读者反馈 台湾地震报道 两岸关系专辑 中美关系专辑 引进人才专辑 千禧年专辑 千年虫专辑 金融股市风云 澳门回归中国 电脑网络专版 旅游汽车指南 网上娱乐城 体育大看台 星期画页专辑 医药新知专辑 小白船作文集 汉英双语版 养兵千日专辑 专题报道集

    从柏林到通戈，全世界千禧年的庆祝活动愈演愈烈，告别1999年的
旅游配套更广受欢迎。

    在各地千禧年庆祝活动中，由171个岛屿组成，人口9万7000人的通戈
获益最大。到时候，估计会有超过1万名游客乘搭游艇、飞机前往通戈。
岛上的700家旅馆和度假村客房几乎全被预定。

    就有88位富豪，每人付了约5万美元，乘坐长程喷气艇，前往国际日
期变更线以西的通戈，享受世界第一个2000年的降临，过后穿梭到变更
线以东的萨摩亚，告别1999年。随后环绕全球24天。

    有些人甚至愿意支付高达7万5000美元的特别旅行配套，迎接千禧年。
穿梭于国际日期变更线上的太平洋航线邮轮，推出跨世纪庆祝配套的舱
位早已被疯狂预定。负责这个旅游配套的TCS探险旅行社表示，所有班次
已被预定，并且还有很长的等候名单。

    在约翰内斯堡，有一组人设法凑足人数，以每人8000美元乘搭大型喷
射机，在1999年12月30日至隔年1月4日，从南非飞往布宜诺斯艾利斯和
圣地亚哥欢祝1999年除夕，并于午夜时候跨越四个时区飞往塔希提岛，
在途中连续庆祝多个千禧年的到来。

    在加勒比海，多数的游艇和快艇已被预定，人数也比旺季多出了一至
两倍。业者表示，有些人甚至早在一年前已经预定，而且对一周行程收费
5万多美元也面不改色。

    陆上的庆祝活动也多姿多采。纽西兰东北端的吉斯伯恩，千禧年的庆
祝活动将连续多天。除了乘坐毛利族独木舟欣赏毛利音乐外，也举办2000
年的第一个三项铁人赛。而澳洲，会有一个24小时的新年联欢会。而印度
中部，则有一个年除夕游览千年古庙的活动。英国的巴思，除夕将举办巴
斯舞会，报名人数已经超过8千人。而在维也那举行的千禧年皇家舞会，
票价虽然170美元，但也几乎被一抢而空。浪漫的巴黎香榭丽舍大道，也
会在艺术家的手中度过千禧年。
(Zaobao.com 节译)

People are paying as much as $75,000 each for specially-organised flights and cruises to usher in the new year

THE mystical pull of changing millenniums is sparking a wanderlust to the far ends of the planet to mark the moment at midnight on Dec 31, when either the 21st century dawns or the last year of the 20th century begins a 366-day slide into 2001, which purists argue is the real start of the third millennium.

There has been a mad dash to book cabins on cruise ships, almost any cruise ship but preferably one straddling the international date line in the Pacific Ocean to let passengers celebrate two New Year's Eves a day.

For US$44,950 (S$75,500) each, a private long-range jet will carry 88 travellers to witness several hours of Jan 1 on the ground on the western side of the international date line in Tonga, one of the first countries to see in the new year.

The group will then fly east across the date line to Samoa, where the final minutes of 1999 will be counted down at midnight. (The jet, chartered by TCS Expeditions of Seattle, then continues on a 24-day globe-circling excursion.)

TCS says the flight has been fully-booked and is wait-listed, but space is available on the Great Builders tour, which will visit Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Egypt and Jordan before reaching Istanbul.

A group in Johannesburg is trying to get enough passengers to fill a jumbo jet at US$7,950 a seat and fly around the southern hemisphere between Dec 30 and Jan 4, in the company of an orchestra.

The plan is to fly from South Africa to South America to join New Year's Eve celebrations at stopovers in Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile, before experiencing multiple millennium moments on a midnight flight to Tahiti, due to four time zone changes.

Then it is on to Auckland, Sydney and Mauritius before returing to Johannesburg.

Most charter sailing vessels and motor yachts in the the Caribbean are booked for the millennium week, often at two to three times the holiday rates.

"We've had bookings for more than a year now, and people are going nuts in terms of the prices they're willing to pay," said Mr Tom Rowe, a broker for a fleet of luxury boats for hire.

For example, a 23-m sport boat with four double staterooms that normally costs US$18,750 a week, including food and drink has been booked for millennium week at US$54,500.

The international date line, a man-made contrivance that snakes along the 180th meridian in mid-Pacific Ocean with a zig here and a zag there to avoid splitting nations into different calendar days, falls just to the east of New Zealand.

At Gisborne, New Zealand, clinging to the north-easternmost point of land, millennium events over several days will range from a tall ship's visit to a Maori music festival and the first triathlon of 2000.

Two time zones behind, Sydney, Australia, will host a 24-hour New Year's party.

Tonga, a group of 171 islands with a population of 97,000 situated about 1,600 km north-northeast of New Zealand, will be more intensely affected.

Some 10,000 or more visitors aboard cruise ships and chartered flights are expected to join 3,000 overseas Tongans returing home for the New Year's party, according to Ms Amelia Tupou of the Tonga Visitors Bureau.

Nearly all 700 hotel and resort rooms have been booked, she said.

In central India, there will be special New Year's Eve tours of the 1,000-year-old stone temples at Khajuraho, scene of an annual dance festival and where groupings of men and women are shown in carnal play.

Those seeking more formal surroundings are headed for fancy dress balls in Europe.

One of the hottest tickets is for the Bath Ball in England, a black-tie event held every New Year's Eve and limited to 1,300 revellers inside the Bath Pavilion.

But the millennium ball has been relocated to a giant tent on recreation grounds near the city's famous Roman baths, and the number has swelled to 8,000.

In Vienna, party-goers at the Imperial Ball will be able to waltz into the new millennium inside the state rooms of the Hofburg Palace with music provided by members of the Vienna State Opera and the Volks-oper.

Tickets start at around US$170 for the event, which is almost sold out.

In Paris, a walk down the Champs-Elysees on New Year's Eve is envisioned as a dreamlike passage through a series of giant gates created by a dozen artists.

From the Porte Maillot to the Place de la Concorde, the proposed gates would represent a symbolic crossing into the new millennium. -- NYT