They treat me like a movie star here... complete with all the crap...

Haven't been here a week, yet they all know me. Normally that's good. When they know you, they watch your back. But these people... the ones that deal with tourists... they're slimy, sexually repressed amateur con artists.

And I have paparazzi. Strangers stop me in the street & ask to take a photo with me. Ok, it's kinda cute... when they're girls. But the guys...I don't know if it's the same, but in India & Nepal, these guys go back & tell their friends you’re their girlfriend... or worse...which perpetuates the easy white woman myth making it hard for western women to travel. So unless they're little boys, I always say no photos.

But that's just the ones nice enough to ask. Plenty just take the photo...& they're not even discrete. Ok, I'm traveling, taking photos of locals, but I always try to be discrete! From previous travels I've mastered the art of ruining their photos...either I curl my upper lip in disgust, or, like a movie star, turn my head & hold my hand up.

And also like a movie star, I have a stalker. Seriously. This guy followed me yesterday morning, even after I told him to go away... I finally got on a motorbike & speed away. He showed up at night, I told him to leave me alone -again- only to later find him following me down the alley to my hotel. Held my hand out & shouted at him while a woman walked by... he stopped & pretend to be lost. Meanwhile I ran around the corner into my hotel... luckily there's 3 other hotels so he doesn’t know which one. If he shows up today, I’ll let him follow me to a nice shopkeeper & have the shopkeeper yell at him. But I'll also carry my pepper spray today.