New Lonely Planet Mongolia. What do we think?

For many years the Lonely Planet Mongolia was the only English guidebook on Mongolia, but not everybody was too happy with it. Comments varied from:

This is the first guidebook I read that basically tells me not to go there

to:

This is a history book, it's completely outdated

But last year good old Michael Kohn, took up the job to revise the lonely planet. He traveled all over the place and incorporated everything in lp's new set-up.

By now it has survived its first summer, it's time to evaluate. The comments on amazon definitely changed for the better. For me the new lay-out works. Good cover, the maps are more easy to read and it seems generally more easy to use. The extended list of gps locations is probably nowhere as useful as here in Mongolia. One Amazon reviewer remarks that there could be simply more info, and with less than 300 pages, I am sure there are city guides that are bigger than this one. And of course Mongolia changes too fast for something as static as a printed publication to keep track of that. Restaurants have moved, flight schedules changed etc. But it seems to have improved a lot and in the end it seems to be the most useful guide around. The competitors that have sprang up - the Odyssey guide, is more a coffee table book; the Bradt guide has good background, but lousy practical information - have something to focus on.

UPDATE: A review of the new version is available at Danny's Reviews:

For independent travellers without preplanned itineraries the Lonely Planet is the better choice — as well as focusing more on practical information, it's more recent and noticeably lighter and more compact. Those doing an organised tour and less concerned about practicalities may lean towards the Bradt's more extensive background information. And its personal stories may be more helpful for those deciding whether or not to visit Mongolia. I found both books useful, both before and during my trip, and any sizeable group will want both.

Classification of Mongolian Livestock

María E. Fernández-Giménez has published several articles on the ecological perception and management decisions of Mongolian herders. In The role of Mongolian nomadic pastoralists’ecological knowledge in rangeland management she quotes Holechek et al. on the classification livestock and their khamar (translated as muzzle but literally nose):

The five types of Mongolian livestock are similarly classified as cool-muzzle (seruun khamar), hot-muzzle (khaluun khamar), or intermediate animals. Cool-muzzled animals (camels and goats), must graze in "hot" territories, whereas hot-muzzled animals (yaks and horses) are best suited to "cool" territories. Sheep, traditionally the backbone of the Mongolian pastoral economy, are adaptable to both
types of habitats. This classification of livestock and their foraging habits corresponds closely with theWestern classification of range animals as grazers (warmmuzzled animals), browsers (cool-muzzled animals), and intermediate feeders (Holechek et al. 1989).