Being an accidental celebrity
The journey from Malaysian Borneo to Indonesia was not as straightforward as Dana and I had hoped. We were in Semporna, a port town in the southeast corner of the province, in hopes that we could catch a boat to Bali after doing some diving. The journey turned out to be a lot more convoluted than that, with many stopovers in "less travelled" places.
Semporna is where we discovered how famous we were. Most divers elect to stay on nearby Mabul island to get to the famous Sipadan dive site, but we chose to stay ashore in Semporna and make a longer journey by boat to do our day of diving. As a result, everyone from shopkeepers to fishmongers hooted things at us as we walked by, whether we were heading to dive in the morning or looking for a place to eat dinner at night. They spoke amongst each other and pointed at us, sometimes with an excited tone, sometimes with a mocking one. Dana is tall, blonde, and Belgian, so she got most of the attention - generally people couldn't have cared less that I was there. Still, it was the first time I'd felt like I really didn't belong somewhere.
Staring and attention followed us to nearby Tawau, where we were going to take a boat to the Indonesian side of the island. The pictures also started there: people just approached us with their phones and (usually) asked to take selfies with us. I think I had more fun with this than Dana did. Street vendors wanted to memorialize us eating their food. When we got to Indonesian Borneo, we spent a day on a local beach as we waited for our flight, and were apparently the talk of the town as we lay half naked in the sand reading. We took a few pictures with various people, but the funniest was the couple who approached us and asked us to hold a large banner for the picture. I stood on one side, Dana on the other, and several people stood with us and in between. After the picture was done, we asked what the banner said. "Football!", someone answered. We had apparently just endorsed a local soccer team in our bathing suits.
After Dana and I parted ways, the attention waned. As I suspected, she was the key to my fame. However, I did have one group of people recognize me in Colombo. I was sitting on a bench in a park, taking a break from my morning walk and looking at the map on my phone to decide which route I wanted to take back to my hostel. I saw many pairs of legs in my peripheral vision all of a sudden, and looked up to find a dozen people staring at me, all around my age or slightly younger. A heavyset guy sat on the bench beside me and smiled as one of the girls pulled out her phone. Alright then, I guess we're taking pictures. Since they didn't ask, and the guy looked a bit uncomfortable, I decided to make it as awkward as possible by aggressively putting my arm around him and pulling him toward me. After that picture was done, he got up and two more sat down, flanking me this time. Okay, there is no chance in hell I'm sitting here while all of these people take turns taking pictures of me. I sprang off the bench after the second picture, smiled and quickly waved goodbye, and walked away as the girls all giggled.
Aside from a few other pictures here and there, that was it for my fifteen minutes of fame. After talking with other backpackers for the past few months, it seems like many of us are celebrities down here. Personally, I'll miss the spotlight when I get back, but I'm glad my legacy will live on in the Facebook accounts of 50 random Asian people.
Semporna is where we discovered how famous we were. Most divers elect to stay on nearby Mabul island to get to the famous Sipadan dive site, but we chose to stay ashore in Semporna and make a longer journey by boat to do our day of diving. As a result, everyone from shopkeepers to fishmongers hooted things at us as we walked by, whether we were heading to dive in the morning or looking for a place to eat dinner at night. They spoke amongst each other and pointed at us, sometimes with an excited tone, sometimes with a mocking one. Dana is tall, blonde, and Belgian, so she got most of the attention - generally people couldn't have cared less that I was there. Still, it was the first time I'd felt like I really didn't belong somewhere.
Staring and attention followed us to nearby Tawau, where we were going to take a boat to the Indonesian side of the island. The pictures also started there: people just approached us with their phones and (usually) asked to take selfies with us. I think I had more fun with this than Dana did. Street vendors wanted to memorialize us eating their food. When we got to Indonesian Borneo, we spent a day on a local beach as we waited for our flight, and were apparently the talk of the town as we lay half naked in the sand reading. We took a few pictures with various people, but the funniest was the couple who approached us and asked us to hold a large banner for the picture. I stood on one side, Dana on the other, and several people stood with us and in between. After the picture was done, we asked what the banner said. "Football!", someone answered. We had apparently just endorsed a local soccer team in our bathing suits.
After Dana and I parted ways, the attention waned. As I suspected, she was the key to my fame. However, I did have one group of people recognize me in Colombo. I was sitting on a bench in a park, taking a break from my morning walk and looking at the map on my phone to decide which route I wanted to take back to my hostel. I saw many pairs of legs in my peripheral vision all of a sudden, and looked up to find a dozen people staring at me, all around my age or slightly younger. A heavyset guy sat on the bench beside me and smiled as one of the girls pulled out her phone. Alright then, I guess we're taking pictures. Since they didn't ask, and the guy looked a bit uncomfortable, I decided to make it as awkward as possible by aggressively putting my arm around him and pulling him toward me. After that picture was done, he got up and two more sat down, flanking me this time. Okay, there is no chance in hell I'm sitting here while all of these people take turns taking pictures of me. I sprang off the bench after the second picture, smiled and quickly waved goodbye, and walked away as the girls all giggled.
Aside from a few other pictures here and there, that was it for my fifteen minutes of fame. After talking with other backpackers for the past few months, it seems like many of us are celebrities down here. Personally, I'll miss the spotlight when I get back, but I'm glad my legacy will live on in the Facebook accounts of 50 random Asian people.
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