Happy New Year....in 108 languages

Freelang.net has translations of "Happy New Year" in 108 languages...in case you're going to a party and need to impress your new Swedish inlaws, thanks to TheBigDay and Freelang.net, you're all set :-)

Some of my favorites:

- Latvian: laimīgu Jauno gadu (in honor of Katrina & Mark's recent wedding!)
- Swedish: gott nytt år (guess who's got Swedish inlaws)
- Tahitian: ia orana i te matahiti api (going there in less than a month!)
- Thai: สวัสดีปีใหม่ (looks the coolest, if your browser doesn't mess up the characters on you)
- Welsh: blwyddyn newydd dda (looks like somebody stepped off the old "home row" keys)

Whatever language works for you--have a terrific New Year!

-- Michael

New overwater bungalows in Fiji

As we mentioned in our last travel specials newsletter, overwater bungalows are sprouting up all over the world...they're not just in Tahiti anymore. Likuliku Resort was the first in Fiji to have overwater bungalows, and the J.W. Marriott in Nadi is currently constructing overwater bungalows as well.

Our intrepid native Fijian, Aruna, is in Fiji for the holidays visiting her family, and took this picture of the J.W. Marriott site under construction. While she's there, she's doing site inspections at Likuliku and The Wakaya Club, among others.

Santa outsources management of his gift lists

Bail Santa out of Jail

Spotted on one of our customers honeymoon registries (Trey and Kelly from London):


This is a real photo from a London police station. Those Santas were rustled up by the police after a neighborhood ne'er-do-well in a Santa suit was implicated in a crime.

Poseidon Underwater Resort in Fiji

Portland, Oregon isn't only home to TheBigDay, it's also where they're constructing the underwater hotel Poseidon Resort. Once it's completed in a shipyard in Portland, it will be shipped to Fiji, where it will be submerged in 40 feet of water in the middle of a 5000 acre coral lagoon. Better start saving your pennies now, though--it's expected to run $15,000 per person per week!

Panoramio - see where you took your photos on a map

There's an interesting new company out there called Panoramio that lets you create an online photo album and tie each photo to a location on a satellite map. Looks a bit like creating placemarks in Google Earth. The pic here is an example from their website for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The interface is a bit clunky to use, and they don't have nearly as much close-up satellite imagery as Google Earth (it's more on the scale of what Microsoft Virtual Earth has), but maybe give them a few months to a year and this could be terrific.

-- Michael