Leprosy may not conjure up images of fun in the sun, but this really is a lovely spot. As leper hospitals go, this one is highly unusual, a sort of model village near the seafront. There are not so many patients here these days, but the descendants of affected families continue to live together here in a well-kept community.
Fronting the village is Quy Hoa Beach, a lovely stretch of sand and a popular weekend hang-out for the city’s small expat community.
The hospital grounds are well maintained, complete with numerous busts of distinguished and historically important doctors, both Vietnamese and foreign.
Depending on their abilities, patients work in the rice fields, in fishing, and in repair-oriented businesses. There's also a workshop here where prosthetic limbs and special shoes are crafted, though you'll probably need permission from the director of the institution to visit it.
Just up from the beach, there’s a dirt path to the hillside tomb of Han Mac Tu, a mystical poet who died in 1940.
If travelling by foot or bicycle, continue along the road past Queen’s Beach until it descends to the hospital’s entrance gates, about 1.5km south of Quy Nhon.
