Monumen Nasional, Jakarta
On our first weekend in Jakarta, the wife and I decided to visit the Monas, or National Monument. It’s a giant spire surrounded by a lot of cement, which is surrounded by a large park, which is bounded on some sides by large parking lots. Tourists come from other countries and, mostly, from within Indonesia to see the tower and, for a fee, to ride to the top and look out.
As we approached the Monas, walking among Indonesians, a man called, “Miss … miss…” in English. We saw that he was indicating that he had a camera and that he was accompanied by his wife, who was holding a baby. We thought that he wanted one of us to take their picture. But he corrected us: he wanted to get a picture of us, with his wife and child and the Monas. After a quick snapshot and an exchange of thanks, we went our way and they went theirs.
We wondered why they would want us in their photo. Why would they want a picture with any complete stranger? And why us, when a similarly Euro-looking couple was walking nearby? Was it because we were dressed more conservatively than the other couple?
Then it happened again. Several minutes later, on the other side of the monument, a man asked me (“Mister”) whether we would be in a picture with him and his child, while his wife operated the camera. This time, he put his arm around me for the pose.
Since then, we have learned that this happens quite commonly. Americans have mentioned similar experiences at Borobudur and in other Southeast Asian countries. But what is people’s intent when they take this type of picture? And what is these photos’ ultimate fate?
Indonesian observations 
Did the other couple have golden locks. At the Grand Canyon I always used to get asked by Japanese tourists. My hair was lighter then.
I think that this is not the key. The other couple had golden locks on the woman and locks on the man, thereby beating us … by a hair! And the second time we were asked, I was the one the man hailed and hugged (good-time guy?). Finally, the other Americans who told us of receiving similar attentions included brunettes. Obviously this calls for ethnographic research.
Or maybe they just thought I was a good-time girl.
When traveling in Egypt I had that happen with a bunch of school girls. I’m sure it was my hair because just before that I could feel my hair being touched by one of the girls as it blew in the wind . My theory was that she was testing out whether blond hair felt different than darker hair.
When we were adopting Abby we had many Chinese people taking Abby from our arms and walking around with her, having us take photos of them on our camera. There was one young couple who asked us to take a photo on their camera of them with Abby in the lobby of the hotel. Abby was what caught their attention, possibly because she was with obviously foreign parents.
We had this happen to us a bit in Ireland, but it was on our wedding day. The locals wanted their picture taken with the American couple getting married. 🙂