😏 Are you feeling spontaneous?

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 52 seconds

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another edition of Daily Drop!

Today is going to be a healthy mix of travel hacks, inspiration from the other side of the world, history, culture, and memes.

It’s as well-balanced of a Daily Drop breakfast as you can get.

Here’s what we got:

• ✈️ KrisFlyer’s February Spontaneous Escapes

• 🌎 Where in the World Wednesday: Mongolia

• 🤣 Meme

✈️ KrisFlyer’s February Spontaneous Escapes

Singapore Airline’s KrisFlyer loyalty program truly puts the “spontaneous” in Spontaneous Escapes.

These monthly promos allow travelers to book select flights at some pretty darn good discounts when redeeming KrisFlyer miles… 

But you have to act fast-ish. Hence the spontaneity component.

February’s promo requires you to book your flights by January 31st, 2024 for travel between February 1st - 29th, 2024. There are some blackout dates, but discounted fares are available for economy, premium economy, and business-class seats.

You might hear the words Singapore Airlines and think, “Well dadgummit, I’ve gotta book some crazy itinerary to faraway Asia on a whim…”

And I’d say, “Well, yes you could (and Singapore details dozens of itineraries that fit that bill), but I also know how much of y’all love Europe.” 😏

In fact, flying Singapore Airlines is one of the best ways to fly between the U.S. and Europe… from JFK to Frankfurt, to be exact 👇

You could be cruising in Singapore’s beautiful-ass business class for just 56,700 points (or 17,500 in economy).

You also might be curious how the heck you can even get KrisFlyer miles…

Lucky for you, Singapore is a transfer partner of all major banks 🎉

So if you hold any of our most popular cards, chances are, you can transfer your points straight to the KrisFlyer program, like a ninja.

Head to the Spontaneous Escapes promo page to see a full list of all the eligible routes across multiple continents. You won’t be disappointed!

🌎 Where in the World Wednesday: Mongolia

Earlier this month, I fell in love with Mongolia.

I had such a special time there, and I wanted to share some of what I learned about the country to hopefully inspire more of you to head there yourselves!

We should start where every traveler’s journey to Mongolia starts: the capital city (and only real city in the country) of Ulaanbaatar.

This city kinda sucks. And it’s not me that’s saying that - everybody in Mongolia hates this city. Because of the city’s reliance on coal, the air pollution is absolutely horrible…. and the traffic is even worse. It’s terrible.

But none of this matters. Because the true beauty of Mongolia lies beyond the city limits, in the countryside - which, in my opinion, is possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.

Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the entire world, and nearly half of the country’s population lives in Ulaanbaatar.

The land beyond the city is vast, desolate, and absolutely stunning. But despite the lack of towns, cities, or humans, there is a LOT to see and do.

Mongolians are, by nature, a nomadic people. To this day, a large chunk of the population still maintains a nomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place and living in yurts like this one (though usually not quite this nice 😉):

Thankfully, there are also permanent camps dotted around the countryside as well.

I stayed in a camp in Terelj National Park, a mountainous region in the north of the country.

Here, you can live like a real Mongolian: eat local food, sleep in a yurt, and try activities like dog sledding, horseback riding, falconry, and visiting some of the mountains and temples - all of which I was lucky enough to do during my stay.

I’ve never experienced such a peaceful place in the world where it feels like you are truly the only one there. Even in the dead of winter, I found it to be extremely enjoyable.

But there’s even more to Mongolia’s geography than ice-cold mountains.

In the south of the country is the Gobi Desert, which could not be more different. 👇

But we can’t talk about Mongolia without mentioning the most famous Mongolian of all time—Genghis Khan.

Whatever image you have of this guy in your head is probably wrong…

I’ve always been fascinated by him and have read multiple historical biographies over the years.

Despite having the reputation of a ruthless, brutal conquerer, you might be surprised to learn that his influence on Mongolia and the entire global society is extremely impressive:

• Genghis Khan was a pioneer of religious freedom in society. In his empire, all religions were accepted and freely practiced.

• He has a fascinating story. His name is actually Temujin, and he grew up poor, spent time as a slave, and much of his family was murdered. The odds were stacked against him his whole life.

• At its peak, his empire covered nine million square miles - significantly more territory than any other empire in human history.

• In the territories he conquered, anybody had the option (before OR after being conquered) of joining him as a free and accepted member of his empire.

• He established the world’s first international postal system. With an empire as large as his, this was a necessity for communicating across large swaths of land.

• His (badass) daughter, Töregene Khatun, ruled the Mongol empire after his death. This means that she was probably the single most powerful woman in human history.

He was not just a genius warrior and conquerer—he was a talented and well-respected leader of the people throughout his MASSIVE empire, which looked roughly like this:

Of course, his reputation didn’t come out of nowhere…

The guy was ruthless to those who refused to join his empire. It’s estimated that he is responsible for as many as 40 million deaths. 😬

In fact, he killed so many people that he single-handedly caused the climate to change. The Mongol invasions effectively cooled the planet by removing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

If this topic is of interest to you, I HIGHLY recommend reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. It’s an excellent book (and far more entertaining than you might think!).

If you travel to Mongolia, you can also visit this amazing monument dedicated to Genghis Kahn, located in the countryside where he spent much of his life.

Anyway… I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about Mongolia and the famous Genghis Khan.

I have a feeling that there is going to be a tourism boom in Mongolia in the coming years, so I highly recommend checking out the country sooner than later.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the memories of my wonderful time there.

🤣 Meme

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I hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter and learned something new! 

I love miles and points (obviously), but travel is about more than just points, so I enjoyed sharing some information about a part of the world I recently got to experience.

See you tomorrow ❤️

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