Traveller lifestyle in real life.. kinda

[autochthonic]

Does anyone know what it would cost to start a Traveller style life for real?

I mean what would it cost to have an ocean-going vessel that carries small cargo from port to port internationally? Is the modern-day equivalent of a Free Trader financially possible and how much would it cost to buy and operate?

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

You're talking about owning and/or operating a "Tramp Steamer".

 

[clementk]

I suggest also looking into traveling Circus/Carnivals; musical, acting, and similar groups that go on tour for months on end; Irish Travellers*; fair/amusement park vendors and acts; shipping companies (truck drivers for starters); monks and others on say a pilgrimage (not limited to Christianity) and similar types. There are some additional examples in history but you seem to be asking for current analogues.

Hmmm, also those travel shows that often show up on PBS/BBC America/Discovery channels in the States. Some of these people seem to be professional explorer/traveler/tourist types.

To me all these groups are valid as inspirations for Travellers in Traveller. The key is the desire or need to travel and some way, preferably more than one, to earn your passage and some pocket money on the journey.

Casey (and this is why my 2nd T20 character was an ex-acrobat who'd worked for Authenticists ^_^ )

* which is actually where I first came across the word Traveller in recent memory, having forgotten about the game Traveller at the time

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

The Irish Travellers I have encountered rip off old ladies by tarring their driveways with Black Paint. They also seem to have no problem marrying a minor girl to a non-minor man, and do so in a horrific "Parade" of "eligible" bachleorettes. 20/20 had a film of it. Icky, to understate.

Members of the group also staged the "rape" case scam at Disney World, where a young woman claimed to have been raped by a stranger that got into the Disney Hotel, but it turned out that she mereley had sex with her boyfriend, and had her brothers beat her up.

These are interesting groups to study, but I recommend doing it from afar. The "Joining the Circus" notion is exceedingly different from the reality.

 

[Madarin Dude]

Well there are many ex pats living in differnent countries and move around to see the world. ( Ｉam an American and I have lived in Iceland Saudi Arabia dn now China)　You have to take oppurtunities and move and see the world. I am by no means rich. It takes some initiative and a certain lack of fear of being out of familiar surroundings. The tramp freighter idea also sounds interesting to me but I am a man of limited means.

 

[Ran Targas]

^ I've met several vagabonds during my time overseas who seem to be true Travellers. One girl in particular, an Israeli, sold paintings and jewelry on the street in Japan to fund her travels in India, Thailand, Tibet, and Bhutan. I believe she only had what she could carry or store away safely. I would run into her in the strangest places and she introduced me to the youth hostel experience. In Hong Kong, she convinced me to go to a Jackie Chan movie shoot and try out as extras. Amazingly free and without responsibility, I always wondered how she did it.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Here are a couple of links concerning traveling aboard or operating tramp freighters.


The Internet Guide to Freighter Travel
http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo/mainmenu.html

The book: "Freighter Captain, by Max Hardberger"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0964043378/internetguidetof/104-6558511-0058365

EDIT---
Test Characters

 

[Tony Canopus]

I would like to get a surplus soviet sub and go marauding, after the necessary modifications were made... Sport Fishermen and Pleasure yachters beware, Har! It would be Stand and Deliver or they would taste the bad end of a cement- warheaded torpedo to the waterline!

 

[Arthur Denger]

A writer with whom I once corresponded booked passage aboard a so-called tramp freighter: he highly recommmended the experience. Cost: a fraction of that of a cruise ship or ocean liner like the QE2. Time involved: plan for it to take a bit longer, you'll be going the scenic route (or not so much so). I understand it is still possible to book working passage aboard such vessels, as well.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I read a story once about young Americans who would backpack throughout Europe and Asia. One fascinating piece of information I remember from the story is that many of them would fund their travels by selling their worn Levi's jeans on the black market.

They would buy as many new pairs of jeans in the U.S. as they could carry in their baggage. They would wear two pairs, alternating as they did wash, until the jeans became soft and faded. Then they would sell them on the black market for up to the equivalent of $500 U.S., and start breaking in two more pairs of jeans.

If they ran out of jeans before they wanted to come home, they would get family or friends to ship them some more new pairs.

 

[Jame]

Originally posted by Ran Targas:
^ I've met several vagabonds during my time overseas who seem to be true Travellers. One girl in particular, an Israeli, sold paintings and jewelry on the street in Japan to fund her travels in India, Thailand, Tibet, and Bhutan. I believe she only had what she could carry or store away safely. I would run into her in the strangest places and she introduced me to the youth hostel experience. In Hong Kong, she convinced me to go to a Jackie Chan movie shoot and try out as extras. Amazingly free and without responsibility, I always wondered how she did it.

I've always wondered how people do this myself. Do they just get up one day and leave home? And how do they get to all those different places?

 

[Ran Targas]

^ I recall seeing old, worn out Levi's with holes in the butt/crotch/knees selling for 10,000yen or more in stores in Tokyo. Bizarre.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Originally posted by Jame:
I've always wondered how people do this myself. Do they just get up one day and leave home? And how do they get to all those different places?

There is a young couple who live in the D-FW area and who post on the EN World boards. They are currently in the process of selling all of their stuff because they are going to live in Nepal, Tibet, and India for a few years.

They own a small company that puts out d20 fantasy supplements. They plan on working on a fantasy supplement using that part of the world as the background. Basically they are just taking some clothes and two brand new laptops.

 

[hirch duckfinder]

us poor europeans , reliant on jeans brought by friendly yank explorers.....

 

[Spiderfish]

You consider yourself European?

 

[signless]

Back in the good old days (prior to the loonies flying planes into skyscrapers...) of my misspent youth, I would frequently fly all over hell-and-gone as an air courier. It was an incredibly cheap way to travel, and got me to five out of the seven continents. I made it to antarctica as a video technician (thanks to a combination of byzantine and machiavellian manuevers by the California State University system...heh).
I have no idea how easy or difficult the air-courier gig is, now.

 

[Klaus]

My dad was a merchant sailor, on small tankers and container ships, and vessels you could call freightliners: 5000 tons +. Made 4 stripes before retiring. Vessels this size are leased rather than owned by the operating companies. They start their life leased to reputable companies (my dad's Norwegian so those ships were fairly near the top of the chain), and as the years go by they're passed down until they're sailing under a Liberian flag, before ending up on that beach in India to be scrapped.

There was that eco-'pirate' too. He had a small freighter armed with a 17th century cannon and a tug carrying super stinkbomb wielding 'corsairs' that would harass whalers and drift netters. He was trying to buy a surplus deisel sub from New Zealand I think to he could sneak up and scuttle whalers in port with limpet mines. Don't know how far he got with this; I saw this on tv a decade ago.

 

[Jame]

Thanks for the link, Thrash!

 

[kaladorn]

A friend's dad is qualified to master ships up to 500 tons, and was the master of a 3 masted brigantine at one point. He also was a qualified hovercraft inspector (only one in Canada) and helped the Coast Guard start looking at the rules for WIG vehicles (not quite plane, not quite boat, bit of both). And he bums around now that he is retired from the CG doing training for sailors and ferrying boats for rich people. Why? Because he can, he has the training and experience, and he loves the travelling/voyaging/seaborne life.

I think some of that mindset is necessary to explain travellers who don't do it directly for the money. You need to enjoy the lifestyle, the challenges, sailing the stars, maybe just liking the view of the cosmos....