Today is the last day of October and, surprise, I am not at Balesin!  I had to come to Hong Kong in order to attend the wedding tomorrow of my friend Robert Kuok’s son, Hua.  But I should be back in Balesin the day after tomorrow.

I have been very conscious about ensuring that our aviation requirements are adequately served.  Being an island resort, aviation capability is the jugular vein of our operations and we cannot afford any missteps.   We are very proud of our beautiful island and the unique facilities we have created but they will all come to naught if we fail in our aviation services.   I am also pleased to inform you that I have given the green light to expand our Manila hangar facility so that instead of accommodating 49 people, we should be able to accommodate 80 people.

           We are very happy that visits to Balesin of our members and guests have been increasing dramatically. For example, last weekend, a total of 47 villas were occupied by 97 members and their guests.    For the All Saints’ Day holidays, I am told that we have bookings for 65 villas and 145 members and their guests.

Despite the bad weather situation the last few weeks, the construction progress on Balesin continues unabated.  I am pleased to be able to report to you that the following major projects are now complete:

1. The Sports Center, with its extensive facilities, is now fully operational.  We have engaged the services of Mr. Sonny Orallo to be the Manager of the Sports Center and the Balesin Spa.  Sonny has more than 25 years of experience in managing sports and health clubs.  I understand that the Sports Center activities have been increasing dramatically as the days go by.

2. We also have now completed the Balesin Fish Fun, which is located only 100 meters from the Clubhouse and sits out over the water.  Originally designed to simply be a launching pad for our aquatic sports facilities, we have re-designed it to being able to include “fishing for your own lunch or dinner” while also offering a variety of sea food such as oysters, crabs, and lobsters.  The demand has been so great that we have had to double the original 32 seats to now 64 seats.  I had lunch there last Saturday and while I was too lazy to catch my own fish, I had a most enjoyable meal with oysters and grilled blue marlin steak.
3. We have now also completed Bali Village, the first phase of Mykonos Village, and the Phuket Village dining and beach facilities. At the same time, St. Tropez Village is quickly taking shape and it is truly a thrill even now to admire the palm tree lined avenue leading to the porte cochere of the St. Tropez Village.
4. At this point, I should let you know that one of the decisions we have made recently, in addition to adding Costa del Sol, a 48-unit village, is to re-christen Costa Smeralda (Sardinia) as “Toscana.” Thus, while it remains an Italian-themed village, Toscana is actually a more appropriate village for us to develop rather than the almost unknown Costa Smeralda which is very difficult to get to and, therefore, unfamiliar to most of our members.   On the other hand, Toscana is where Florence, Sienna, Lucca, and the island of Elba and other famous resorts, many of which are familiar to our members.

   I myself have lived in Toscana for over 23 years now and know the lifestyle, the ambiance, not to mention the food which in my view is the best in all of Italy.   This re-christening will result in minimal architectural changes but will be more appropriate to being appreciated by our guests and members who are familiar with Toscana.

   We expect to complete both Toscana and Costa del Sol and the additional 33 Mykonos beach villas during the first quarter of 2013.

5. As the number of members and guests increase, we need to improve our island transport facilities as well and have thus acquired two additional 12-seater jeepneys to ferry our members around the various island villages and destinations.  They will go on a regular half-hour schedule from the Clubhouse to the various villages so that a member staying at Bali can get to Mykonos for dinner in a maximum of 10 minutes using the jeepney rather than the existing electric golf carts  which can take as much as double that time.  By Christmas time we will be adding a 3rd jeepney.

       I would now like to summarize for you the various completion schedules of villas/rooms of Balesin Island Club as follows:

You will note that we have greatly increased the number of villas/rooms to 292 from the originally promised 240, an increase of 52 villas/rooms.