Beauty of Mongolia with some bitter from organizers

Mongolia | Jul 21 - Aug 10, 2024

It was our fourth trip with KimKim. The Mongolian nature was amazing-mountains, sand dunes, traces of dinozaurs. We met amazing people , true Nomads of the XXIst century, but :
-our nice guide was rather an interpreter not a guide. With mediocre english and almost no knowledge of Mongolian history and culture. Each question asked cause an intense discussion with a driver and a short two sentenced answer. No background of every day schedule, no history, no ethnical background. This was the case for 2 guides, one in Ulan Bator (a nice young boy, knowing nothing about places we visited) and a lady who spend 3 weeks with us (guiding was a summer job for her).
-there was no real plan for the days we have been driving, no foto stops, unless asked for, no piknic
Driving through Africa, Asia , we know it is possible to organize almost everything in every country and that was the kind of service we have always been receiving by KimKim. Not this time. Paying 20 k USD for 3 weeks we were expecting a superior treatment in a country where the most expensive hotel is 250 USD/night (in UlanBatar), and where we slept mostly in gerds (far different from 5star tents in Africa). Remember in Mongolia average salary is about 500 USD/month, and food is 20-40 USD/per day /two persons in restaurant.
Final conclusion, we always try to find our best during the vacation , so we really rest, but that was not due to Crystal efforts.