Life’s a Ball in a Concrete Tree (treehouse)

The Hang Nga Hotel in Vietnam

This offbeat hotel in Dalat in Vietnam goes by various names, among them The Spider Web Chalet, the Hang Nga Tree House and the Crazy House, depending on who you ask.

It is in fact a hotel, designed by Dang Viet Na, a former model and daughter of Truong Chinh, the former resident of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. She designed the hotel so that guests could imagine they were staying in a fantasy world. Being the former president’s daughter clearly helped Dang Viet Na, who studied architecture in Moscow, get permission to build her fantasy hotel.

Its official name is the Hang Nga Tree House, Hang Nga was a moon fairy. Features include an Ant Room, a Honeymoon room reached by a minute bamboo staircase and spiders web made out of string waiting to catch the unwary. 

You can find more images here Travelogues site with photos of The Crazy Hotel in Dalat, Vietnam

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Ocean Views from the (Concrete) Treetops

Okinawa Tree House restaurant (Photo credit: Flickr)

Purely decorative follies do not spring up like trees, so here is a functional folly which has done just that – the Okinawa treehouse which is poised in a banyan tree (or maybe it is a gajumaru tree). Whatever. The tree is in fact  concrete.

Back in the late nineteenth century the French were making trees out of cement and a good example of has survived at Oakworth Park in Yorkshire. But I have not seen such a bizarre and impressive modern version as this before.

This treehouse is a restaurant, serving Asian food. It is located on Highway 58 at the entrance to Onoyama Park in southern Japan where it overlooks the ocean. Visitors ascend via a lift inside the trunk.

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