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Wow, your apples look delicious!! Want to trade them for our pears?
That single sentence was the start of bartering! In ancient times, when trading with other tribes, transactions were made through 'barter.' It was a mutually beneficial trading method where people exchanged what their own region lacked for what the other's lacked. It especially took place in societies that had developed some form of a market. Because various tribes brought various goods, bartering could have become more active.
However, such bartering was inconvenient because there was no standard of value—for example, you'd have to bring several kilograms of wood for 100g of salt. That's why 'money' was created. Trading by using a single standard for different goods has become commonplace today. Now it's unthinkable to buy things without money! But did you know that bartering is still valid around the world? And even in more advanced forms!Why am I suddenly talking about this? Today I'm going to introduce how to travel the world for free through bartering..!!A way to really travel for free without spending a single cent, using only your skillsThat's how it works!!
In Europe, bartering is still commonly done at flea markets.
좀 더 구체적으로 말씀 드려볼까요? 과거 물물교환은 물건-물건 교환이 당연한 거래 방법이었습니다. 그러나 제가 오늘 말씀드리려는 물물교환은 단순히 물건-물건 교환을 통한 물물교환이 아닌 눈에 보이지 않는 나만의 능력 혹은 노동력과 눈에 보이는 물건 또는 잠을 잘 수 있는 공간과 바꾸는 물물교환을 말씀드리려고 합니다.
In other words, it's a way to travel the world through bartering! By offering your labor you can cover essential travel needs like food and lodging! Doubtful that such a dreamlike free trip is possible? There are actual examples of people who traveled this way!
Note: This piece is written with the focus that 'travel is possible even without much money,' breaking away from the idea that 'you must have a lot of money to travel.' It is not endorsing bartering as the recommended way to travel; please read understanding that it's just informing you that this kind of travel exists. |
Here is the protagonist: German Michael Bige (35)!He succeeded in traveling to a total of 11 countries over 150 days, starting from Berlin in June 2010, without a single penny of seed money.The key to his free world travel, he says, was hitchhiking and bartering. He provided his skills or labor and exchanged them for food or lodging instead of money, which made such travel possible. Up to this point, it sounds like a very romantic story, right?
However, his trip wasn't all romantic. At first, without know-how about bartering or hitchhiking, he began his journey by scavenging and eating discarded food to fill his stomach. In fact, the video documenting his travels even shows scenes of him rummaging through trash.
Thus began his arduous journey, which soon evolved into traveling by barter, providing simple labor like cleaning or washing dishes and exchanging that work for food. Later, he put his aptitudes—fluent German (his native language), Spanish, and English—to use by working as a short-term crew member in exchange for free passage on luxury cruise ships, and gradually continued traveling by leveraging his own skills.
Later, through his own creative ideas—such as 'pillow fights' and 'human sofas'—he even made money and continued his travels, ultimately finishing his journey by setting foot on the Antarctic continent, his original goal!
After his travels he published 'How to Travel the World for Free: I Dit it, and You Can Do It, Too!' (Korean edition: 'A World Trip Without a Single Penny') to share his travel stories and know-how. A video of his travelogue was broadcast on the U.S. public broadcaster PBS and is also available on the website he created!
In Korea there is also a group of four university students who successfully undertook such a barter-based trip.The film 'Idlers' Hitchhiking', which tells the story of these four who traveled a total distance of 7,328 km using a penniless barter system,'is a film that tells a true story made from footage shot by people who called themselves 'idlers' as they traveled by barter.
The four university students, who majored in film (computer graphics, animation, lighting, directing), embarked on a somewhat reckless challenge with the goal of traveling by producing promotional videos for lodging facilities in exchange for free room and board, and ultimately shooting a music video for a new British singer. In fact, the reason they set out was ridiculously impulsive.
The four of them completed a project during vacation producing a military training PPT video to raise tuition, but the money they received was far from enough to cover tuition, so they planned a trip with the intention of making memories before graduation. While they were lying around chatting, someone said, 'Aren't we going to make videos on the trip too?' and Lee Ho-jae, who played the leader role, made a declaration."Everything's planned: it's a way to travel for a year without a single penny! Two weeks later the project became a reality, and with the 800,000 won remaining after buying tickets, they set off for Europe using a barter format of 'hostel promotional video = room and board provided.'
They actually produced a promotional video for a hostel in Rome and received accommodation through that video, and they also filmed a music video for two musicians they met in the UK. Their story can be seen in 'Idlers' Hitchhiking,' and 'Idlers' Hitchhiking' at that timewhen it was released it set a record by attracting 20,000 viewers in the shortest time, won the 'Good Video for Youth' documentary category from the Korea Media Rating Board, was featured in the Wide Angle section of the 18th Busan International Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the 1st Deulkot Film Awards, and was a nominee for the Korean Documentary Special at the 17th Seoul International Youth Film FestivalIt was even selected for those honors.For reference, Lee Ho-jae, who directed this trip and the film, is currently active in various areas of the visual media field. Recently there were even dating rumors linking him with Dana, formerly of the girl group Cheon Sang Ji-hee.
These two stories seem to demonstrate from direct experience that if you take on the challenge, it's definitely doable and worth trying. In particular, Michael Wigge published a book carrying the message 'You can do it, too,' and the four 'idlers' vividly showed their entire trip on video.
Still, for those of you who don't quite get bartering travel, I'll tell you one more story.Have you heard the story of the red paperclip?
It was a project carried out by Kyle MacDonald, a young man in his first year of unemployment living in Canada. The projecthad the goal of turning a single red paperclip from his desk drawer into a house through a series of trades.It began like this. He actually traded the red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen; the pen for a camping stove; the stove for a red Honda generator; the generator for an impromptu beer party; the beer party for a celebrity's snowmobile; the snowmobile for a one-day yak trip; the trip for a cube van; the van for a year's free rent in a house; the free rental for a KISS snow globe; the snow globe for a role in a movie; and the movie role for a house.
I'm not telling this story to say 'Run out right now with a red paperclip!'; I'm telling it to explain the basic principle of bartering.
The basic principle of bartering since ancient times is exchanging things that are useful to each other. How much monetary value an item has becomes a secondary consideration. That means bartering is still possible whenever two parties' needs align. Also, different people may value the same item differently.
Therefore, it means bartering is possible today, and more broadly, that exchanging your skills or labor for lodging or food is not difficult.For example, take the story of the hitchhiking group. At that time, the hostel for which they produced a promotional video had empty rooms, so offering a room was not a difficult request. After all, an empty room would just be a loss if they didn't have guests. But in Italy, with so many hostels, they needed promotional videos to let more people know about their accommodation.
Conversely, the four members of the group could create a video using their skills, but they had no money and desperately needed a place to sleep. If both sides can fill each other's needs like this, bartering can be easily achieved!
How about now—getting the idea? You might worry: 'I don't have any skills. The German man was fluent in foreign languages and the group had video-making skills.' Of course those skills help, but it's still possible even without them!
We have hands that can do the dishes and legs that can do the cleaning!Even the most basic labor can be bartered if it meets the other's needs.For example, if you walk into a busy-looking restaurant and offer 'I'll wash dishes for an hour in exchange for a meal,' the restaurant, short-staffed at lunch, may accept — and it's a good deal for you because you're hungry and get to work for food.
Bartering works as long as what the other person needs and what you need match and you can satisfy each other's wants, so you don't need to overthink it.
Bartering Travel TIP
One tip I noticed while researching bartering travel: having a unique charm or selling point makes things easier. That charm doesn't have to be anything complicated.Een unieke vaardigheid van mezelfDat bedoel ik. Zoals eerder vermeld, is het ook mogelijk als je geen bijzonder talent of aanleg hebt, maar met een eigen vaardigheid heb je iets extra’s dat anderen aanspreekt.
Welke vaardigheden zouden mensen tijdens een reis op basis van ruilhandel het meest aanspreken?
1. Vaardigheden op het gebied van videoproductie
Vaardigheden op het gebied van videoproductie zijn eigenlijk aantrekkelijk in bijna elke dienstensector. Vooral accommodaties en restaurants hebben veel aan promotievideo’s of fotografie: marketing is van levensbelang in de dienstensector!
▶︎ Leer films maken in het onweerstaanbaar romantische Praag in Tsjechië en probeer ruilhandel! (Klik)
2. Kookvaardigheden
Goed kunnen koken spreekt veel verschillende mensen aan. Terwijl videoproductie vooral bedrijven in de dienstensector aanspreekt, zijn kookvaardigheden ook aantrekkelijk voor gewone huishoudens.
Je zou bijvoorbeeld kunnen zeggen: "Ik ben momenteel op ruilreis en ik kan goed Italiaans koken. Ik maak vanavond een heerlijk diner voor je. Mag ik dan een nacht blijven?" Zo’n voorstel kan werken. In Europa en de Verenigde Staten zijn er behoorlijk wat mensen die respect hebben voor jonge reizigers met zulke unieke ervaringen en hen graag willen helpen. Daarom valt zo’n voorstel in die regio’s vaak goed. Nieuwe lokale vrienden maken is mooi meegenomen!
3. Schilderen
Schilderen is eigenlijk dé vaardigheid voor ‘hippie’-reizigers die voortdurend onderweg zijn. Ga eens naar drukke toeristische plekken of parken en bied aan mensen te portretteren in ruil voor eten. Het bijzondere van getekend worden door een buitenlander kan juist een unieke charme hebben, dus dit zou weleens een van de handigste vaardigheden kunnen zijn!
▶︎ Beginners welkom! Leer eenvoudig Italiaans schilderen en probeer ruilhandel! (Klik)
4. Engels
Engels is misschien wel onmisbaar! Het belangrijkste bij het inzetten van deze vaardigheid is dat je kunt communiceren. Je hoeft geen moedertaalspreker te zijn: het is genoeg als je je bedoelingen kunt overbrengen en ongeveer begrijpt wat de ander zegt.
Vandaag hebben we gekeken naar ‘ruilreizen’, een van de nieuwe reisthema’s. Wat vinden jullie ervan? Ik kan me voorstellen dat iedereen er heel anders over denkt.
Tot slot nog een woord vanuit een licht bezorgd hart: ik hoop dat je het niet al te veel romantiseert. Omdat reizen op basis van ruilhandel zelf een soort overlevingstocht kan zijn, zijn er zeker veiligheidsrisico’s.En mensen kunnen afstandelijker zijn dan je verwacht.Zie het gewoon als een andere manier van reizen!
Tegelijkertijd kan bij sommigen van jullie het jonge bloed gaan koken! Tijdens mijn onderzoek kreeg ik het gevoel dat zo’n reis bij mijn karakter zou passen en me nieuwe ervaringen zou opleveren die je simpelweg niet uit boeken kunt leren. Het is dus een reis die je in je twintiger jaren minstens één keer zou moeten proberen. Natuurlijk kunnen mensen van in de dertig of veertig het ook doen, maar volgens mij is het vooral ideaal voor twintigers met minder sociale verplichtingen.
Geef het reizen niet op omdat het te duur is! Er zijn zeker andere manieren, dus ik hoop dat jullie die proberen! Hoe oud we ook zijn, we zijn nog jong, toch? Laten we er vandaag allemaal voor gaan!!
DOOR: redacteur Hwanta
We maken de fantasie waar waar je van droomt! Vanuit de overtuiging dat ‘niets onmogelijk is voor jongeren’ ga ik vol passie eindeloze uitdagingen aan, tot het lukt. Met jeugdig lef en de ervaring die ik heb opgedaan, onderzoek ik hoe we jouw fantasieën werkelijkheid kunnen maken. Lululu~
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