Georgian adventure or how KOTE took us for a ride

I must say right away that this was not my first bus tour. I have experience of such trips. How the trip should be organized, how the group escort should behave - I know all this well. I never wrote reviews. I traveled with other operators, it was always a little better for someone, a little worse for someone, but overall it was good.

There is such a tour operator in Ukraine - KOTE. I encountered such an organization and approach to business for the first time, as well as with the discrepancy between the tour program and reality. So I decided it was worth writing. In the first part, I will describe only the trip on the bus, and everything connected with it. The organization in Georgia also deserves attention - this is in 2 parts.

Found the tour online. I read the program on the site, I liked it. I called. The girl on the other end of the wire was filled with a nightingale how everything will be fine, but in general she chattered the same thing that was written in the tour program on the site. I thought about it and paid in a couple of days. Since I am far from Dnepropetrovsk, I paid through a bank, so the question of an agreement with a tourist did not arise. Later I found out that there were no contracts with people who paid for the tour at the office of the travel agency.

The tour was called Georgian Adventure, and through the efforts of the staff and management of the tour. agency, the name fully justified itself.

The long-awaited day of the tour has arrived. On Sunday evening we left Ukraine. Getting on the bus, I found that my seat was in the back row of the bus, which I was not even informed about. As you know, on this row, the seats do not recline, so the normal tour. operators make a discount on these seats or sell 2 seats for the entire row. All 5 seats were sold here and all 5 people did not know that they would ride on the last row. Looking ahead, I will say that the road to Georgia took a total of 2 days.

The accompanying group sincerely did not understand our (5 people) indignation and claimed that we got royal seats. Then we remembered her words every day. One woman on our row turned out to be not timid and threw a scandal, threatening to erase the tour upon her return. office KOTE and its leadership from the face of the earth. The whole appearance of the enraged lady did not give reason to doubt her words. The bus was packed to capacity, I don’t know where they found a seat, but she was transferred to the middle of the bus. There were 4 of us left for the whole row, so it was still somehow possible to survive there. The seats of the guys who sat with us in the row on the left side were even worse! The completely fogged glass (it is useless to wipe, because it is foggy from the inside), the light did not work above them when it started to rain (and it started almost every day), then the water from the leaking roof flowed straight to one of them on the seat.

Having met the guys, we got the tour program and began to discuss the places we would visit. Everyone was especially looking forward to Kazbegi, a hiking tour in the mountains. Actually, this is the main reason why I went on this tour. Looking ahead, I’ll say that the management of the company gave us a ride with the mountains. But at the time, I didn't know about it. Glancing at the camera and imagining the photos I would take in the mountains, I closed my eyes and dozed off.

I woke up from the loud cry of a child. It turned out that there was a woman with a child on the bus... 3.5 years old! The road from Ukraine to Georgia takes 2 days! How could the tour. a firm to sell a tour to a woman with such a small child??? Why didn't you think about the people around you? I do not understand. After all, travel agencies do NOT recommend taking children under 7-10 years old. Even on the last row we could hear children's tantrums. And imagine how the neighbors of that woman felt. But the employees of the company, apparently, did not care about all this, the main thing was to sell the tour.

The program says that the price includes tea, coffee, cookies, sweets on the bus. Tea, coffee were, and even with sugar))). Not a single confectionery or cookie was even given a sniff.

For 2 days on the road, we were not shown a single program about Georgia. Instead, they watched Fizruk all the way. They showed the film Love with a Georgian accent, which has a very dubious relation to tourism. Although on the Internet you can easily find and download programs about cities and sights that were in the program of our tour.

The bus was with fully folding seats, I have never ridden one like this before. Late in the evening, after crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border, they made a long stop, the drivers unfolded their seats. The accompanying group was a lady of about 45 years old... how to describe her more precisely... A typical saleswoman in a Soviet grocery store, with an appropriate figure and attitude towards people. We still didn’t understand what her job was: during the journey she never announced anything over the loudspeaker, she didn’t tell the rules of behavior on the bus, she didn’t approach people. When the bus stopped, the doors just opened and that's it. She made no recommendations. As a result, people dispersed in all directions, then gathered back for a long time, all this greatly delayed the travel time. A couple of times this lady poured tea for people (then she told them to pour it for themselves), and in the evening she laid people out on these same folding chairs. This is where the fun began. She laid people out for a very long time and, as a result, incorrectly. They have been taking people to Georgia for 2 years already. I don’t understand, is it really impossible to draw a people layout diagram once and then use it ?! The lady explained that the main principle of the layout is head to head, legs to legs. Most of the unfolded seats were located along the bus, but mine and the next one across. The escort began to pack people from the beginning of the bus, us last. When I went to my place, the whole bus was already packed, and I realized that I had 2 pairs of someone's legs on both sides. Even if I lie to the right, even to the left, my face will rest against someone's legs. The size of the sleeping place there is very limited, so it was not possible to move the face away from the legs. People climbed with difficulty, twisted into tripod deaths. Therefore, at night, inevitably, these someone's legs would be on my head or on my face. This meant that she had put people in the wrong place. I immediately told her about it, but she ignored my words. There was a free seat above me (the seat of a woman who was transplanted). I did not disturb people (after all, I would have to completely shift the people of the lower shelves of one side of the bus to the other side), somehow I lay down on this upper transverse shelf. It turned out that it was simply impossible to sleep there. All night I hardly slept, the bus picked up speed, then braked sharply. As soon as the driver pressed the brakes, I confidently rolled down. As a result, I held on to the neighboring shelves all night, afraid to fall and thought about insurance (will I need it or will I still hold out until the morning?), Which, it seems, should have been done, but they were never given out (although others have a tour . operators were issued immediately on the bus). In addition, there was a very strong draft.

Tour program: Day 2 Passage of the Russian-Georgian border. The road through the Darial Gorge. In fact, they drove night, day and night through the territory of Russia. All day we drove quietly, without incident. Except for the replacement of a punctured wheel. By the night of Monday-Tuesday they began to lay out places again. I decided for myself that the second night I would not sleep in someone else's place, but I would sleep in my own. I immediately told the escorting lady that people needed to be shifted, she replied that everyone should calm down first. Then, after my repeated and very persistent requests, she deigned to come up. She saw her joint, but did not want to fix anything. I looked and left. I again to her at the beginning of the bus. She called the driver, he also looked and left. I went to her again, she began arguing with me and asserting in a raised tone that she had put people in the right place (but if I have legs on both sides, then this is WRONG!). I stood next to her and insistently demanded to fix her jamb. I did not demand anything special, just sleep in my place, without burying my face in someone's legs! The attendant turned away and ignored my words. I began to get nervous, the situation escalated, a scandal was brewing. Seeing such a disgrace, people began to intercede for me. Only after that she deigned to shift people with their feet and heads in the other direction. Is this how tour workers should be treated? agencies to clients? I settled down. On the bottom floor, at least I didn't roll down. After the conflict, the nerves were pretty frayed, the mood was hopelessly spoiled.

In the morning we woke up in line at the Upper Lars checkpoint. Some people on the bus were bitten by fleas during the night. They showed red spots, which were also unpleasantly itchy. Apparently cleaning and disinfection of transport leaves much to be desired.

In Georgia, an escort sat down with us, he is also the head of Kote - Vladimir Kotelev. He was with the group during our stay in Georgia.

That's all for the long road to Georgia. Now about the road back to Ukraine. Vladimir announced that everyone must turn in 100 Russian rubles for a bribe in Upper Lars. So that they don’t rummage through the bags, don’t count bottles of wine, etc. He said that the fee from the bus is 5000 rubles. And the passage of the border will be, according to him, a pure formality. I didn’t carry wine at all, the restrictions (import to Russia no more than 3 liters) did not concern me in any way. But, so that people do not look askance, I, like everyone else, handed over 100 rubles. It was in the evening, during a stop at the pottery market, at the same time the sleeping places were laid out. People went to bed. We woke up in the morning, but Vladimir was not there. At night, he left in Georgia before the border, although before that he said that he would go with us to Ukraine. He left in English without even saying goodbye to the group! The lady with whom we traveled from Ukraine also stayed in Georgia. Those. for a day and a half, the group traveled to Ukraine without any escort at all.

We stood in line at the border for 5 hours, at customs I (and many others) completely rummaged through the entire backpack. People, to put it mildly, were very unhappy and did not understand why Vladimir collected money from everyone.

Separately, it must be said about the drivers. One of them - Petrovich clearly and accurately performed his duties. In dealing with people he was always polite, friendly and affable. Everyone liked him very much. The second driver is Yuri. At one of the stops, the girl took her suitcase out of the luggage, it was standing next to mine. The suitcases were very tight, he did not fit back. Then Yuri began to simply hammer him there with his feet with all his strength. Mine started to warp. This is the first time I've seen such treatment of other people's things. I made a remark to him that the things of the passengers are not bricks, and you can’t treat them like that. In response, he scoffed at me. After finally filling the girl's suitcase in the right place, Yuri carefully put Vladimir's bag on top of the things in the luggage. Nearby stood the head of Vova and silently looked at it. Why worry? His bag was laid gently and neatly, like a crystal vase. Apparently, for him, such an appeal to the things of clients is quite acceptable. It is also important that there was plenty of free space in the luggage compartment on the other side of the bus, the driver Yury only needed to transfer the suitcase that did not fit there. But why go so far? My fears were not in vain, pulling out my suitcase at the border, I found a torn hole in it in the most visible place. Previously, it was definitely not there, such a hole is impossible not to notice.

Already at the very end of the trip, they gave us a small notebook in children's colors, we did not immediately understand its purpose. It turned out that this is the Book of Reviews. He came to us after everyone wrote their reviews. Honored. With amazement, we found reviews in which Yuri appears as a supplier of girls, warnings were given to other tourists not to accept invitations to restaurants from Yuri, etc. Apparently, an unpleasant situation and a serious scandal happened to the girls from our tour. But I don't know the details of the incident.

That's all the delights of a trip with a tour operator KOTE. In part 2 I will tell you about the organization of recreation in Georgia. It was written in the program that surprises await us every day. Didn't cheat...

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