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:
Where the mountains meet the sea
15 Jun 2026…or another title: Asturias take three. This time was to be a fairly short trip based around the seaside town of Ribadesella. It’s a five hour drive so we decided to stop for lunch half way in Ribadeo, at a previous favourite restaurant, the Marinero. Another couple of hours and we were settling into our cottage, Casa Cantero. It is situated just outside Ribadesella but a short walk brought us to an attractive little park with a bar and a…
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….
Random posts:
Snow!
23 Jan 2008Think of Jordan and you generally think of desert. And you’d be right 90% of the time. However, in January 2008 we had a couple of days of quite heavy snow. Locals said they hadn’t seen it like this for over 20 years and everything came to a complete standstill. If you are from colder climes you may think the following pictures are nothing special, except perhaps for photos of palm trees covered in snow, but for Jordanians it was…
Coconut Paradise
14 Apr 2007Touring Nakhon Si Thammarat province April 07. It is said that in the 1970’s a few hippies stumbled across Ko Samui and found paradise, with powder-white sands, clear turquoise water and gently swaying palms. Over the next 30 years this paradise was swamped with ever encroaching development. Now, there seems to be more concrete than sand. However, perhaps not surprisingly, just across the water from Samui there are beaches near the fishing village of Khanom, which are still in pristine…
Picos de Europa
18 Sep 2024Ever since watching a stage of La Vuelta de Espana some years ago we had wanted to go to the Picos de Europa and this was the year. We had booked an AirBnB and were all set when the hairy member of our family had a medical emergency. She had a growth on her leg which burst requiring surgery. It wasn’t all bad as our host was agreeable to postpone our stay for a week, when the weather was also…