Happy Land of Moc Chau

On the Mộc Châu plateau, wherever you stand, there is a valley, and then another valley. Each one carries a different story. Happy Land is the story of a valley that was turned into a flower garden.

Happy Land lies in Lùn village, in Mường Sang commune. The center of Mộc Châu town is about eight kilometers away. According to information from Sơn La province, it is one of the tourist areas that took shape early on the plateau. It sits in the middle of a valley and covers about five hectares. That sounds small. But standing in the valley with flowers blooming on every side, five hectares is plenty to feel like you are in the middle of a carpet of colors.

Happy Land is not a historic or geological site. It is a tourist area built around experiences, in the plainest sense of the phrase. People come to look, to take photographs, to relax and to play a few outdoor games. The same source describes what is here: a garden of many-colored flowers, a sheep farm, a market area, and games such as grass rolling balls, water rolling balls and bumping balls.

Take the grass rolling ball, for example. The player climbs into a clear ball about the size of a person, then rolls down a grassy slope. It sounds lively, and it really is. For children, it is a moment they will not forget. For adults, it is more often a moment to watch and laugh.

As for the flowers, Mộc Châu has many different flower seasons through the year, because the climate is cool and the altitude is above 1,000 meters. Happy Land takes advantage of this and spreads a flower garden across the valley. It is the part of the park that visitors photograph most.

Sheep farms are seldom seen in northern Vietnam. For many children who have only ever seen a sheep on a screen, this is a real experience. White sheep wander over the green grassy hill, under a cool highland sky. The scene looks more like somewhere in Europe than the mountains of the northwest.

Every season on the Mộc Châu plateau has its own color, and Happy Land gathers many of those colors into one valley. In the morning, the flower garden looks soft and blurred, like a painting. In the afternoon, sunlight spreads gold across the slopes, the sheep graze at an easy pace, and children's laughter drifts down from the rolling-ball hill. It stays in memory not because it is grand, but because it is so real and so strangely gentle.