Entering Moc Mien, it feels like stepping into a small farm with lush vegetables and fruits hanging from the branches. With a total area of about 5,000 m2, Moc Mien consists of 5 bungalows with warm yellow as the main color. The living area is comfortable for up to 4 people/house. Each house has a spacious garden view, in harmony with nature.
The communal living area includes a guest house, an organic farm and a fully equipped kitchen for you to show off your cooking skills or enjoy intimate meals with the locals here. "Make some shrimp pancakes in the morning, have a special meal at noon, mixed vegetables cooked with clams and some flowers that are only available during the rainy season, along with fragrant grilled field crabs, then pounded with salt and chili peppers to eat with boiled bamboo shoots, braised pork belly with coconut pulp or braised crucian carp with ginger leaves and pure water...", hearing this makes your mouth water?
Home of Indigenous Culture and Experience
Not having a prime location by the sea like other tourist homestays, Moc Mien Rocky Garden is located on the route of the "yellow flowers on green grass" tour, just far enough from the sea to cycle around to Bai Xep with giant black rocks, cactus rows and immense casuarina forests.
Phu Yen has Phu Hanh village with the architecture of stone fences, stone walls, stone wells, even the tombs on the deserted hills are also surrounded by stone, or most of all... stone cowsheds. The architecture of Moc Mien is also influenced by this indigenous architecture. You can feel the silhouette of the thatched houses on the cliffs here. The name "Rocky" also represents the stone walls in Moc Mien, which are hand-laid without any adhesive. Bringing the breath of the coastal countryside into the small homestay, to enter the "houses" in Moc Mien, you sometimes have to "surf" on the rippling water.
Moc Mien focuses on experiential tourism and takes agriculture as its root. Here, you can join a one-day schedule as a fisherman or pick vegetables for your own meal. You can also enjoy a cozy BBQ right on the beach with careful preparation by Moc Mien's family.
In Moc Mien, there is no fear of... hunger. The special thing about Moc Mien is the small farm with agricultural products produced according to organic processes. Moc Mien garden has countless local vegetables such as: perilla leaves, lemongrass, lime, herbs such as basil, basil, etc. to serve the "farm to table" process - from field to table, in the most rustic way.
Whether you stay with family, friends or alone, Moc Mien will be a memorable destination. Especially, if your family has small children, what could be more fun than letting them experience the day in the garden picking vegetables, carrying water from the well, warming up in the kitchen at noon, and enjoying the sound of cicadas and frogs singing in harmony at night?
Moc Mien has workshops and educational programs to guide its farmers on farming techniques, and also trains farmers who can "export" abroad. Combining education, experiential tourism and agriculture into a chain, Moc Mien is aiming for a new ecosystem, not just simple tourism.
The STORY and Dream of the person behind Moc Mien
If you are impressed and curious about this unique and new homestay in Vietnam, let's join Travellive in a short conversation with the Founder of Moc Mien Rocky Garden, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Thuy. Ms. Thuy is currently the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Director of An My Community Tourism Agricultural Cooperative, operating in 3 main areas: Agriculture, Tourism, Education.
First of all, can you introduce yourself to Travellive readers?
I am an outsider, not an architect, nor have I been trained in the hotel and tourism industry, simply a civil servant working for a salary, living a simple life, enough to eat and wear, following the principle of "knowing how to be frugal will make you full, knowing how to dress will make you warm". Life went on peacefully with my small family in a poor coastal province in the Central region. Until one day, a colleague of mine participated in the "Southeast Asia - Japan Youth Ship Program" and shared stories after the trip. I heard stories about learning and experiencing different cultures, living and participating in activities with the indigenous people of the countries I passed through, which made me interested and started thinking.
What opportunity gave birth to your idea of doing Experiential Tourism?
I received a call from a friend working in the field of Arts and Culture in Ho Chi Minh City, asking me to find scenes in some segments for the movie “I see yellow flowers on green grass”, and from there I got into the tourism profession.
At first, I only intended to do it with the purpose of welcoming friends and relatives from far away, because when they come to us, they do not like to stay in hotels, they want to stay at home to be close and experience the culture: go to the market themselves, cook their own way..., but they are afraid of bothering because there are adults in the house (my grandparents and parents). I initially determined that this would be a family resort, to welcome friends and relatives to visit on the weekend, but I did not expect it to exceed my expectations and expectations, with more and more guests coming.
My chance to start a homestay business began in March 2015, when the effect of the movie "I see yellow flowers on green grass" became more and more vibrant. With an empty house, built in the 80s, with the popular architectural style at that time, the house facade was painted with washed stone, the floor was paved with old 20x20 cm tiles, the first homestay was born. The house has 3 bedrooms, a maximum capacity of 12 people, a spacious kitchen, and a rooftop terrace. Instead of growing flowers, I grow vegetables as a typical food source.
Are there any memorable stories about your and Moc Mien's first steps?
Throughout 2015, this place welcomed only domestic guests. It was not until June 2016 that I started welcoming foreign guests, when I learned about the form of booking and registering to sell rooms online.
Here comes an interesting story, a turning point that officially started the business. My house welcomed many European guests, starting from the fact that we took care of a German student who lost all his documents and money due to a burglary before coming to our house. Since then, everything has gradually changed and developed through the introduction and satisfaction of guests who have experienced here. Due to the demand of guests coming to the house who like organic vegetable gardens on the terrace, Moc Mien Rocky Garden was officially born from that time.
With such unique and attractive features, do you consider your Moc Mien house to have any "responsibility" for your hometown Phu Yen?
My hometown Phu Yen is not as noisy and crowded with tourists as Khanh Hoa or its neighboring brother Binh Dinh. It is just a province with the largest rice granary in the Central region, peaceful and simple as its name. Phu Yen's beautiful scenery is wild and poetic, the people are gentle and honest with farming. In my heart, I have a dream to do something, to introduce the unique culture of Phu Yen to my brothers and sisters all over the country, because my hometown has many good things to do. I simply think so and Moc Mien Rocky Garden has helped me do that.
In this journey, do you have any companions?
I am fortunate in my life to have met many experts in economics, agriculture, architecture, and culture. They have supported and helped me a lot in my orientation and development today. With all my heart, I am deeply grateful because they have helped my dream come true even though I am not a successful person, just a person who is passionate about what I have done, am doing, and will do for my homeland.
Do you have a long-term development plan for this Experiential Tourism model?
Up to now, we are preparing to continue implementing a project combining Agriculture - Tourism - Community Education, which is "An My Community Cultural Tourism Village" in Giai Son village, An My commune, Tuy An district, Phu Yen. It is expected that if everything goes well, it will be completed and put into operation in June 2022. And following this project will be the larger Rocky Bay Sands, 3.5 hectares of sea surface with a larger scale and more advanced facilities, but still developing in the direction of community-based tourism as the source and local experience.
Thank you for sharing. I hope to soon see the model you are creating with Moc Mien Rocky Garden become known and spread more widely.
More information
Moc Mien Rocky Garden is 13 km from Tuy Hoa city and 20 km from the airport. From Moc Mien, it takes only a few minutes to go to Thanh Luong Pagoda - a pagoda famous for its infinity pool and underwater Buddha statue. If you are a foodie, around Moc Mien is a large market where you can freely choose unique cooking ingredients, or enjoy local specialties with the flavors of both the forest and the sea at affordable prices.
Address: Phu Phong Village, An Chan Commune, Tuy An District, Phu Yen Province
Fanpage:Rocky Garden
Room rate: About 700,000 VND/maximum 4 people
