Goa is a former Portuguese colony, currently a state in India's West region. It is 3700 square kilometers in size and has a human population of approximately 1.4 million. Its east-west mix, beaches and syncretic culture is what attracts an officially-estimated two-and-half million visitors each year. Out of these, about 400,000 are foreign tourists, the rest coming from other regions of India. Portuguese culture and architecture can still be found.

Kovalam is famous for its beaches, among the most pristine in India. It is about 17 km from Thiruvananthapuram city, the capital of the southern state of Kerala in India. Kovalam was brought to the public eye by the Maharaja of Travancore. [1] The European guests of the then Travancore kingdom discovered the potentiality of Kovalam beach as a tourist destination in the 1930s. However, Kovalam shot into limelight in the early seventies with arrivals of the masses of hippies. That started the transformation of a casual fishing village of Kerala into one of the most important tourist destinations in all India- the Kovalam beach. It is a beautiful place in Kerala