I've traveled all over the world, from South America, India, to China. In all those places, the locals stare and take photos. They stare at me, also a redhead; they stare at my girlfriend, who is from LA and dresses like it. Unlike this sheltered author, when the kids take photos of us, the white ghosts, faragn, or gringos, we don't assume they're going to use it for porn. We're often the only white couple in the town. Sometimes they've never seen white people. It's what they do.

When my gf was alone in India, she had guys come on to her a few times, but she said it was nothing compared to the aggressive behavior we encountered in Columbia and Cambodia.

People like Rose Chasm, should stay in their small American towns. Someone with such vivid imagination and fragile psyche has no business traveling in 3rd world countries.

I grew up in a poor part of Easter Europe. Alcoholism, poverty, despair was around. It wasn't Africa, and there are lots, lots worse places in the world. We might not have always had enough food to eat, but we were lucky to have what we had.

It is important to recognize when you are not safe and to know how to diffuse the situation and escape. In some of those places it could go from staring to stabbing quickly. Let's just say I had to act "crazy" a couple of times in order to be deemed not worth to bother with (this is a good strategy btw if you are by yourself in a bind)

I can't judge of course for you, I wasn't there. But you perhaps underestimate the danger because you were with her. You are also not a woman. It is different for a single woman.

When I travelled Indua with my wife she would not be touched but it constantly happend to all single women we met. I believe the men just saw her as my property thus expecting me to retaliate. What they did not understand was how a women could not be tied to a man.

You may have stopped reading my comment a little early, as it echoes your sentiments exactly after the portion you quote.