Megan Woods
Round-the-World Traveler Round the World Travel GuideYour One-stop Source to Plan & Book Around-the-World Trips
Follow Megan's RTW trip with her travelogue, What Do Travellers Do All Day?
February 2002
6-12 Months
£8000
27
South Africa
London, England
Bond Marketing
One more paycheck and I'm gone
No
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, North America
Technically I have been travelling since 1997. I left South Africa to travel and have only been home on short visits since. After my Middle East and Africa trips I just kept finding more and more places that had to be done. This kind of travel is not easy to shake – it's on my long list of bad habits.
That it won't satisfy my curiosity enough to let me finally go home and I will have to stay in London to save again for another big one. Also I fear anything that I am not familiar with – so I have to change that.
People are mostly amazed and envious. I could kick people who say, "You're so lucky – I wish I could do that!" Well, I don't see them chained to their desks and their dreary lives.
Winged it a lot
Heavy-duty tick spray. It's the strongest anti-everything-that-crawls, but mostly it is a bedbug and flea terminator. Otherwise I'm travelling so light that I could skip around the world on my tippy toes...
I am hoping that Africa hasn't ruined me for other countries – if this RTW trip can give me even a quarter of the insight into both myself and other people that Africa did, then it will be worth every penny! I think travel makes you realise that life's not about you but what you do with it.
The realisation that fears are only in your head if you just confront them head-on.
A vacation is like going to the zoo and seeing an animal in an enclosure; extended travel is like heading out into the wild and running into a rhino in it's natural habitat – suddenly you're the one that's vulnerable.
That they will be giving up too much for it to be worthwhile.
I can't help myself – it's a sickness. I'm happiest when I don't have things cluttering up my life and my feet are moving and there's always something new to look forward to – no time for anything to get stale.
Be very flexible when it comes to making plans – the best times are always the unplanned ones.
