We have not felt even remotely as popular as we did in Indonesia and China. For the first time we had multiple random locals asking us to take photos with them. This is especially unique for Indians unless you are a Bollywood celebrity! We have seen this happen to other people during our travels but never with us. So we were quite puzzled and at the same time amused by all of this.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia:
The first time it happened Sunny and I got super excited with the attention. This was at  Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta. We were a bit lost without a tour guide and had to walk our way back and forth the temples on a 90degree day and were pretty much ready to be done when a group of girls chased us and asked for a photo.  This was followed by 3 more groups as we kept walking. Our guess initially was the kids had a school assignment to spot foreigners and take photos with them! If that was the case it was a crappy situation for them since we made it on multiple photos for different groups! One little girl even did a side to side head nod for us saying “I love Indians and Bollywood”. By the end of our walk we were so over picture taking, we politely started saying no!

Bali, Indonesia:
This was creepy and amusing at the same time. Sunny and I were trying to take some selfies by the water at a view point at Tanah Lot temple. I was holding his right hand and leaning in on my left side. We saw a couple of young girls in front of us giggling while watching us. As soon as we were done, one of them walked up to Sunny and said that her friend wanted a photo with him. Sunny looked at me for a second and then said “Ummm sure”. She sensed his hesitation and added I could join as well!!! We both had that “It’s just one photo” look and went for it. This almost turned out to be a photo shoot with Sunny in the middle and the stranger girl on his left leaning in to take photos exactly the way I had for the selfie!!! I was laughing in all the pictures knowing I was going to be cropped out from them. We’re pretty sure those photos are making their way on some social network site!!

Beijing, China:
While touring Tiananmen square we had multiple groups of people trying to take a photo with us. Beijing was different because some people didn’t even ask!!! Mothers just followed us and put their children in front of us while we stopped and took photos. At one instance while our guide was taking a photo of us, a group of people literally lined up waiting for us to be done to start taking pictures with them! The most interesting instance was while walking  along the road of Tiananmen square. An elderly gentleman rushed from behind, got in the middle of us, linked his arms with us while his wife rushed ahead and clicked. I kid you not, all this happened in less than a minute!!!! After they took the pic, they walked away as if nothing had happened. The only regret we had was we wished we had taken a copy of photos with all the people who took one with us! Moments like these are the ones we reflect back on and smile…..