Globalwanderings is the personal photoblog of Richard Cain showcasing some of the amazing places I have experienced while living and working throughout Asia and more recently, Europe. In 2009, me and my wife Jackie left Asia to renovate a farmhouse and live a new life in deepest Portugal. We are now renovating our second house and that story is told on a blog called The House on a Hill. We also run the podcasting site podcastsinenglish.com for learners and teachers of English as a foreign language.
Latest posts:
Roman Gold and Gaudi’s Palace
15 Jun 2025We’d seen a lot of what Galicia had to offer but for our latest trip we went just a little bit more east, into the region of Castile and Leon and more specifically the locale of Ponferrada. So far inland there were no beaches but we were after history and a bit of hiking in spectacular countryside. We were rewarded with both. We’d booked three nights in a cottage in a small hamlet just outside Ponferrada which was about 4.5…
Elephanta
26 Feb 2025The final day of India 2025! Another boat trip, this time to Elephanta Island and more caves. As usual I was up early and headed for the Gateway of India. As is also usual, there was no definitive information about the first ferry to Elephant. I got to the ticket office about 8:15 and the man there sold me a ticket and told me the first ferry left at 9 but could be earlier if there were enough people and…
Mumbai
22 Feb 2025 Got the bus from Murud up the coast to Alibag. Quite a pleasant trip, coastal scenery and a nice breeze coming in the window. At Alibag bus station I needed a few directions to the ferry company offices from where I got their bus to the ferry terminal at Mandwa and we were soon away on the open sea. The ferry trip was quite pleasant, followed most of the way by loads of gulls coming quite close,…
Island fortress
22 Feb 2025From Pune I was headed due west over the Western Ghats to the coastal fortress of Janjira and the ancient Princely State of the same name. However, there was no transport. Everything went via Mumbai, so I took a taxi. The reason there were no buses was probably because the land was fairly sparsely populated and we had to descend through one of the few valleys of the Western Ghats, the long chain of mountains running parallel to the west…
Pune
19 Feb 2025Sat 15th Feb 2025. Another first. I thought I was just getting a regular bus for the six hour trip to Pune. It certainly looked very ordinary inside – rather worn and mildly decrepit but it turned out to be electric! Pune is certainly a very large city of seven million people and like many large cities in India is currently building a Metro system. I didn’t go on it but here’s a photo taken near the hotel and the…
Random posts:
Oases & desert castles
22 Apr 2008Jordan’s deserts comprise 80% of the land area but only 5% of the population. the biggest desert starts as the suburbs of Amman peter out and continue East to the Iraqi, Syrian and Saudi borders. The area is mainly desolate as you’d expect but there are a few highlights, both natural and man-made. One of these is Azraq oasis which used to provide water for roaming herds of animals. Unfortunately since the 1960’s it has had to supply water to…
Welcome to Portugal!
3 May 2009We went to Portugal for three weeks in May 09. Our hols kicked off in Lisbon where we stayed with our friends Jo and Nigel. We enjoyed several days of warm spring sunshine and the highlights included a day at the beach and some tram rides up and down Lisbon’s famous hills. Here’s the view from the plane flying over the river Tajo (Tagus) and coming in to land. As well as the distinctive yellow trams, this is a funicular…
Cambodia
6 Feb 2002This page is a bit of a cheat really as the photographs are of only a few square kilometres of the whole country. But these few square kilometres contain one of the top ten historical sites in the world. Most people just think of Angkor Wat but actually within this area are about a hundred temple complexes built over a period of a few hundred years (9th to 14th Century). Of these I’ve included photos of just four: Angkor Wat…