One thing that happened to us in India was several times we were asked to take our photo with a family. We found it odd then, but it happened again in Indonesia. This time it was much more frequent. The first round of photo shoots were in Berstagi where we were asked 5 times for photos. The requests came mostly from children, but one family asked to snap some pics with your favorite celebrities.
In Medan, it happened again. We were asked 4 times for photos. In addition, I was also interviewed (recorded via cell phone) by a group of kids. Here they are after the interview
Its both weird and awesome to be asked for your photo. The whole act seems a little bizarre to us, as what are they going to do with the photos? Why would they want a photo of some random westerner? At the same time, it’s sweet. The requesters get really excited to both ask you and even more excited when you say yes. They also expect not just a photo but a photo shoot! We both feel special because they ask and leave the encounter with a large grin. We expect that this won’t happen in Bali where there are more western tourists.
thanks for the blog posting. i can understand them wanting ashley beautiful photo, but yours…not so much…
love y'all
It happened to us in China, too. People were too shy to ask, so they would just try to position themselves so that we were in the photos. At first, we thought they were taking pics and we were in the way, so we moved away. When we realized what they wanted, we posed with them as if we were old friends. It's a fun way to interact with local people even when you don't have a common language.