I’m Richard Cain: designer, author and photographer for the websites Global Wanderings and Ethnic Minorities of Northern Vietnam and the blog ‘Casa Azul’. I’ve always loved travelling and photography and so the websites grew out of my desire to share my photographs with family and friends back in the UK while I was away working for the British Council in Sri Lanka, Egypt, Vietnam, Tunisia, Thailand and Jordan.

In 2001, I bought my first computer cobbled together in a back street in Hanoi. From there I picked up copies of web and photo editing software and taught myself html.

I loved Vietnam, especially motorbiking up into the mountains of the far north and taking photos of the amazing minority women. I was fascinated by the traditional clothing still worn by the majority but frustrated by the lack of information about the area and the various minorities. I therefore decided to set up my own website. Spurred on by the success of the Ethnic Minorities site I uploaded further photos of my travels and collated them into the website globalwanderings.

Early photos had to be scanned into my computer but getting my first digital camera in 2004 has meant subsequent country entries (Thailand 05-07, Jordan 07-09 and Portugal from 09 to now) have many better quality photos and much more content.

From September 2009 my wife Jackie and I embarked on a new project and a new life – We bought an abandoned farmhouse in deepest Portugal and the story is told on our blog: Casa Azul. We never learn and so subsequently we sold Casa Azul and bought another ruin, this time up north near the beautiful town of Ponte de Lima. It’s continuing story is told in the House on a Hill.

In addition to website design, I’m also very interested in podcasting and with Jackie, who is a writer for Macmillan Education, we have created the site www.podcastsinenglish.com It’s designed for teachers and learners of English as a second language but I hope most people will find something of interest or fun in it. In addition to podcasts there are videos and plenty of other bits and pieces.

Enjoy the site!