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Stepping into Moc Mien feels like entering a small farm with lush fresh vegetables and fruit trees laden with ripe fruit. It covers a total area of approximately 5,000 square meters.2Moc Mien consists of 5 bungalows with a predominantly warm yellow color scheme. Each bungalow offers comfortable living space for up to 4 people. Each house boasts a spacious garden view, harmoniously blending with nature.
The communal living area includes a guesthouse, an organic farm, and a fully equipped kitchen where you can showcase your cooking skills or enjoy intimate meals with the locals. "In the morning, have some shrimp pancakes; at noon, enjoy a special meal: wild greens cooked with clams, a little bit of the now-rainy-season flower, along with fragrant grilled freshwater crabs, then crushed with chili and salt to eat with boiled bamboo shoots, pork belly braised with coconut pulp, or crucian carp braised with ginger leaves..." Doesn't that sound mouthwatering?
A home of local culture and experience.
Unlike other tourist homestays with prime beachfront locations, Moc Mien Rocky Garden is situated on the route of the "yellow flowers and green grass" tour, just far enough from the sea for a leisurely bike ride to Bai Xep beach with its giant black rock formations, cactus groves, and vast pine forests.
Phu Yen boasts Phu Hanh village with its unique architecture featuring stone fences, stone walls, stone wells, even tombs on the desolate hills are surrounded by stone, and most notably, stone cow sheds. Moc Mien's architecture is also influenced by this local style. You can sense the presence of thatched-roof, stone-walled houses here. The name "Rocky" reflects the stone walls at Moc Mien, which are hand-stacked without any binding material. Bringing the essence of the coastal countryside into this small homestay, to enter the "houses" at Moc Mien, you sometimes have to "glide" over the shimmering water.
Moc Mien focuses on experiential tourism and is rooted in agriculture. Here, you can participate in a day trip as a fisherman, going out to sea to catch fish or picking your own vegetables from the garden for your meals. You can also enjoy a cozy BBQ right on the beach, thoughtfully prepared by Moc Mien.
At Moc Mien, you don't have to worry about going hungry. What makes Moc Mien special is its small farm with organically grown produce. Moc Mien's garden boasts a wealth of local vegetables such as basil, lemongrass, kumquat, mint, and other aromatic herbs, all contributing to a "farm to table" experience – from the field to the table – in the most authentic way.
Whether you're staying with family, friends, or alone, Moc Mien will be a memorable destination. Especially if your family has young children, what could be more fun than letting them experience a day out picking vegetables in the garden, fetching water from the well, enjoying a warm afternoon in the kitchen, and listening to the sounds of cicadas and frogs at night?
Moc Mien organizes workshops and educational programs to guide its farmers on farming techniques, and also trains farmers who can "export" their skills abroad. By combining education, experiential tourism, and agriculture into a linked chain, Moc Mien is aiming for a new ecosystem, one that goes beyond mere tourism.
THE STORY AND DREAM of the person behind Moc Mien
If you're impressed and curious about this unique and innovative homestay in Vietnam, join Travellive for a short conversation with the Founder of Moc Mien Rocky Garden, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Thuy. Ms. Thuy is currently the Chairwoman and Director of the An My Community Agricultural Tourism Cooperative, operating in three main areas: Agriculture, Tourism, and Education.
First of all, could you introduce yourself briefly to Travellive readers?
I'm an outsider, not an architect, nor trained in hospitality or tourism. I'm simply a salaried civil servant, living a simple life, with just enough to eat and wear, a life of moderation and self-sufficiency. Life flowed peacefully with my small family in a poor coastal province in Central Vietnam. Until one day, a colleague who participated in the "Southeast Asia-Japan Youth Ship Program" shared his experiences. I heard stories about learning about and experiencing different cultures, living and participating in activities with the local people in the countries we visited. This captivated me and made me start to think.
What led to the birth of your idea for experiential tourism?
I received a call from a friend working in the Arts and Culture sector in Ho Chi Minh City, asking me to find scenes for certain segments of the film "I See Yellow Flowers on Green Grass," and that's how I got involved in the tourism industry.
Initially, I only intended to host friends and relatives from afar, because when they came to visit, they didn't like staying in hotels and preferred to stay at home to experience the culture firsthand: going to the market themselves, cooking in their own way, etc. However, I was worried about inconveniencing the elderly (my grandparents and parents) at home. I initially decided this would be a family retreat to welcome friends and relatives on weekends, but unexpectedly, it exceeded all expectations, with more and more guests arriving.
My journey into the homestay business began in March 2015, when the hype surrounding the movie "I See Yellow Flowers on Green Grass" was growing. Using an abandoned house, built in the 1980s with a style popular at the time—a washed stone facade, old 20x20 cm patterned tile floors—my first homestay was born. The house had three bedrooms, a maximum capacity of 12 people, a spacious kitchen, and instead of flowers, I grew vegetables on the rooftop, creating a unique food source.
Are there any memorable stories from your and Moc Mien's first steps in life?
Throughout 2015, this place catered exclusively to domestic guests. It wasn't until June 2016 that I started welcoming foreign guests, having learned about online booking and room sales.
An interesting story unfolded here, a turning point that officially started our business. Our home attracted many European guests, stemming from a German student we sheltered who had lost all her documents and money in a robbery before arriving. From then on, things gradually evolved and developed through referrals and positive experiences from our guests. Because guests wanted a rooftop vegetable garden, Mộc Miên Rocky Garden was officially born.
With such unique features that attract tourists, do you consider your Moc Mien house to have any "responsibility" towards your hometown of Phu Yen?
My hometown, Phu Yen, isn't as bustling and crowded with tourists as Khanh Hoa or its neighbor, Binh Dinh. It's simply a province with the largest rice granary in Central Vietnam, peaceful and unassuming, just like its name suggests. Phu Yen boasts pristine and poetic scenery, and its people are kind, honest, and dedicated to farming. I harbored a dream: to do something to introduce the unique culture of Phu Yen to people all over the country, because my homeland has so much to offer. That's my simple thought, and Moc Mien Rocky Garden helped me achieve it.
Did you have any companions on this journey?
I've been fortunate to meet many experts in economics, agriculture, architecture, and culture. They have supported and helped me a great deal in shaping my career path and leading me to where I am today. With sincere gratitude, I am deeply thankful that they helped make my dreams come true, even though I am not yet a successful person, but simply someone dedicated to what I have done, am doing, and will do for my homeland.
Do you have long-term development plans for this experiential tourism model?
To date, we are preparing to continue implementing a project combining agriculture, tourism, and community education: the “An My Community Cultural Tourism Village” in Giai Son Hamlet, An My Commune, Tuy An District, Phu Yen Province. If all goes smoothly, it is expected to be completed and operational in June 2022. Following this project will be the larger Rocky Bay Sands, covering 3.5 hectares of beachfront with a larger scale and more luxurious amenities, but still developing in the direction of community-based tourism and authentic local experiences.
Thank you for sharing, and I hope to see the model you are creating with Moc Mien Rocky Garden become more widely known and spread.
Additional information
Moc Mien Rocky Garden is located 13 km from Tuy Hoa city and 20 km from the airport. From Moc Mien, it only takes a few minutes to reach Thanh Luong Pagoda – a famous temple with an infinity pool and an underwater Buddha statue. For food lovers, a stroll around Moc Mien leads to a large market where you can freely choose unique cooking ingredients or enjoy local specialties with flavors from both the forest and the sea at reasonable prices.
Address: Phu Phong Village, An Chan Commune, Tuy An District, Phu Yen Province
Fanpage:Moc Mien Rocky Garden
Room rate: Approximately 700,000 VND/maximum 4 people
