Hvar Island
September 6, 2008

Yesterday I rented a scooter so that I would be able to easily move from place to place. Originally I planned to get a car, but I really prefer scooters - on a scooter you are not separated from the surroundings and they are much more economical. (Gas is $8 a gallon here! No more complaints from you Americans about your $4 a gallon gas!!)

Today I took the scooter on the ferry over to Hvar. The ferry ride was longer than I expected (two hours), but Hvar Island was beautiful and I spent a lovely day just wandering around looking for land...

The prices in Croatia are unexpectedly high. It is interesting that Croatia is considered on par with Bangladesh economically (they are both frontier market countries) because Croatia seems much more developed - like any other European country.

I really want to build my first set of resorts in developing countries. I think the resorts will help the host communities more in developing countries. Plus, the significant difference between local prices and western hotel rates allow the properties to have very high yields, which is important for me since I am trying to pitch my first fund and I don't have a track record as a resort developer yet. (The return is really just a measure of risk: the higher the risk, the higher the anticipated return must be.) For this reason I am not sure that Croatia is going to be a great fit this time around, but I will keep looking...

Boats
This photo was taken on the ferry on the way to Hvar Island. There were tons of sailboats of various sizes!


Hvar Marina
The marina at the town of Stari Grad on Hvar Island.


Stari Grad Town
The town of Stari Grad is so charming! Little stone buildings everywhere and a nice marina...


Wine Store
Cute little wine store...