Blue Ocean Resort in Mui Ne is inspired by the Vietnamese village where nature predominates. On entering the resort, guests are greeted by the green of a coconut grove, lawns, water grass, and water lilies in small ponds.

Last weekend I checked into a room in a white villa with a thatched roof. It was in the coconut grove in front of the beach giving me views of the swimming pool, garden, and the beach.

It was very relaxing to sit on the sofa in the porch, looking at squirrels running up and down the coconut trees. On the right was a swimming pool where other guests were chilling out in the shade of coconut trees.

At noon, some gardeners come to prune the coconut trees, a hard job considering many of the trees were very tall. One of them linked his two legs together and clambered like a frog. He proceeded to chop off bunches of big, green coconuts.

A housekeeper who cleaned the villa insisted that I have a coconut. In more ways than one, it was like the countryside where people who have little wholeheartedly give to others.

Blue Ocean is managed by Life resorts group, so the villa, in typical Life resort style, has wooden curtains, mosaic art walls in the bathroom, and a latticed glass screen door which maximizes views of the garden, swimming pool, or beach.

The décor focuses on natural and traditional materials such as wood, silk, bamboo, and lacquer.

After a day on the beach, I wanted an hour’s body massage at the spa.

A path with white pebbles led to the spa where a foot masseuse brought a small bowl with lemon slices, salt, and sliced lemon grass on a bamboo tray. After cleaning my feet with water, she started massaging them with lemon mixed with salt and finally with the thin slices of lemon grass.

“Salt and lemon help to kill the bacteria and the lemon grass makes the skin smoother,” she explained.

In the morning I saw it was an international buffet breakfast. There were cheeses, cold cuts, omelets with vegetable and mushroom, fresh fruits and drinks, and much more. But the best of the lot was the fresh noodle dumpling soup which was very tender and tasty.