This is third and final part of our 3 part series on Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year. If you missed them, here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

23. Your appearance immediately sets expectations. Run with it.

Posin’ in Xi’an, China.

A buddy of mine and I were recently comparing our experiences in Seoul, South Korea. In my experience, almost no one spoke English in Seoul. In his, pretty much everyone did. The difference? He’s 6’2” and white as the day is long. I’m 5’10” and half Chinese – a look that makes me indefinably ethnic at home, but probably Chinese in Korea. People were expecting him to speak English, so they did so preemptively. With me, they weren’t quite sure where to start.

Conversely, I’d be willing to bet that I received better treatment in Paris because I looked like a fumbling young Japanese tourist to most French people.

24. Asians are everywhere.

A Chinese tour group in Yellowstone.

Thanks in large part to Chinese and Japanese tour groups, Asians are everywhere. Other ethnic groups, not so much.

25. And Sexpats are all over Asia.

Yay, sexpats, bleh.

It’s especially bad in Thailand, but you see them all over Southeast Asia. Pretty revolting, stuff, actually.

26. Sometimes it’s worth it to pay for a room with a view.

Bora Bora was totally worth the cost.

In Paris, we rented an apartment with a view of Sucre Coeur. In Tokyo, we got a room facing Mt. Fuji. In Bora Bora, we had a room facing the volcano. I never used to be a stop-and-admire-the-view kind of guy, but there’s something to be said for waking up and immediately feeling like you’re in an exotic, amazing place.

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This is Part 2 of our post on the 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year. You can view Part 1 here.

12. If you can’t research a meal ahead of time, going with the most popular place almost always works.

If it smells good, and it’s crowded, chances are it’s safe AND delicious!

Most of the time, Mrs. Selfish painstakingly researched restaurants days, or weeks before we arrived. Sometimes, however, the best meals were restaurants we spotted while wandering. If it smells good AND there’s a crowd, chances are it’s worth eating!

13. Goods cost pretty much the same everywhere…

Electronics in Akihabara, Tokyo are just as expensive as home.

Sometimes you can find a better deal on goods in their native country. For the most part, however, we found that goods cost just as much as in the States… except those countries never had any sales! Where’s a good Black Friday when you need one?

14. …but services are cheapest in Southeast Asia.

If it’s cheap manual labor ye be wantin’, head to Southeast Asia.

Without a doubt the cheapest services I’ve ever seen were in Southeast Asia. We paid $7 for an hour long massage in Bali, $10 in the Philippines, $5 in Cambodia, and $14 an hour in Thailand (the best one!). For haircuts, I found the cheapest (and best) was in Beijing, where I paid a whopping 10 yuan ($1.60). Unless it requires a huge amount of finesse, chances are it’s cheaper in Asia.

15. Shipping is cheaper than you think.

Especially if you don’t care if it takes months to get there!

While Mrs. Selfish and I loved haggling for goods, we had one major problem – we didn’t have enough room to bring them back! Fortunately, mailing stuff by by boat (which usually took 2 months), was pretty affordable.

In England, we paid roughly $100 for 10 kg (22 lbs). In China, we ended up paying closer to $40 for the same amount. In total, we shipped off 6 boxes with roughly 120 lbs worth of stuff, and almost everything arrived intact, with the exception of a mask we bought in Xi’an.

16. Deodorant is more prevalent in Asia & Australia than Europe.

Vive, la Stench! Sadly, a cliché for a reason.

Especially on the metro. Come on, Europe, you smell weird, and no one wants to be around you!

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One of my secret (hopeful) goals of traveling for a year was to improve myself in a Julia-Roberts-Eat-Pray-Love kind of way. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking at the time, but I figured there was a good chance I’d have an epiphany while viewing the Great Wall of China, or a greater insight into myself while practicing yoga on the beach somewhere in Thailand.

Utter crap, of course.

If anything, I think I’ve come out of the experience a little more sure of who I am, and what I’m about: a sarcastic bastard in his early 30’s filled with a strong desire to maximize everything.

Nevertheless, while I didn’t learn anything new about myself, I did learn a lot about who I am when I travel and a little bit more about the world.

1. It is possible to get travel fatigue.

Walking 5 miles at 10,000 ft. in Machu Picchu was no joke.

Planning a 10 day trip for 2 cities is all fun and games, especially when you’re doing it from the office. Planning a trip for 370 days for 95 cities is exhausting, as it turns out. Especially when you factor in the fact that you’ll be changing rooms (and beds) on average less than once every 4 days. We probably spent a good 2-3 days of the trip just packing and unpacking our bags!

2. You will lose weight.

Waterfall Repelling in Da Lat, Vietnam. I fell. A lot.

Most of our friends and family (secretly) thought we’d gain weight while traveling for a year. And while we did cook whenever we had a kitchen, we probably ate more than 2/3 of our meals out. So how did we lose weight? As it turns out, simply being on your feet 4-8 hours a day goes a long way.

Back in Orlando, I’d probably sit down for all but 2 hours a day, and hardly any of that was spent walking. Traveling there were days where we’d be on our feet ALL day, and I’d go to sleep strangely exhausted, though I hadn’t done anything strenuous.

Oddly, the country where we gained the most weight was America – even with all the gym time.

3. You can get by without seeing friends and families for several months at a time.

Mrs. Selfish and her cousin barely survived a monkey attack in Bali.

We were fortunate to be able to meet up with friends and family several times throughout our journey, but there were months at a time where I’d only see Mrs. Selfish. Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of the internet, we managed to stay in touch with loved ones.

4. After a few days, you no longer miss TV.

Mrs. Selfish never misses a photo-op. Taken in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Mrs. Selfish and I used to turn on the Food Network or TBS almost immediately after coming home from work. As soon as we hit the road, we stopped watching TV immediately, and I didn’t miss it. There was just too much to do. Now that we’re home, we still don’t watch TV.

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