Bye Bye Mongolia

Mongolia is a rollercoaster of emotions and deeper thoughts for me, and I think all of us.

We love the stunning landscapes from the desert to the mountains, we adore the people we were lucky enough to get to know better, but at the same time we struggle with the traditional foods and mattressless beds, and we see the country, and in particular tourism, developing in away that endangers all that makes the country so uniquely charming.

The path of development is unstoppable. We can't expect people to live in tents in such a cold country rather than insulated modern houses.
What maybe can be shaped is the development of tourism, and here I have to be completely hypocritical and schizophrenic. There are some positives already. for example, the museums and pushing tourists yurts back away from the sand dunes. The Gobi remains only accessible by dirt track roads. (Only an expansion of tourism would justify the laying of tarmac). My solution would be to slow down or channel the growth in tourism and maybe make it more expensive. (Today if you self organise, it's one of the cheapest places on earth. 12c for a coffee, $12 for a great meal, incl 2 beers). Tour operator margins are 80% or more, so the big money in tourism is staying in the capital, not the countryside. It's always like that, but in Mongolia, the margins are extreme.

So today, on our last day in Mongolia, we are exhilarated from the wonderful experience we had here again, but we worry about the future. We are tired, and we look forward to matresses. We look forward to food free of mutton and drinks free of goat milk, but we are very sad to leave, especially since we don't know when and if we can come back, and how the country will develop. What is the future for all those we met and loved?Read more