get friendly with the locals

you read the title correctly. yes, when you're having a solo trip or group trip to any small cities, better get friendly with locals there. when i was in Cappadoccia, Turkey with Gaby, we're not just lucky to have found a cheap hotel (for 20 lira a night!), but we felt blessed when the staff there, Cihan and Mehmet befriended us. we were treated dinner (when we actually only get breakfast with the 20 lira we spent for a night). and because we were staying in a room for 10 people (5 bunks and 1 bathroom that is), we found more new friends, which is Zeb and Ansel from US, Ben a.k.a uncle Ben from England and Ella from Prague. we had a great time playing cards and guessing some ridiculously hard riddle (thanks to Ansel) until 2 am. and the next day we all got treated lunch at Cihan's uncle house.as to break the ice, we have tons of games to play there, and after that we talk a bit about religion and culture in our societies. i love how they are all open minded. i guess that's what traveling (a lot) do to you. when you meet a lot of people from different countries, culture and religion, you get to here their stories and their point of view.
my luck didn't stop there. when Gaby and I went to buy dinner in a local restaurant, we found out that the owner's wife is Indonesian! such a small world eh? he treated us with not some traditional Turkey tea, but with Sariwangi!! i am so happy to finally tasted some Indonesian products ;p and he gave us a postcards to write, and he said he will send it to Indonesia (yes, back to us). although it still didn't come to me (yet), i'm still excited to receive it :)
see? there's no negative side getting friendly with some locals. at least that what i think.