Opened in 1998, the Konkan Railway connects the megalopolis of Mumbai and the port of Mangalore (Karnataka). It’s an engineering masterstroke: over 2,000 bridges and some 90 tunnels were required to forge a route between the Arabian Sea and the Sahyadri Hills. Along the way are rivers, valleys, mountains, mango trees, coconut palms and tiny villages. It also enters the heartland of Portuguese India, which ruled parts of the subcontinent from 1505 up to 1961. Disembark at Karmali Station to wander Old Goa, once the capital of the Portuguese viceroyalty and now an atmospheric ruin.
