Stein/Kararu Dive Voyages claims that the review is full of wrong information. Since I was on this trip I know that this is not true, the review accurately describes the boat and what happened. I'm sure Stein can find guests that will say everything was amazing but then I guess they don't mind coming up cold from a night dive to discover there is no warm water, no cold water, in fact no water at all. You would guess that the managers then informs the guests at some point as to why there is no water and when it is coming back, but no such luck. I experienced a consistent lack of information from the management on such issues as lack of water (hot water, cold water, any water, happened on innumerable occasions), lack of electricity (happened once as far as I know), you'll simply have to discover it for yourself. The shower was quite unpleasant with lots of greenish mould, rusty nails came out of the wall in my shower and to finish it off, I had worms crawling in my shower for the first couple of days, where they came from I have no idea, anyway they disappeared. I'm sure there are people who find the three "uniquenesses" of the boat charming, romantic or whatever but I'm not one of them. On the first day it rained, I then noticed some water on a table in my cabin but apart from that no more leaks. Some of the boats uniquenesses makes it less suitable as a liveaboard in my opinion. It's a slow boat, we were making 2 knots against current. I had enough space in my cabin, but it's a murky cabin. There was one long table which could have been useful except there was no light over it and no light at the sink.
I'll end on a positive note, I had some great diving and there are good dive sites around the islands. If you're one of those people who always thinks everything is amazing and even when you're coming up from a mediocre night dive you tend to describe it as "the best ever !" then maybe Cheng Ho is the boat for you ! For the more balanced part of humanity I recommend you look for another boat.
Happy Diving !
