At 4:30 am, as the eastern sky just turns pink, An Cuong Beach begins a new day. Coracle boats line up to return after a night of fishing. On the sand, fishermen call out to welcome the fresh catches of seafood, while a few tourists take the chance to capture the moment when the sunrise dyes the sea red.

From a homestay located right by the sea, Pham Van Luc, 37, quietly watches the rhythm of life in the fishing village - a place he once desperately wanted to leave to escape poverty, but now is determined to do tourism.

Leaving the city for poor fishing village 

Like many children who grew up in An Cuong fishing village, Luc took boat trips out to sea from the early morning, where fishing seasons were won and lost with the tide, and a life was still full of hardships.

"When I was little, I always hoped to study hard to have the chance to leave the village and work in big cities. At that time, everyone thought you had to go far away to have a future," Luc recalled.

After passing university entrance exams, Luc went to HCM City to study and then built his career there. His life with his wife gradually stabilized, with convenient service conditions, schools, and hospitals. But living in the comfortable city, he still missed his hometown.

Every time he returned to An Cuong, he would get up very early to go to the sea to watch the sunrise and follow the villagers pulling nets and sorting seafood on the beach.

"At that time, I asked myself 'why is my hometown so beautiful but still not known to many people?' I've been to many fishing villages but not many places still retain the pristine beauty, peacefulness, and traditional fishing craft like my hometown," he said.

With encouragement from his wife, Luc decided to leave his stable job in HCMC to return to Quang Ngai and start developing tourism.

"At first, many relatives and friends discouraged me because they thought doing tourism in a place still deserted and nameless on the tourism map like An Cuong was too risky, with low chance of success," he recalled.

In 2025, the couple borrowed money and pooled their savings to buy a plot of land by the sea and build a lovely cafe and homestay.

The house is designed with Mediterranean architectural features with an open space, prioritizing sea breeze and natural light. The project was expected to be completed in about four months but due to prolonged storms, it took nearly nine months to complete.

"My wife and I had no experience, so we learned little by little, working while referencing more on the internet. Since we like a clean, tidy space, we try to make the homestay like that," Luc said.

Currently, the homestay has nine rooms and offers food and beverage services. The couple manage it, from taking care of the space to cooking for guests. They take turns traveling between HCMC and Quang Ngai to care for their children and maintain business.

In the early days of operation, what stressed Luc the most was how to make a rather unfamiliar sea area like An Cuong known to tourists. The large investment cost, having to pay bank interest every month, plus operating and personnel costs, caused the couple to worry more than once.

Fortunately, the rustic images of An Cuong beach recorded and shared by the couple received tourists' attention. Since opening during the April 30-May 1 holiday, the homestay has been almost fully booked on weekends and during the peak summer season.

Retaining tourists thanks to simple pace of life

An Cuong has a small, quite hard-to-find entrance road, but in return it has retained its pristine appearance with clear blue sea, fine white sand, and simple, friendly people.

Returning to the village to do tourism, Luc wants tourists to immerse themselves into the local rhythm of life. From early morning, guests can watch the sunrise, join fishermen, buy fresh seafood at affordable prices, and then have the homestay cook it.

Tourists can also swim, camp, stroll along the sand in the afternoon, follow locals to look for crabs in the evening, and then gather around a charcoal stove to enjoy grilled seafood.

Linh Trang