The Presidential Hotel

We returned to Hanoi in the mid-afternoon after our Ha Long Bay cruise.

Dominik had booked a special hotel for the end of our two-week adventure: the JW Marriott Hanoi.

It was the most expensive hotel of our journey, and we had been looking forward to it throughout the entire trip, partially because it was the final and nicest hotel on our itinerary, and partially because it was what we called the "Obama Hotel", where then-President Barack Obama stayed during his famous 2016 visit to Vietnam.

The hotel is located relatively close to the airport, which is why I imagine the Secret Service selected it for the president's visit.

It turns out that President Obama wasn't the only VIP to have stayed at the Marriott.

A "wall of fame" in the lobby showcased framed and mounted signatures and messages from Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, and two South Korean presidents. Apparently, this wasn't just the "Obama Hotel", but rather the "Presidential Hotel" where world leaders tend to stay when they visit Vietnam.

The hotel had beautiful grounds that even included a small lake. After checking in, we set out to explore the grounds. The hotel had a greenhouse where they grew local herbs, vegetables, and other produce for use in the on-site restaurants. There was even a small coop where they kept chickens to collect fresh eggs.

As we wandered around the grounds, it was hard to believe we were still in the middle of Hanoi. It felt really tranquil and quiet, although I knew that we were really still in the heart of the country's capital.

That night, Dominik and I braved our ways across a really crazy city street and finally made it to a local shop serving bun cha, one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes.

The next morning, we drove to the nearby Museum of Vietnamese Military History, a relatively new museum that has only opened in the past few years since I last visited. The museum has a huge compound and is home to the largest collection of war memorabilia in the country.

We queued up behind a group of green-uniformed cadets who were, presumably, on a field trip to the museum.

The exhibitions began with Vietnamese prehistory, from the Bronze Age all the way up to the "relatively modern" Chinese invasion of Vietnamese lands around a thousand years ago.

As you can imagine, though, the majority of the museum was dedicated to the much more recent First and Second Indochina Wars. The first was Vietnam's war for independence against the French from 1946 to 1955, while the second was what we in the US would call the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 until 1975. (Of course, the Vietnamese wouldn't call it the "Vietnam War.")

The collection of wartime artifacts was incredible! 

Outside, enormous tanks, aircraft, artillery pieces, helicopters, and other military equipment filled the grounds, including American equipment captured during the war as well as a huge collection of Soviet-built weapons supplied to North Vietnam. Among the most significant artifacts were T-54B Tank No. 843, which famously entered the grounds of the Independence Palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975, and MiG-21 No. 5121, the fighter flown by Phạm Tuân when he shot down an American B-52 during the 1972 bombing campaign. There was also the wreckage of a B-52, along with countless smaller artifacts, photographs, weapons, uniforms, and personal belongings from the soldiers who fought in these wars.

Our journey in Vietnam had finally come to an end, and we had done what even the Top Gear team hadn't: we had driven all the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi (albeit with a private driver).

The next morning, Dominik headed off to Cambodia to explore the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, while I headed home to my wife. We would meet up again just a few days later in Bangkok for the last few days of our adventure together.