Crazy House, Dalat, Vietnam

Also called the Hang Nga Guesthouse, (introduction here)

Is one of the most bizarre boutique hotels in the world.

I first read about this particular boutique was in some random foreign online travel site, sort of like Times. There were a couple of photos and very fairy-tale like description of the place, very vague, but I was hooked.

So when my mom said she was interested to visit Vietnam, I leaped on the opportunity to embark on a journey to seek out this magical place.

First of all, this hotel was built and designed as a house by the daughter of the former president of Vietnam, who has a doctorate in Architecture, namely Hang Viet Nga (hence the house name).

She's an old lady with poise, albeit very bizarre attitude towards the world, indifferent one may call her.

I wanted to meet her after hearing bits and pieces of stories of her. So I asked for an interview.

It took her nearly an hour to walk down from her room, which she hardly came out, to meet me at the reception. We adjourned to her living room (well, it was supposed to be her house) and chatted.

Despite the obvious old age, she dressed rather stylishly due to her aristocratic upbringing, can you believe she is 71 years old this year?

Nothing is normal in Hang Nga Guesthouse. Nothing is symmetrical, or round, or square, or anything; but loads of intertwines and curves, looping around defying dimensions.

You could find a skinny branch-like stairs leading up to the sky, elevating to the second/third floor amongst the trees, or some hidden chambers just around the corner.

The place was mysterious and enchanting.

Some said it's a fusion architecture of Disneyland and buildings of Antoni Gaudi's in Barcelona (whom I have strongly admired during my stay in Spain); though Madame Hang Viet Nga has never been to either of the place.

One of the most significant structure in the guesthouse has to be this five-story tree-house made of swirly staircase and different themed rooms, you'll be surprised at how many hidden entrances there were to enter this building.

There are 10 rooms of a different animal/forest item/insect with jungle and forest as their main theme, plus one more room which has been converted to souvenir shop. Though I should suspect one of the rooms (listed or not) was Madame Hang Viet Nga's own room.

We stayed in Tiger Room, consisted of two double beds.

oh hello

Land Eagle room which you have seen before in the previous post.

Among other animals and plant.

I thought the cutest room was the Honeymoon room, which was a tiny two storey space, made of bamboo-like stairs leading up to an attic-like bedroom. Very private, very small, very cosy.

The souvenir shop was originally a room made to look like Winnie the Pooh's owl's tree house.

love the window

The beds in Hang Nga, I'd soon come to realise, were a bit dusty due to lack of stays of actual guests, most were just visitors during the day; which was unfortunate for us because that meant the grounds of the hotel lack privacy for its guests.

But that also meant you have all the privacy to explore its garden at night, which was the prettiest thing.

"Walk through my door, and I'll bring you to another world, of giant spider webs and swirly stairs" *Cue theme song*

It's even more fun to roam the, albeit small, garden at night.

"So next time you think there's no more fairy tale in life, think of a secret garden and a Crazy house, tuck away in a far far away land." *cue end theme song*