#BTExplores Designer Amit Aggarwal Tells You Why Hội An Needs To Be On Your Wanderlust-List

Vietnam was one place that was on the cards for me for a really long time. We were mesmerised by its simplicity and gorgeous landscape.

So, we had a full long trip charted to visit the different destinations of Vietnam. However, the minute we landed in Hội An we cancelled all the reservations for other cities and just chose to stay back for an entire week!

The one thing you must do is to definitely stay next to the beach for a few days and then if you'd like, move to another place after. We stayed at Aira Resorts, which is a stunning property with colonial rooms and is right next to the beach.

The second half of our trip was spent in another resort right in the middle of rice fields, which was also an equally mesmerising experience in itself.

I feel language is really never a barrier when we travel and it’s very easy to communicate with people especially now with modern technology helping you find even the most specific things in a foreign land. I never felt that language was a barrier during our entire trip in Vietnam.

It is a quaint little town with literally five lanes of beautiful architecture and a wonderful sky with unbelievable colours, coupled with incredible rice fields and water as well as a very slow-paced life filled with laughter, happiness and crafts.

Oh Yong doesn’t have a lot of touristy spots, however, we made it a point to go to the old town every single day. There are bye lanes that sell beautiful poetry, unbelievable basketry and great food, of course. There is the stunning beach to ease your trip and the rice fields are spaced throughout the whole of the town which is truly mesmerising especially when the sun sets.

While bicycling through the rice fields we come we came across this stunning organic food garden which had some of the most sumptuous vegetables and has a really nice bar to actually enjoy them so that was probably a hidden gem.

So, I would suggest taking a bicycle and heading straight into the ricefields. I think that is probably the most romantic thing that I have actually done in my life with the setting sun incredible light and sky! I think it is probably the best thing that one can do during a holiday.

People in Vietnam have an inherent style of wearing cultural clothes mixed with contemporary clothing and I think that is probably the sense of style in Hội An.

Asia’s always been a great inspiration for me and preferences of Asian art, culture, colour that definitely keeps springing back in the collections that I do.

I ate some of the finest foods here and also had the chance to have a lot of pho, which definitely lived up to its hype! Then, there was Banh Mi and Bahn Xeo which were also both amazing. The food in Vietnam doesn’t disappoint!

We ended up having Vietnamese coffee more than a few times, whether at a cafe or just after a hearty meal. It’s the perfect mix of the dark roasted coffee taste balanced with the sugary sweetened goodness of condensed milk.

The one memory that stayed with me from the trip had to be cycling in the rice fields, as I mentioned before, it’s a memory I can’t ever erase from my mind because it was just that beautiful and perfect!

Images courtesy: Ankit Chawla Photography