12 - 13 September, 2009, The Old Quarter Hanoi City

Late, lazy Saturday. I slept in because I could. No work, no yoga. I was going to go the the Hanoi Hilton (Hao Lo prison) and to see Ho Chi Minh’s house and museum, but I never made it. I decided to walk the Old Quarter instead. Lovely architecture and really one big bloody market. I bought a beautiful!!!! silk jacket and a nice top. And some bags for gifts. That’s about it. I was good. There is a cyclone north of us so I kept dodging the rain. Met a couple of Aussies who live in Ho Chi Minh City now and (mistakenly as it would turn out) had a carrot and orange juice on the street.

I came back to the room and started to read the book on the hotel. I knew it was chock full of history, but had no idea of just how much. The Metropole was built in 1901. It was to be the grandest of grand hotels in the crown jewel of Indochina, that was Hanoi. It was to rival the Raffles in Singapore, amongst several others in Asia. It has been home to several embassies, has housed countless politicians and movie stars. It has housed literary luminaries, many of whom I’ve heard of but not read (I’m more of a Harry Potter fan, myself). Charlie Chaplin had his honeymoon here and this is where Jane Fonda lived during her two months in Hanoi in the early ’70’s...she apparently met Tom Hayden here as well, whom she later married. Sydney Pollack moved in his whole film crew during “The Quite American.” Basically anyone who is anyone who’s ever been to Hanoi has either stayed or eaten at the Metropole.

Today during lunch you will see no less than 5 ambassadors from 5 different countries. This is where they come to socialise.

During the ’60’s they built a bomb shelter in the courtyard. The guests would go to the bomb shelter while the employees would patrol the perimeter with rifles. Some of the staff who were trained with the rifles still work at the hotel. The bomb shelter is so well built they could not demolish it after the war and, as a result cannot expand the pool.

After a couple of drinks at the bar by the pool (on top of said bomb shelter) I had a wonderful seafood buffet at Spices Garden, the Vietnamese restaurant in the hotel. Wonderful until about 3AM when I woke up and vomited it all back up. Several more trips to the bathroom later I quickly realised I had a bad case of food poisoning. I know the signs. Same thing happened to me after a few days in India. Chills, fever, can’t keep my eyes open. Needless to say, instead of sight seeing I spent the day in bed. I certainly caught up on my sleep.