Job Discussion Forums

chek · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 14 Location: HCMC, Vietnam

I notice you keep posting the same questions searching for an answer that is not available. I work and live in Vung Tau, Vietnam. I have previously lived in Florida, the Bahamas, Trinidad, Mexico, and Hawaii- Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island. I have dove in all places and also have dove in Nha Trang and Phu Quoc. To be blunt the diving in Vietnam sucks. There are no larger creatures to interest you, living in Nha Trang on a low wage for the opportunity to look at minimal coral heads and no life would be pointless. Move to Phucket, Malaysia, or Indonesia if your sole purpose is diving. If you want money, a decent lifestyle, and having to travel to dive, then Vietnam is the place for you....not sure anything else can be said.

bazzap1976 · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 74

in a nutshell

sethness · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 209 Location: Hiroshima, Japan

I've heard that Indonesia / Cambodia / Thailand / Myanmar hav egreat diving, but the salaries for English teachers can't compare to Viet Nam's.
If anyone knows different, I'm listening intently! Smile

Regarding the PHilippines, I sure can make several suggestions.
#1) With the exception of Cebu, avoid the South unless you look like a Filipino, because there's a lot of kidnapping/ransoming of foreigners in the South. It's a pity, because that's where the best diving is--particularly a group of islands called "palawan" (not to be confused with Palau, which is a separate country).

Whatcha wanna DO in the Philippines?

If it's SCUBA, then avoid the SCUBA-oriented hotels, which tend to play dirty tricks on your budget. For example, they might say "food is free" but charge you the equivalent of $10 per drink-- which they don't bother telling you 'til it's checkout time. Or, they might be located quite far from any competing hotels, restaurant, shopping, etc-- and charge you massively to go into town.

All of the Philipino/Philipina people you meet will very likely act friendly. Roughly half of them are sincere, and the other half are just trying to empty your wallet into theirs. As a general rule, when you meet someone new, tell them "If you ask for money, then you're not my friend, and I will no longer speak to you. Friendship is not a profession." (The bad folks will show their true colors usually within 24 hours. They will also lie like saying "I am single" if they have a husband, 3 kids, and 4 boyfriends, or sayign "The police closed my workplace, and I need to borrow money for my daughter's operation...". A friend told me, "The words are lies, but the need is real", so one can't blame them too much, but still-- keep your money in your pocket 'til you meet the GOOD people.)

Public parks are great for meeting strangers-- quite literally, on a weekend, perfect strangers will invite you to join their picnic, or just chat as they walk around.

If you find an honest cab driver, keep his phone number and find out where you can routinely meet him. (If you go to Ermita or Cebu, let me know and I'll put you in contact with some.) The reason for this is not only #ahem# flexible pricing-- there's also the problem of commissions. Y'see, a lot of texi drivers and other paid guides get massive, MASSIVE commissions from whatever hotel or SCUBA company they steer you to. And they're not above lying to get you to go to their sweet spot.

Do NOT take a taxi from Manila airport. Instead, walk outside the airport (in daylight hours, in crowds) and take a taxi or bus or jeepney there. The price will drop from excruciating to cheeeeeeeap.

As far as hotels go... they range in price from $25 a night (high end) to $13 a night (low end). Youth hostels are sometimes OK, but will be much dirtier and seedier than hostels in other countries-- if you'll be there a few months, it makes MUCH more sense to just rent an apartment. Also, many of the low-end hotels and hostels will forbid (ahem) overnight guests. This is to protect them from vagrants piling 20 people into one room, and to protect you from potential robbers masquerading as overnight guests. This policy can go to ridiculous extremes-- one medium-level hotel actually refused me when I asked if I could pay for a room for the night for a mother, father, and infant sleeping on the sidewalk outside the hotel-- ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT!!!

Regarding diving, the price varies ($20 2 boat dives to $80 for the same) immensely depending on how you search. The quality of diving does NOT vary according to the price. If you go to Cebu, let me know and I'll put you in touch with a cheap, good shop. The diving is in clear, warm water, but frequently the big fish are fished-out and the reefs are often dynamited. Diving in Cebu, for example, I heard dynamite underwater 8x in one week.

Regarding girlfriend-hunting and bar hopping-- I avoid bars and girlfriends-for-hire, but there's no shortage of good girls who're more than friendly. As one friend put it, "All y'gotta do is hang out in an airconditioned shopping mall, in the food court at the bottom of an escalator if you can, and the girls will come to you."

Culturally speaking, the country is torn by a religio-political schism between the government (Catholic) and the Muslims (who were in power for centuries before the Spanish King Philip conquered the Philippines). As a result of the bitter rioting and the extreme poverty, almost every store or mall will post armed guards at the doors and inspect your bags when you enter. Many stores and moviehouses will ask that you leave your bags at a counter until you leave.

Phew...that was a lot of writing. If you need to know more, PM me, eh?

bazzap1976 · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 74

ace reply! some of it was standard for 3rd world countries but there was some really useful stuff in their also.
cheers mate!

bazzap1976 · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 74

scotland?

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Palawan is a pretty safe place, actually. Other than the one incident a few years back, it is not dangerous. A good friend of mine has lived there for a few years and he says it is fine.