American War

When we were in the depths of our Halong nightmare I went online and got us a good deal for a couple of rooms at Hanoi's historic hotel the Sofitel Metropole. Little did we know that we would become part of the family at the Art Hotel and they would lovingly greet us all by name every time they saw us. We had three more lovely nights with them and then, feeling a little disloyal we packed up and taxied across town to our new posh home.
The Metropole is grand, opulent and steeped in a rich history. Hundreds of busy staff buzz around in elegant traditional uniforms singing out greetings in French when they pass you. It felt like the hotel was the only place in Vietnam to miss the memo saying French Indochina was no longer.
We decided to take part in the free tour of the hotel and look at the bomb shelter used during what's known here as the American War but what we know as the Vietnam War. Our hotel tour leader spared no details in accounting the country's brutal history, first fighting and defeating the French and then the Americans. In the stuffy, damp bomb shelter under this grand hotel we listened to the recorded sounds of US bombs dropping on Hanoi and the haunting wails of Vietnamese mothers looking for their lost children. There was no romantic nostalgia for a former colonial time but instead a strong, proud and clear message of how hard Vietnamese people have fought and how much they have suffered.
By the end of the tour our hearts were heavy and our eyes were as misty as the cold Hanoi morning.
LYTTMAB