Metropole Hotel Hanoi Heritage Walk – Bomb Shelter

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.