lord khram
Contributor
I've sometimes thought about "checking out" for six months, going to Thailand, and doing one of these internships to
a) better my ability diving
b) get certified up the wazoo
c) to dive the beautifull waters of Thailand for a couple of months
I have no intention of every "going pro" so have wondered if this an appropriate day dream or not.
Great advice from Buadhai and Watboy. Thailand has so much to offer and so many great places to visit, thats speaking not only from the point of view of diving, why anyone would want to commit all their time and money to one location is a mystery to me. Particularly if you do not intend to go professional, why spend a significant sum of money to then have a large portion of your time commited to one shop, 'working' for them and visiting the same bunch of dive sites day after day. If you do not want to become a dive pro, and you do want to do some courses, look at technical training, at the end you will have a qualification that will be of use to you, as it can greatly increase the scope of diving that you can do, rather than one which you will never need or use. Also consider a liveaboard trip to the similans or Surin Islands, excelent dive locations. Get something out of it which will have benefit for yourself rather than paying your money to be a dive slave where the end reward is a qualification you do not need.
Even those that do want the qualification, do things at your own speed, travel around and see more of what Thailand has to offer, you will gain far more from your experience than staying in the same location with the same group of people.