Finding Generosity in Unexpected Places: A Travel Story from Kazakhstan

Last updated on May 17, 2023

It was the first day of Eid in Kazakhstan.

My ATM card suddenly stopped working (I later found out that it was blocked by the bank) and sagging on gold, I had forgotten my wallet somewhere. I was wandering the Kazakh countryside with some Kazakh notes in my pocket.

I was tired of exhaustion and starving. At that time I had only one thought in mind… Should I buy something to eat or a bus ticket to Astana? I was passing by a village when I saw a small cafe on the side of the road. The scent coming from there overwhelmed the hunger over the ticket. I almost lay down in a chair outside the cafe. After some time when the legs got some rest, the ticket started to dominate the hunger.

I thought for a while and took a middle path. A cup of tea and bus tickets!

One of the cafe workers came out of the café and start looking at me. Only one word came out of my mouth “tea”. He smiled and walked inside. I was enjoying my tea and he went inside. I was thinking in my mind that a wonderful and lively fragrance called me back to this cafe…

He was standing in front of me and there was an apple pie on the table with a cup of tea. I tried to say “no” in every word of Russian, English, Urdu, and Punjabi, but he went inside with a smile.

But as soon as I took a bite of the pie, the hunger for the bus ticket faded away in comparison to the sweet taste of the dessert. 

After I finished my tea and pie, my stomach and heart were content, but my pockets and legs were not. I had no idea how much the tea and pie cost. I went inside the cafe and as I awkwardly gestured for the bill, the worker asked for my mobile phone. I handed it over, and he typed something on it before returning it to me.

With a mix of relief and confusion, I looked at the screen of my phone,

which simply read

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—

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“no money.. you are a guest… Eid”

In the end, I didn’t end up taking the bus to Astana that day. Instead, I wandered the countryside a little while longer, taking in the beauty of the landscape and the warmth of the people I met. It was a reminder that sometimes the best travel experiences are the ones that we can’t plan or predict – they just happen, and we’re lucky enough to be there to witness them.