Adventure for Megan’s only half a world away
Diving the Great Barrier Reef, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and backpacking across southeast Asia is a pipe dream for most.
But Megan Conway is living proof that world travel is possible while holding down a 9-to-5 job back home.
The 25-year-old, from St Leonards, works a 40-hour week in corporate finance yet has travelled to 26 countries around the globe since catching the travel bug aged 19.
Megan’s fascinating adventure began after being posted to New Zealand for a year with her work.
Since then she has made it her mission to whet her “insatiable appetite to see the world”.
And, incredibly, in the last year she has visited 15 countries with her fiance David Mullen, a sales manager from Hairmyres.
Although her work took her to the other side of the world, then on to the Czech Republic and Spain, Megan insists that you don’t have to quit your job to trek the globe.
Megan, who ties the knot in Biggar next month, told the News: “So far I have lived in four countries – Scotland, Spain, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.
“I have visited 26 countries and I have done most of this while maintaining a full time job.
“It’s all about well-placed holidays, sourcing cheap flights and making the most of bank holiday weekends.
“And we’re lucky that both our workplaces are quite flexible – I get 36 days holiday a year so I make sure I use them well.”
Megan revealed her favourite country was Vietnam for its stunning beaches and mountains and amazing history and culture.
The next ports of call on her bucket list are a Kenyan safari – her lifelong dream – Columbia and China.
In her blog, Megan admits she was ‘shamed’ into embarking on a road trip to the Scottish Highlands this month.
Megan said: “For so long I dreamed of travelling to all these far off countries that I had never even considered exploring my own.
“I have met countless people of varying nationalities who had seen far more of Scotland than I had... the look of disbelief is always the same when I revealed I had never been to Skye or Loch Ness.
“And it turns out, you don’t need to go to Thailand for white beaches. Who knew that all along I had epic mountains, sandy beaches, mouth-watering cuisine and fascinating culture all on my doorstep?”
Megan was inspired to start a blog from the diaries she kept as a child and says it’s a cool way for her friends and family back home in East Kilbride to keep track of her worldy adventures.
From the highs, sipping cocktails on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, to the lows of trundling across Asia on a packed bus for 36 hours, readers from across the globe can join her on her amazing journey.
“Travel is possible,” stressed Megan. “You can fly for a euro on so many budget airlines and see some amazing cities in one day.
“After living in New Zealand where the only place you can really go to is Australia, I realised just how accessible Europe is.
“Just get out there and do it.”
I have visited 26 countries and done most of this while maintaining a full-time job