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:
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…
Exploring Aurangabad
14 Feb 2025Yes, another early start but today I was going to take it a bit easier and hire a scooter to see the sights around Aurangabad. I did a bit of research and there was a scooter rental round the corner from the hotel, so all good. As it happened, despite a polished website, Bluebird Rentals was basically a young lad with his parents operating from their house. However, top quality service and I got a nifty little Honda for 500Rs…
Random posts:
Cadiz
18 May 2008Another train trip. The first hour was a blur of golden sunflowers as we passed the southern plains of Andalucia. For the second hour the scenery changed as we passed along the coast over marshland and towards the spit of land at the end of which is the ancient port of Cadiz, more like an island bastion than part of the mainland. The train station is near the entrance to the old city which is still encircled by huge thick…
Athens
6 May 2008I went on a business trip to Athens for a week in May 2008. Overall I was quite impressed by the place. The main tourist area in central Athens is La Plaka. It’s a very old area of Athens and the narrow streets and lanes have been extensively pedestrianised. The old houses have been on the whole tastefully renovated and many have been converted into tourist shops and pavement cafes. The old squares are now almost completely filled with restaurants…
Yangon
24 Dec 2002I was living in Vietnam at the time, so the flight was fairly short and uneventful. Arriving in Yangon, I was through immigration fairly quickly and exchanged some money for the official Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC). this was compulsory I remember $200 for 20FEC. I then got a taxi ticket and was soon headed into the big smoke. I had decided to stay in the YMCA as my copy of the lonely planet said it was very clean and the…