Swaying palms, white sands and sparkling waters – three essential elements that attract two million visitors annually to Goa’s balmy shores which are plentiful in this tiny slice of India hugging the country’s western coastline and bounded by the Arabian Sea.

A solitary Portuguese outpost in India for almost 500 years, the influence of colonial rule can still be felt everywhere: In the exquisite, crumbling architecture; the East-meets-West cuisine which combines coconut milk, palm vinegar and chillies with the refined flavours of Lisbon.

The influence is also seen through the melancholy strains of fado that still waft occasionally on the bougainvillea-scented breeze; and in the siesta-saturated joie de vivre that Goans themselves call susegad.

Nowhere else in India will one find the laid-back languidness of a Goan lunchtime, the easy charms of its people or the soothing serenity of a day on its beaches.