This is my second time in India and though I've felt for a long time that I "knew" India because of loving the cuisine and having friends from the country -- of course it's not actually possible to know a country as large as this is having only been here for a few days total in my life. So I'm glad to have been surprised already in Goa, the state that I will spend this whole trip in. In particular in the town we started in, known as Panjim or Panaji. Here you can so clearly see the Portuguese influence from the period in which this was a territory, until 1961 in fact. Many houses in the Fontainhas area where we stayed are built in what has been told to me is Indo Portuguese style. This is seen elsewhere as well more in pockets but in this area half of the houses have the distinctive blue and white tile I've seen in hundreds of photos of Lisbon or Porto! I really enjoyed opening the shutters of my room to watch people walk down the narrow streets in the morning, dressed in saris but in ...