Are Kazakh people welcoming? How to surprise your guest.

 I love to organize surprises for people important to me, but I also love to be surprised, I really do.

However, unfortunately, no many friends, family members, or girlfriends managed to do so… I always discovered the next surprises just before the event was about to happen; like a surprise bday party at my gym, where I acted like I didn’t know it. Where everybody was happy, but I wasn’t surprised   

The times when people surprised me, can be count on my fingers, but when they do, I remember it forever!

So, let me tell you about the last time someone managed to surprise me, without me seeing it coming.

It was April 2016, during my bday’s trip to Kazahkastan I flew from the old capital Almaty to a smaller city on the Caspian Sea called Aktau.

Why did I go there? Well, back in 2014 I was partying in the famous LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) in Hong Kong and as much as I usually avoid to ask people’s nationality, that time, when I saw those pretty girls way different from any other women I’ve ever had met before, I couldn’t help but ask them where they were coming from.

The answer was “Kazakhstan“, I spent some time with them, and it was a lot of fun, so I promised them that one day, I would have gone to visit them to their hometown Aktau, Kazakhstan. 

Back to the story, I landed in Aktau, a little domestic airport early evening, pitch dark outside, and very cold (for someone who was in Thailand a week earlier).

I knew I was going to meet my friends during my stay, but they told me that it was impossible for them to meet me on my first night, so I just got my luggage and headed to the door just after the carrousel’s area.

In Kazakhstan, like in many other countries, there are countless “free-lance drivers” who try to take people to the city for a fee and me, being the only foreigner there who wasn’t able to speak Kazakh or Russian… I was, as you can imagine, the most wanted.

Nearly helpless, I was making my way through the crowd, where all those people were trying to talk to me or grab my arm to get their attention. The felling wasn’t great, but suddenly, something happened. A softer, but more confident hand grabbed my left arm pulling me in her direction, I tried to “escape” from it until I heard a female voice saying “Luca! It’s me!”.

WOW,       I didn’t expect it at all! Especially for the way it happened. One second I was there, looking around trying to find some reliable person who could have taken me to my hotel without ripping me off, and one second later, I was there with the only friend I had (before my trip) in the country. By the way, her name is Roza

. 

She organized a car for us to take me to my hotel and after the check-in, she took me to a nice restaurant by the sea where we celebrated my belated25th birthday.     

I was, and I am extremely grateful for the warm welcome I received in Aktau and for the surprise of my arrival.

Roza was the best Kazakh host I could ever have, besides the time in Aktau, she also managed to organize another host for me in the capital Astana a couple of days later, making my stay and experience memorable. 

As you may have noticed, the selfie I took at the airport indeed shows you how happy she made me feel. And to these days, it still one of the most genuine smiles I ever had.

Next time you feel lazy to organize something special for someone, just remember that whatever you are planning may truly change their entire perspective about the experience they are having and on top of that, the way they care about you.

And if your relative, partner or friend is someone like me, well… just try a bit harder

TheLB