Exploring Covid-19 Park, Maze Bar and Crazy House in the eccentric Da Lat

Da Lat is surprisingly full of activities, with little amusement park-style attractions surrounding the city in all directions it’s like the city is a massive theme park where the theme is Vietnam.

Also, it is much cooler than the rest of Vietnam. I’ve been told it’s where locals come for a getaway to avoid the sun for a bit.

Crazy House

Maybe a smarter person would hear ‘Crazy House’ and think this house would be crazy - not me. We were told about it by an Australian guy at dinner and I expected a weird layout and a few weird knickknacks. But it really was a crazy house, well, crazy hotel. It's like stepping into a Dr Seuss story. Specifically, that Cat in the Hat adaptation with Mike Myers.

Entering the building, it looks cute, like it will be a fun five minutes or so.

From the outside, it’s like a dreamlike illustration in a Hans Christian Andersen collection colliding with a Tim Burton monster’s house.

Inside is like an Inuit terror cell tunnel system between fantastical dimensions where magnificent beasts roam, relax and make art. Walking through the corridor you never quite know if you’re going to be led to the next room or to a meandering bridge between buildings or elsewhere.

In the basement is a undersea scene with paintings and 3D models of dolphins, turtles and sharks. The next floor up features a collection of children’s art and some information about the building.

You might read all of this and think ‘So what? It just sound like something from any theme park.’

The artist behind Crazy House is a Vietnamese woman named Dang Viet Nga. She studied architecture in Russia then returned to Vietnam where she worked on government projects while yearning for a project she could let her creativity loose on.

In 1990, she drew up plans using paintings instead of blueprints to convey her vision. There are no right angles used in its design and its features mimic things found in nature such as mushrooms, shells, caves and spiderwebs

A similar attraction in the main city among the dizzying speeding bikes, car horns and a thousand conversations competing for supremacy is the equally disorientating maze bar. Just like crazy house, I heard 'maze bar' and thought 'yeah right'. But when we bought our overpriced alcohol at the door and made our way through we discovered it really is a maze bar.

It’s cute but I couldn’t imagine it being anyone’s local. We got all the way to the back of the beer garden, had one sip and went back inside.

Covid-19 Park

The next day we went to another offbeat attraction - the Da Lat Sculpture Museum, also known as the clay tunnel.

It's set up for an Instagram audience with photo opportunities placed intentionally throughout.

The attraction tells the story of Da Lat's history with replicas including Da Lat Train Station, the oldest railway station in Vietnam; Da Lat Market, which was established during the French colonial era and Da Lat Pedagogy College.

Among the history was a sculpture of a car made from a burger and a motorbike made from a burger.

The strangest feature was Covid-19 Park. It features little Coronavirus particles sort-of Disneyfied, posed in different environments like in prison, impaled by a syringe and boxing a bottle of soap.

There are many opportunities for a photograph in the park, you can slot your hands into a pair of gloves and beat the virus up yourself.

Sculptor Trinh Ba Dung, who created the Clay Tunnel and Covid-19 Park, told Vietnamese media about his thought process behind the new attraction.

“The world has admired Vietnam in its battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. I really appreciate the Vietnamese spirit and the Government's decisive and timely leadership, which has brought about very good results,” he said.

“That helped me form the idea of building this park, thereby, continuing to send the message of a safe and peaceful Vietnam to international friends.”

Waterfall Rollercoasters

Waterfalls are lovely but they can be such a drag to get to sometimes. Just outside Da Lat at Datanla Waterfalls, this problem is solved by adding an alpine coaster - or summer toboggan - to its beautiful waterfalls.

One of the coasters spans 1 km and reaches up to 40 km/h, the other stretches nearly 2.5 km.

I think there are a few of these in Britain and one in Belfast but this was our first time.

What’s great about this is you’re able to control the speed of your own coaster with the electromagnetic brake system. If you want to really take in the views, you can but if you want to go as fast as possible, that’s also an option.