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:
City break
25 Apr 2026We’d been wanting to visit our friends in Paris for quite some time and as luck would have it our time had come. Our pet sitter from a few years ago would be happy to stay and look after Betty while we were away. So preparations were made. We’d always wanted to go by train but didn’t realise how difficult, or expensive it would be. I will spare the details but it turned out many times more expensive than flying…
Diu – the end of the line
25 Feb 2026INDIA 26: Gujarat Stage 7. So I clambered aboard the bus for the final leg on land, the relatively short hop from Sasan Gir to Diu. We passed through a lot of scrubby forest and I kept my eyes peeled for lions, as I knew they were there, but all I saw were a few deer. We did actually stop at one point, in the middle of nowhere, I think it was just for the driver to get some paan…
The lions of Gir
23 Feb 2026INDIA 26: Gujarat. Stage 6. The Gir National Park was another place I visited in 1994 and very different now! I could tell that in my research for the trip. In 1994 the only place to stay was the Government rest house. Now there were hundreds of places. Obviously due to the success of the lions. There were 284 in 1994 and almost 900 today. So, like in 1994, the chances are I would get to see at least one…
Junagadh
20 Feb 2026INDIA 26: Gujarat. Stage 5. Another bus trip. This time more traditional in that we went down old, secondary, tree lined roads with crop fields on either side. An added bonus was that I sat up front with the driver (who was a surprisingly careful pilot) and he dropped me off right in front of my hotel. The Click Hotel (3700Rs/£30 per night) Strange name but I believe part of a chain. Either way it was very comfortable and highly recommended….
Jamnagar
17 Feb 2026INDIA 26: Gujarat. Stage 4 I had been looking back through my India diary from 1994. All the bus trips seemed to be on ancient, packed, uncomfortable, rough old buses, the journeys lasted forever and it was boiling hot. The buses still looked pretty old but the modern journeys were actually quite comfortable, organised (everyone had a seat number) and the highways fairly pot hole free. I was slightly concerned that my next journey – a seven hour trip to…
Random posts:
Camping up north
7 Aug 2011Recently we had friends staying at Casa Azul and that meant we could leave them to look after the chickens, bees, veggies and the hairy one (we only had Jussi then) and enjoy a few days camping. Everyone we knew in Portugal said the Minho region was gorgeous so we decided to head up north. On the way to the campsite we stopped for lunch in the historic town of Amarante. No photos of the delicious roast lamb we enjoyed…
Nazare
2 Oct 2010After months of desert-like conditions in Central Portugal (we had no rain at all even in September), a week of rain was forecast for the first week of October. Therefore we decided to make the best of our last day of sun and headed to Nazaré. It was our first time there and well worth it. Although the summer crowds had gone there were enough people about to give it a bit of life. We didn’t actually make it to…
Over the plains of heaven
13 Apr 1993I was living in Hong Kong at the time. Or rather I’d just been transfered to Sydney but managed to get a two month break in order to do an epic journey from Chengdu, skirting the Tibetan plateau north, west across the border with Mongolia and Russia and then south to Kashgar and across the Karakoram mountains into Pakistan. It was April 1993. Almost 30 years later, I’ve dug up my old diary and scanned the photos and this is…