Coastal homes in Goa

The Goan house is a Portuguese plan built in Indian materials by families who could afford to travel. Laterite blocks cut from the ground the house stands on, lime plaster over them, Mangalore tiles on a steep roof, and out front the balcao, a pair of built-in seats under the porch facing the road, which is the most distinctly Goan piece of domestic architecture there is. Inside, a saguao or internal courtyard lights the middle of the plan, the sala runs across the front for entertaining, and the window grids are filled with thin translucent oyster shell rather than glass, which turns the afternoon into something softer. Colour is lime-wash in ochre, indigo and oxide green, repainted after every monsoon. Fontainhas in Panaji is the compact version. Chandor, Loutolim and Quepem hold the large ones.

The state is small enough to cross in two hours and far less uniform than its coastline suggests. The Mandovi and the Zuari cut it in half, the Western Ghats rise at Mollem, and Old Goa's churches are a river ride from the capital.