I’d read somewhere about the phenomenon where some tourists (usually from Korea and Japan) will request other tourists (usually Caucasian?) to pose in photos with them. And indeed, the first time it happened, at Lake Bratan in Bali, I thought she wanted me to take a photo of her. Oh no. She wanted me to take a photo with her. Ok, no problem. Strange, but whatever.

I don’t recall if it’s happened much since then. Maybe once or twice. Infrequently enough not to register. Then we got to India.

For one thing, we are WAY outnumbered here. Even in our visits to the most tourist-visited destinations, like Varanasi and Agra, the Indian tourists absolutely dwarf the foreigners. Which means no matter how conservatively we dress or act, we always stand out. I suppose for that reason, people LOVE taking pictures of us.

The funny thing is, we love having our pictures taken! We play along, we wave, we smile, we give people the thumbs up. We pose with children, we pose with friends, we pose shaking hands. Things really started to take off in Mount Abu, as most of the Indians there were on holiday with their families (thus already snapping photos), and we just happened to be one more unusual sight along the way. Apparently I bare a resemblance to “that Incredible India guy”, or so I’ve been told.

Finally it occurred to me that I needed to get a photo of them taking a photo of me—so people would believe me! Voila: