I’m hanging on tight to the back of a Vespa as we hurtle through the dark streets of Hanoi. The traffic here is on another level: red lights are a mere suggestion and there are literally millions of honking scooters darting through the city like schools of fish. My driver handles the turns at speed despite the fact I am at least twice his diminutive size and weighing down the bike like an oversized fridge.

We’re doing a whistlestop street food tour of the Vietnamese capital with a snack at every stop. First we eat crisp, savoury spring rolls on Train Street, where lumbering locomotives roar past the shopfronts at alarming closeness. Then we slurp heavenly bun cha – thin rice noodles dunked in porky soup – at a no-frills spot where Barack Obama had dinner with Anthony Bourdain in 2016. You can see why they chose this place over the thousands of other bun cha spots – it’s sparklingly clean and has a secure private room upstairs where the meeting occurred.

“Where are you staying,” asks the tour guide over our third meal in as many hours, a tableful of banh cuon, delicate steamed rice rolls stuffed with beef and wood ear mushroom splashed in sweet nuoc cham. “The Capella Hanoi?” I say, and he gasps, eyes wide.

“That’s where Blackpink stayed!”

Some googling back at my room reveals that it is indeed where the wildly popular K-Pop sensations rested their heads a few months ago. The hotel staff is too discreet to confirm, but after further investigation I find it was a Very Big Deal in Vietnam. Thousands of fans lined the somewhat quiet backstreets around the hotel for a peek at the popular girl group. They had to erect special hoarding around the building.

One look at the Capella and it’s unsurprising it’s the hotel of choice for visiting pop stars, rock stars, politicians, business tycoons, or very lucky journalists. The new addition to a chain of boutique hotels headquartered in Singapore opened in April 2022 after a decade of planning. It’s a proudly over the top, shiny, lacquered, opulent, luxurious ode to the original 1920s Hanoi Opera House just down the road. It’s unlike anywhere else you’ll ever stay.

It’s the work of Bill Bensley, one of Southeast Asia’s most celebrated interior designers and the architect behind more than 200 hotels in 50 countries. His Capella Hanoi is like Moulin Rouge via The Great Gatsby’s grandeur. Every corner is embellished with polished marble, shimmering gold, carved stone, imposing statues and ornate balconies decorated with fancy lamps. There are just 47 rooms over five themed floors: The Music, The Starlets, The Artists, The Actors, The Drama. Each room is inspired by a great performer of the past (mine is Ellen Terry, a revered English actor from the turn of the 19th century).

The mission is to make each guest feel like they are coming home, not checking in. Almost everything, from the furniture to the intricate porcelain, is a Bensley original. Guests are invited to the Diva’s Lounge for a (free) nightly cocktail, complete with a sultry performance of Diamonds Are Forever from a glamorous showgirl.

When I return to the room from exploring the nearby Hoan Kiem lake I find my tired old Apple headphones carefully wrapped in a leather holder. My sunglasses are placed on a special hook. Glass canisters of filtered water are placed wherever thirst may strike. The bed is made so tightly you could bounce a coin off it, with blindingly white, silky Egyptian-cotton sheets.

Any visit to Hanoi is centred around the spectacular cuisine, and the Capella has all bases covered. Beyond a flamboyant corridor mounted with dozens of flashing paparazzi bulbs, you’ll find the all-day restaurant, Backstage. There’s a comprehensive menu of Vietnamese classics devised by Madame Anh Tuyet (a local Maggie Beer-like figure). Breakfast might be every kind of warmed fresh bread with sliced cold cuts and perfect fruit. Or or a gorgeous bowl of pho-like wonton noodle soup with rice noodles, swishy wontons, a jammy egg, pig’s ear, liver, prawns and mushrooms with crisp doughnut fingers.

On the top floor is The Hudson Rooms, inspired by 1920s Manhattan, with a clattering open kitchen and views of Hanoi’s downtown business district. Its more Western menu includes a Grand Central Station-themed oyster bar. There’s a slinky cellar that leads to a plush speakeasy-inspired cocktail bar concealed behind a wall of whisky bottles. Guests must be invited to find the key (ask nicely and you’ll probably be given a gilt-edged invitation on a thick card).

In the basement there’s an opulent pool and elaborate spa with a private steam room, a sauna, an ice plunge, and regal treatment rooms. Also down in the guts of the building is Koki – meaning “house of the senses” –¬ where you’ll find several high-end Japanese restaurants, including a decadent teppanyaki restaurant called Hibana by Koki, which is Vietnam's only Japanese restaurant with a Michelin star. The meticulous seasonal tasting menu is served at a 14-seat counter and might include ingredients such as Wagyu, lobster and abalone flown in from Japan. Given those food miles, a meal here is not cheap – 8,500,000 Vietnamese Dong ($533) for the signature set, minus drinks.

But it’s not so much the food as the service that’s the drawcard here. It’s ever discreet, bright-eyed, unobtrusively friendly, and supremely accommodating. It’s the kind of place where you might mention something in passing, and the team will make it appear, like that deep dish pizza in The Bear. On my last morning I admit that I haven’t yet tried an egg coffee, a Northern Vietnamese specialty. As I check out and wait for my ride to the airport, several team members present me with a takeaway cup. Inside: a steaming beverage of strong coffee and fluffy condensed-milk egg custard.

As my car pulls away into the streets of Hanoi, I look back and see a giant, glossy black car with tinted windows pull up behind me into the semi-circular driveway. I wonder which travelling pop group might be inside.

Rooms start from approximately $700 per night. Visit capellahotels.com/en/capella-hanoi for more information.

The writer stayed as a guest of Capella Hanoi.

This story is part of The Travel Issue: Wish You Were Here.