Review of 5d/5n Burma Liveaboard Dive Trip with AICD (Based in Ranong, Thailand)

[iamafish]

You may be right... I apologise. Calling him pompous was a little over the top

Apology accepted, LOL

 

[DevonDiver]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Thailand come dive in the land of smiles

Ummm... hey folks, more smiles - less personal attacks please

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[lord khram]

I read through this entire thread and my view is to say that the only thing that is "boring, YAWN" are the replies from people who are attacking the motive of the OP. If folks have nothing to add but attacking the reviewer, then I kindly suggest that they refrain from posting in a thread they are "bored with, YAWN" and stop reading it. What is offensive, is not Guitarfish or his opinion, but the folks who add no value and complain the post is boring and add no value to the topic. This is Guitarfish's thread, LOL



Yes, that is right; and as folks feels inclined to question Guitarfish's motives, he certainly has a right to post a reply without being told to "shut up" or "enough is enough". If you have some positive experience with the dive center, please post it; but don't attack, indirectly or directly, the motive of the customer who had a bad experience.

As folks have commented, and also as I read the Thailand forums, it is mostly full of self-promoting dive center operators; and anyone who is a diver who shares a negative experience is highly criticized, but if you say "Thailand is great" you are "in the club" and accepted.

Guitarfish, I think your post is great. I am a diver like you, currently diving outside of Thailand, but dive in Thailand often. Don't let others silence you or marginalize your opinion. As a paying customer, you have a right to your opinion and I think your trip report was honest and accurate based on your experience as a diver. Sorry you had a bad experience and hope you will have a better one soon

Quite right I feel it is most important to be able to read and post as we feel fit as individuals, without those that may have a different opinion being so rude. I must add that I have also experienced the same over some of my reports mainly in the Thai forum.
These forums can be a usefull source of information and benefit individuals and dive shops alike. Now speaking as a regular diving customer who lives in Thailand. Some would do well to consider how they can expect pottential customers to take things seriously when at times the Thai forum appears more like a mutual appreciation society for dive proffessionals than a place for people to post and discuss their diving experiences.

 

[iamafish]

Quite right I feel it is most important to be able to read and post as we feel fit as individuals, without those that may have a different opinion being so rude. I must add that I have also experienced the same over some of my reports mainly in the Thai forum.
These forums can be a useful source of information and benefit individuals and dive shops alike. Now speaking as a regular diving customer who lives in Thailand. Some would do well to consider how they can expect potential customers to take things seriously when at times the Thai forum appears more like a mutual appreciation society for dive professionals than a place for people to post and discuss their diving experiences.

After reading through a number of threads where divers post their reviews and opinion, it is easy to see that they are generally relentlessly attacked by (the same) folks in the trade; as if each diver experience infringes on their livelihood, effecting them personally (so it gets personal).

I thought this forum was for divers to share their experiences when I signed up, both good and bad, in a non-threatening environment; but instead it reads like a kind of organization of dive centers and independents with a secondary objective of managing the discussions in the forums by dominating it and discrediting any diver who does not follow the party line.

Maybe we need another subforum for Thailand divers, moderated by divers, with divers who spend money in Thailand, versus making money in Thailand, can discuss Thailand diving on Scubaboard??

Or better yet, maybe the Scubaboard owners can create a Thailand subforum for folks who are Thailand dive "pros" and let the "pros" moderate it; and convert the main forum (this one) into a "divers forum" where it is mostly managed/moderated by folks who do not make their money in the diving industry??

Clearly, this forum is dominated by those very protective of their revenue; because it is nearly impossible to read an objective discussion from divers (not dive professionals) about their diving experiences in Thailand, both now and historically, without being attacked or discredited.

Let's find a way so both "camps" can participate on Scubaboard, both "divers" (folks who spend money on diving in Thalland) and "pros" (those who earn money from diving in Thailand)! I think the best solution is a bit of forum reorganization, perhaps an additional subforum, a set of posting guidelines for each forum/subforum, and appropriate moderation.

Thanks!

 

[aquamarin]

Just a quiet little note from me. Two points really: the poster jeja is not a dive pro, he's a guest - I know this because I've corresponded with him (and no, he's not our customer). His feedback is every bit as objective as the feedback of other persons who've been on the boat in question.

Which leads me to the second point: it's impossible to get objective trip reports or feedback - we are human beings and we are all biased, we all have different expectations. It doesn't mean that one person is wrong or right - it just means that different people see things differently.

An example from real life on one of our trips this season (5 days). At the end of the trip we encourage our guests to write their comments in our guestbook. After this particular trip we had 9 entries. 7 of these mentioned the excellent food. 1 of these mentioned that he was disappointed because the food was not authentic Thai. And the last one mentioned that the food was disappointing because we only served Thai. These people had all been served the same food. If one of the last two had posted a trip report, it would have said that the food wasn't good. Wouldn't it be fair to allow me to post our menu or refer to other guest comments? At the end of the day, the guest would still have been disappointed with the food on our boat, but at least the readers of the thread would know that 99% (literally) of our guests think the food is great.

Now, this is just food and whereas it's important on a live-aboard, it's obviously not comparable to safety issues. But still, no review is objective and I do think it's fair to let other guests or the owner of a company respond to the criticism. Obviously, the responses as well as the original posts should be written in a polite and constructive manner

Just my opinion........but of course I am a so-called "pro", so I am biased

Happy new year
Karin

 

[Deefstes]

This thread has turned into such a wrestling match that I fear the original issue has been conveniently forgotten.

I will come back with some answers to some of the accusations, but we are on the way out for 5 days Burma trip and I don’t have the time now.
Will be back on April 8th.

Preben
Aidc

The 8th of April has come and gone and we have heard no further word from Preben. C'mon Preben, I'm not on a witch hunt here but I think there were some serious allegations levelled against you and your company, and you have made a few worrying comments yourself. I honestly think it would be in your best interest to address these issues.

I am a neutral party in this whole discussion. My only interest stems from the fact that we are planning a trip to Burma or Vietnam and, should we go to Burma, I would like to know who to dive with. If I'm being very honest I'd have to say that I will certainly not make use of AIDC's services, not so much because of what Guitarfish wrote but because of the poor response that I've seen from AIDC to that.

I will repeat the four questions that I posted earlier:

1. Do you consider it acceptable that someone is required to sleep in a cabin from where the diesel engine is visible through the floor boards and which smells of diesel fumes?

2. Do you consider it acceptable that a DM continues a dive with half of the dive group missing? From what I understand the DM either knew that the two divers surfaced for extra weights but decided to leave them behind and continue the dive or the DM didn't know what happened to them and decided to continue the dive. Both scenarios sound ludicrous to me.

3. Do you consider it acceptable for a diver in your group to sever a starfish's leg? From your response it sounded like you do.

4. Under what sort of conditions would you consider offering some sort of compensation to your customers? I'm just wondering about stuff like cabins with slits in the floor that opens up to the engine room and a vessel breaking down such that the customers lose 2 days of their holiday. I would find it hard to convince myself (or others) to dive with an operator that does not consider those conditions to be grounds for compensating their customers with more than just a verbal apology.

 

[hallenbad]

This is very interesting in which direction the discussion runs. Yes, no review is objective and I do also think it's fair to let other customer or the company owner respond to the criticism. But a review like this with so much slam in several forums and under different names is hard to believe and very nasty for the company. I am not a dive pro, but was a guest on four different liveaboards-companies in similan/surin and burma and had the best experience with AIDC.

 

[WanderGuy]

Quite a discussion is going on here...

Nevertheless I am still interested doing the same trip in November 2011.
I am a AOW diver with 75 dives.

I am wondering if my diving experience is enough for this trip ?

 

[lord khram]

Or better yet, maybe the Scubaboard owners can create a Thailand subforum for folks who are Thailand dive "pros"

There is one already. When you first go onto the Thailand section at the top called 'trips and local market place'.
I always thought this was specifically for shops etc to use to make others aware of their services, but maybe I am mistaken because it doesnt seem to be used as such, or indeed used much at all.

 

[lord khram]

I am wondering if my diving experience is enough for this trip ?

Generally speaking, yes you should be suitably qualified, but I certainly would not recommend the swim through / cave dive without first learning about diving in an overhead environment.