Crazy House, Dalat

The development in Dalat is just tremendous. You will always see new things here every year. You will not stopped being amazed by them. This time Dalat has this new tourist spot which is known as the Crazy House. The entrance fee is just VND50,000/pax.

I have my aunties and my mom to enjoy the cool weather at Dalat and being young once again at Crazy House. For your information, there is a senior citizen price which is the half of the normal price but you have to be 90 years old and above, which is ridiculous.

Hằng Nga guesthouse, popularly known as the “Crazy House”, is an unconventional building designed and constructed by Vietnamese architect Đặng Việt Nga in Đà Lạt, Vietnam. Described as a “fairy tale house”, the building’s overall design resembles a giant tree, incorporating sculptured design elements representing natural forms such as animals, mushrooms, spider webs and caves. Its architecture, comprising complex, organic, non-rectilinear shapes, has been described as expressionist. Nga has acknowledged the inspiration of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí in the building’s design, and visitors have variously drawn parallels between it and the works of artists such as Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney. Since its opening in 1990, the building has gained recognition for its unique architecture, being highlighted in numerous guidebooks and listed as one of the world’s ten most “bizarre” buildings in the Chinese People's Daily.

This place is like a big maze alike playground for the adults! You will literally got lost in here. So don't get separated in here, you might have a hard time finding each other again.

You can even climb up to the rooftop. My mom and aunties with a combined age of almost 300 years old got no problem with heights. So why should you?

The best part is able to oversee the whole city of Dalat for a 360 degrees view....as of today. You will never know the next time you visit, there might be a high rise building spoiling the view. This is the thing about Vietnam. If you have loads of cash, just build anything you want. The local government doesn't care what it is for or how high your building is going to be. As long as you pay their taxes, you are pretty much safe to do business.

Hang Nga guesthouse was originally built as a personal project by Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga, opening to the public in 1990. Nga, daughter of Trường Chinh, who received a PhD in architecture from the University of Moscow, has stated that her overall design was inspired by the natural environment surrounding of the city of Da Lat, along with the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.To help alleviate the financial burden associated with what was essentially a personal project—having accumulated upwards of VND 30 million in debt—Nga expanded the building into a guesthouse, and opened the house to paid visits by tourists in late 1990.

Rather than using standard architectural plans as blueprints, Nga produces paintings, and hires non-professional local craftsmen to transform these into structural elements. Few right angles are found throughout the building, which instead boasts a complex organic structure echoing natural forms. The building’s exterior resembles a five-story-high banyan tree,with unevenly shaped window openings and branch-like structures that "grow" along its walls and rise above the roof into the sky. Describing it as a "fairy tale house", observers have variously drawn comparisons between the building's architecture and the works of Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney. In attempting to classify the building’s architecture, the People's Committee of the city of Đà Lạt described it as “expressionist”.

The guesthouse has ten themed guest rooms, each one having an animal as its theme; examples include the tiger room, the eagle room, the ant room and the kangaroo room, each with decorations matching the theme. The walls of the tiger room, for instance, feature a large tiger with glowing red eyes; the kangaroo room incorporates a sculpted kangaroo with a fireplace in its belly; the fireplace in the eagle room is in the form of a giant eagle’s egg. Many of the rooms incorporate an added level of symbolism, with the animal theme connected to a particular nationality. For instance, Nga describes the tiger room as representing “the strengths of the Chinese”; the eagle room as being “big and strong” like Americans; and the ant room as representing the “hard working Vietnamese”. Furniture inside the rooms is handcrafted—and sometimes even built into the rooms themselves—to match the rooms’ nonlinear, organic shape. Stone decorations throughout the house depict animals such as bears, giraffes, frogs, spiders and ants, along with natural elements such as mushrooms and spider webs. Stairways and hallways inside the building are designed to resemble tunnels and caves.

The guesthouses cost from $29 - $63 per night. There is no air-condition in it. It is very common in Dalat as the weather here is always cool for 365 days. Just remember to come early if you want lesser tourists and take photos with ease.

That's it ladies! Enough fun.Let's go...we have plenty of places to go.They just couldn't get enough of this place. My mom asked me if can go out to have a lunch first and come back again without paying again..."No, mum. I don't own this place."

Ticket Price: 50,000vnd per pax
Ambiance: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Price: 3/5
Recommended?: Yes
Business Hours: 8.30am - 7.00pm (daily)