Hey guys,
I've actually done the intership with PhiPhi Scuba Diving Center on PhiPhi Island, Thailand.
If you want the real story, here it is...
First of all, Thailand is called the land of smile and it's not for nothing, the people are friendly and compared to other countries, there is relatively few horror stories, so if you don't show off, wearing all kind of jewlery and flahing your big wallet around, drunk, in the smallest, darkest alley you can find, you should not have too much problems lol
It is not perfect, nothing is, but Just use some common sense and you should be fine.
I will talk a bit about cost so for your information, currently,
1$ Us = (about) 30baht
It is true that boarding and grooming is not included, so you need to have enough money to take care of that and to buy your way back home afterwards.
From April to september (low season) you will spend around 8,000baht a month on rent. High season, October to May, it will go up to about 12,000bath/Month.
You have to realize that this is Thailand, so do not expect Europeen/American standards, I'm talking about basic accomodation, a room with a bed and a toilet with cold shower.
Cold being relative since the water aroud here is always aroud 30 degrees celcius.
Air conditionning is possible but if you plan on staying here for a long time, I would suggest you take fan only otherwise heat of the days will be harder to bear.
The electricity is very expensive here since the island is not connected to the mainland.
That explains why, if you insist on having AC, Fridge, TV ... you can expect to pay quite a bit more. Same goes for food. If your are happy to eat Thai food, you can plan on spending a maximum of 500baht a day. If you want the same as you are used to back home, be prapared to pay many times that.
Then, for the internship itself:
Depending on your current qualification, the lenght of your internship will vary a bit, but it should be around 4 months if you are already Advanced Open Water.
Your are not paying for the courses or for the dives.
In exchange, you will be expected to help on the boat and around the shop.
On the boat, that means talking to the clients, help setup equipment for the clients, follow and help maintain group cohesion underwater and clean up after the dives.
In the shop, you will be expected to pack the bags for the next day.
I did it two ways, either by myself, taking turns, 3 to 4 hours 3 or 4 times a week.
Or as a group 1 to 2 hours every night.
Either way it is not excessive work for all the fun that you get diving and the free course.
It is actually the main advantage of the internship, you are ACTUALLY doing the job that you will do after certification, so you are not only getting a course, you are already gaining experience.
The argument that I heard most often againts it is that you are not saving any money because if you pay for it you can do it quicker and make up that cash working afterward.
While this is true, what they are not saying is that nobody will hire you if you have only the minimum amout of dives and no experience, which is what you are getting if you pay for it.
Also, there is quite a bit of theory to learn and of course if you are paying you will want to get trought it as fast as possible and will not retain as much as if you take your time to assimilate it and put it in practice. This is particularly important if you plan to do your Instructor course afterwards, because you will be retested on all of it and if you skipped on study time it will definitely show and you might end up having to pay for a second instructor exam.
With the internship you will get as many dives as you are willing to make in that 4 months.
Since you will want to take some days off to be safe and healthy, you can expect to do around 200+ dives by the end of the internship. Plus you will learn basic equipment maintenance and how a dive shop actually runs. You will also be assisting instructors in real life settings and if you are interested and pay proper attention, you will pick up a lot from them.
If your are still in dought, when you shop around, just ask them how much it will cost you to gain that kind of experience.
I don't know about other shop and other offer elsewhere, but for my part I really liked the experience and I'll recommend the internship with PhiPhi scuba dinving center to anybody who is interested.
Did I forget to mention that the Diving is just incredible ???
Dive Safe and Have Fun.
And maybe I'll see you around
