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:
Hoang Lien Son Mountains
4 May 200326th April 2002 Day One Hanoi to Mai Chau My two years in Vietnam was coming to an end but there was time for one last big bike trip up north. Looking at the map, I had been to most places but there was a gap, the spine of the Hoang Lien Son Mountains. I hadn’t heard much about it but there was a road marked on the map (no doubt just a track in places) and there would be…
Ksour
1 Jan 2004Our second Tunisian holiday was between Christmas and New Year. The weather was awful in Tunis so we headed south in the expectation of a bit of warmth and sun. We were in for a rude surprise – we got a bit of sun but it was bitingly cold. The region that dips its toe down into the depths of the Sahara between Algeria and Libya is known as the Ksour and throughout history has been known for its lawlessness…
Bidar
18 Feb 2023After a four year hiatus, I was back in India. This time, I was to explore northern Karnataka concentrating on the architecture of the Deccanni sultanates and the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, finishing up with a few days in Goa. First up was Bidar, now a small town in the middle of nowhere but formerly the capital of a great Muslim kingdom of the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a bit of trek to get there because as it…