritage hotelHistoryluxury hotelSofitelVietnam
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HISTORY OF HOTELS

Ian
An artistic soul who catches the beauty with his camera. A photographer with restless feet and wish to get intimate with the unknown.

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