In the hills of central Vietnam there is a tree, rising 5 stories into the air. The amazing city of Da Lat can be seen far below. The tree is hollow and it's 'branches' go off in all directions. But . . . it is not really a tree. It is a house! A fairy tale house that people live in! And rent rooms in! And visit like a tourist attraction! It is "The Crazy House".

I'll get back to the Crazy House soon, but I need to tell you about the Easy Riders first .

The Easy Riders are a group of motorcycle drivers that offer trips by motorbike in Vietnam. You get a personal guide and can take trips throughout Vietnam by bike. Either on the back of a bike or you can ride your own. They have been giving tours since 1994. There are also daily tours around whichever Vietnamese town you are staying in.

A few days after arriving in Da Lat, my backpacker friends from the hostel, that I did some sight-seeing with, have moved on. Most people I meet have a time limit and cannot stay in a place for very long. 

Today, while walking around Da Lat, a motorbike driver stopped and offered me a tour brochure. I had heard of the Easy Riders, so thought I would talk with him a while and find out more.

He was a young man, just married two months ago. He offered me a tour around Da Lat for 205,000 dong ($10). I liked Mr . Dung (as he likes to be called, but when pronounced his name sounds like "Yun" in Vietnamese) and the tour sounded interesting. Not today, though. I want to explore on my own today. But, I give him my hostel address and he agrees to pick me up at 7 a.m. the next morning for a half-day tour.

Up on top of a hill is a large palace that belonged to the last Emperor/King of Vietnam. His name was Bao Dai and he became the king when he was 12 years old. This was his summer palace. It was built in 1933 and still houses much of his furniture. He died in 1997.

My guide today, Mr Dung, convinced me to don the crown and robe of the King for a photo opp. I have decided I would not make a good king. I do not like the heavy crown or flowing robe. I will stick with levi jeans and ball caps.

The Bao Dai Museum was a good way to start the day and give the sun a little time to get up and warm things up some . We were touring on Mr. Dungs motorbike, so the wind was somewhat cool to start with. The weather here has warmed up some from what it was in Hanoi, but still chilly at night.

The Datania waterfall was very scenic and a lot of fun to boot. What made it so much fun was the toboggan you could ride to get to it. This is one of the most visited waterfalls in Da Lat.

It's a beautful waterfall, but the toboggan ride is what I will remember. It is similiar to a roller coaster ride, except the 40 cars are all individual cars. And, you control the speed yourself with the stick control. The rails wind down the mountain and the car gets to going up to 25 miles per hour. You use the stick, which is the brake, to slow it down if you want to.

I talked Mr Dung into riding it. He had never done it before, despite coming to the park on a regular basis with tourists.

He got in the car in front of me and started out . He rode the brake all the way down, though. I would stop my car and wait for him to get a curve ahead so I could let mine pick up speed going down.

I have noticed these people here are frightened of fast rides. The same thing happened with my Cambodian friends when we rode the Bamboo Train in Cambodia. These people are not used to the carnival rides like we grow up with in America and fast rides are frightening to them.

The ride was well worth the cost. You can also walk down the mountain to the waterfall, if you do not want to ride the toboggan. Who wouldn't?

The waterfall was interesting and we got some good photos. We walked back up the trail to the top of the mountains, once we had spent all the time we wanted to at the falls.

It's crazy, but good crazy. Looking like a tree with odd shaped windows and tunnel-shaped halls and stairways, it grabs your attention from the instant you drive up to the front of it .

The hollow 'branches' go off in many different directions, eventually rising into the sky above the structure, as if they are growing. At one point you walk across a 'branch' high above the structure. The unnerving thing to me is the fact that the 'limb bridge' has no railing. You walk literally on top of the branch with a lip coming up only about a foot, just above your ankles. One missed step and you will fall for awhile. 

You will run into 'spider webs' and see 'wild mushrooms', and ladders and concrete kangaroos, tigers and bear. Everything is twist and turns, there are hardly ever any right angles in the construction. It's not a museum, it's an experience!

The creator of the house lives here and also rents out rooms for the night. There are ten guest rooms, each with a different animal theme. Each room has a meaning. One room is the eagle room (American) with the fireplace in the form of a giant eagles nest . Another is the kangaroo room (Australians) the fireplace is in his belly, and the tiger room (Chinese) with glowing red eyes, and ant room (Vietnamese). 

Symbolism is built all thoughout the structure. Things are not just there, they have a meaning, a symbol. For instance, the animals connected to the different nationalities, symbolize the tiger as representing "the strength of the Chinese". The eagle represents "big and strong", like Americans. The ants represent "the hard working Vietnamese".

All the handmade furniture and decorations in the room match the theme, bed and all. You can look into the room, but not enter. If you rented one of these rooms for the night, you would want to be up and out before people like me came to look inside.

There are cages of animals, doves, hens, guineas and beautiful singing birds amidst the many tropical trees scattered among the ponds and bridges. The trees have art work hanging from them.
 
The designer, creator of this marvel is a woman named Hang Nga. The house has been mentioned in a number of travel books and is listed as one of the world's ten most "bizarre" buildings in the Chinese Peoples Daily.