We all say that we're going to give up the rat race and move to that gorgoeous hot sunny country where we went on holiday last year. But how many people actually do just that? Julianne did - in fact she's been travelling for the last three years. We asked her all about her lifestyle choice...

In this section:

<< Back to Career Gappers  Career gappers taking over the world  Working with animals  Care work in South Africa  Career break as a football coach  Water relief project in Kenya  I became a tribal chief...  Friends for life  Fulfilling a dream  Forty and fed up  Careergap opportunities with PGL  Working in a safari lodge  Working in a safari camp  My careergap journey  Teaching in Ghana  Career gapping round the world: Viv McLaughlin  Never too old to backpack: Karen Batchelor  Interview with... Richard Bradley, Ghana volunteer  Back to reality: James Prince  A family gap in France  Climbing Mount Aconcagua  Author interview: The Career Break Book  Author interview: Gap Years for Grown Ups  A musical careergap  Volunteering overseas  Why I don't keep cats...  A careergap Downunder  A biker on the road  Around the World with the missus  Careergap in Patagonia  Emigrating to Australia  Cycling Chile  Around the world at 48

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Name: Julianne Cornish Age: 33 Occupation: traveller and care worker Who or what spurred you to start travelling? A good friend... she later decided she couldn’t leave her cats, but with me the idea had set. What with my 30th birthday just passed and having had the same job for 13 years, I needed a change. There was no stopping me, so I found myself a new travel partner and off I went. Just for the record, my friend is still at home in her two-bedroom flat with her cats, now along with two small children, her man and his cats. Although times are hard for her, I know she wouldn’t trade her life for mine. We’re all different and different things make us tick! What job did you leave at home? I worked with special-needs people. While I’ve been travelling, I’ve worked as a waitress, run a Thai home-stay and then a beach bar, but now I’m back in my field working with autistic kids. Click here >> for overseas jobs How do you finance the travelling? I have a small income from a property back in the UK. Also, I’ve always been a tight-ass, which works well when you are on the road. I’ve gone from car-boot sales in the UK, to travellers’ cast-offs on street stalls in Asia, to garage sales in Oz to kit myself out. There’s no point in wasting hard-earned money on items that will later be discarded. I’ve transformed my Ozzy pad for a few bucks here and there. It’s home for now but for how long, who knows - I’d rather save the money for future travels. So where in the world have you been? I left the UK in June 1999 and started off in Bangkok, travelled up to Burma, then into Laos and Cambodia. I went back into Thailand to get a flight to Australia and New Zealand before sailing from Darwin to Indonesia, going overland through Singapore and Malaysia and back to Thailand to work. I stayed there for a year before flying to Vietnam then back to Oz for some more work. Click here >> for info on specific countries What’s your favourite country that you’ve been to? Hard question. Everywhere and everybody is so different, you have to see for yourselves. Who you are travelling with at the time, and locals that you meet, can make a huge difference to a country. For me personally it would be Thailand, if wages were better. Cambodia is so cheap and with great places of interest and beauty, but I wouldn’t want to live there. New Zealand would be a beautiful place to live. The fact that it’s English-speaking is a bonus, everyone is very friendly and you can earn a respectable wage. Check out Villa Hostel at the top of South Island. Click here >> for Villa Hostel Any places to avoid? Ipoh - at the top of Malaysia - unless you are looking for a lady of the night. What are your most interesting experiences? Working at the Sydney Olympics, sailing to Indonesia, and staying in a Laos village with a local family where we ate bloody duck, cow brain, maggots... you name it. Food in Asian countries is always an interesting experience - I’ll try anything once! Have you had any scary experiences? White-water rafting! Click here >> for rafting ideas I got deported out of Laos by local Immigration after an intense four-hour interview. I also had all my valuables stolen while on a bus in Thailand. I witnessed corruption while I was at the police station - and the experience also left me keen to avoid getting involved in drug planting! It must be difficult to maintain a romantic relationship? I met a Kiwi guy called Daryl two and a half years into my trip, when I was in Thailand. I travelled back to Oz to meet up with him and we’re both still living and working in Sydney. It’s OK because we only live five minutes away from each other. However, I generally try and avoid relationships whilst travelling. How do you keep in touch with friends and family back home? Email! Even my parents have finally been converted. In Australia phone cards are cheap, which makes it even easier - you can get over seven hours’ call time for just ten bucks. It does make you a bit lazy with the good old-fashioned way of putting pen to paper, but cards in the post are a must for birthdays - especially with that nice extra touch of a photo or two. How many new friends have you made whilst travelling? Well I now have about 150 new addresses in my email account. What do you miss most about home? What you miss depends where you are. I yearned for baked beans and fish and chips while I was in Asia - food is always top of my list! Believe it or not, I miss the cold. There isn’t anything quite like snuggling into a warm bed with a hot coffee on a winter’s morning. I still miss my family, and seeing my brother’s three children grow up is a big pull to go home. It does get easier as you meet new friends and adopt others to form a new ‘travel family’. I am very lucky that my parents come and visit me, so although I’ve not been home for three years, I last saw Mum and Dad a year ago and will again in spring. Also, in Australia and Thailand I lived with the families whom I worked for, so they took me under their wing and made me feel part of their family. You will never forget or replace your real family, but they become less of a part of your everyday life. Finally, any top tips for potential travellers? Not really: if you are out there doing it, that’s the main thing. It would be the icing on the cake of this trip if my tales gave anyone that extra push to go for it. It’s great experience - the good and the bad things that happen. It’s changed me as a person. I wouldn’t trade in any of my travels to have stayed at home and had babies - but that’s me, and we’re all different. Luckily for me I hate cats, even fried! Click here >> for more on taking a careergap

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