Warning! Terrible experience with Happy Dive / Ankermi on Flores

[DevonDiver]

I found this post entirely informative. Being a recently certified diver with not a ton of dives under my belt, it is interesting to read everyone's input. It really made me realize how much I still have to learn & be aware of. I will say that I wonder if some of you that have a lot of experience that commented are so far removed from being a "newbie" that maybe you can't remember how it was to have less than 50 dives under your belt. Many of you seem to have had so many more dives (& I am sure the learning that comes with more diving experience) than Nics. I would venture to guess that you aren't at your current knowledge level solely from your first 50 dives (or less).

It's a fair point - and probably the reason why many of us choose to share the value of that additional experience we've gained over the years.

That said, several of the contributors to the thread, including myself, are active instructors. In that role, we are working alongside - teaching, mentoring and developing, novice divers on a regular/constant basis. That gives a great deal of understanding about the strengths, weaknesses, common pitfalls and level of capability that novice divers possess. It does tend to 'keep us in touch', with what it is like to be a developing diver - we wouldn't be very good at our jobs if we expected our students to enroll on classes matching our capabilities, didn't understand common mistakes...or forgot/failed to empathize with the barriers and obstacles that a novice diver encounters.

In addition, as Fish-R-Man mentions; even experienced divers encounter that 'newbie' feeling when we progress our diving training towards more advanced levels. There's always another step along the development path - and the addition of new skills, techniques, procedures and knowledge will always pose a challenge.

 

[danz]

I am not the laywer of Kermi and I can't argue about what has happened exactly. I can only say that Kermi and his Swiss wife were very responsible when I was there. The couple is also well respected among photographers and videographers.

 

[Zippsy]

Hmmmmm.... We've gotten a bit off topic but I'll add my experience. I got my PADI OW cert 23 years ago and now I am an instructor. My first 100 dives after certification were done as just me & my buddy in Malasian waters and I thought it strange when we were told to follow a guide in the Maldives (but mostly enjoyed that part of the trip). When I compare OW manuals now to then, I don't see the "dumbing down" that everyone else is talking about. The main difference I see to 23 years ago here is shops cutting down on the time in the pool.

 

[shark63]

If one of the two divers has a depth guage, guess what needs to happen, either you are supplied with another guage or No diving.

 

[ocdiver1]

Having read this thread as well as others on Ankermi before going to Maumere (on SB and Tripadvisor mostly good experiences, on Lonely Planet mostly bad), I thought I'd weigh in after just finishing up diving with Ankermi so that others can also use it as a reference. I won't do it as a new posting "trip report" as it was only 4 days worth of diving and only part of a much larger trip. Unfortunately, I had a pretty poor experience, with some of the same reactions from Kermi that the OP related.

I'd opted to stay at Sea World as for roughly the same price I seemed to be getting a nicer resort along with free airport transfer, wifi, and the ability to pay by credit card, all of which Ankermi didn't have. But Sea World said they rarely went out on muck dives and, since I love muck diving, I decided to stay at Sea World, but rent a motorbike to go to Ankermi every day to dive. It also seemed that Kermi was somewhat of a "local legend" as a spotter and guide, and I was looking forward to diving with him and seeing lots of cool critters to photograph. Although in booking everything Ankermi seemed strangely fixated on the fact that I wasn't also staying there, when the time came near to arrival they said they only had a couple of guests and they were avid muck divers, so barring any problem with weather, I could come over there and do muck diving every day. On the first day, Kermi changed his mind about going on the last dive after agreeing to it in the morning, something that was going to be a theme. He instead said I could just do a solo dive, which I did. But then the same thing happened on the second day after the first dive..with no explanation..i was told if i wanted to do another dive I could do it with another guest who was staying there. Based on what had happened, when the third day came, I asked three times in conversation about if he was "sure" he could do a third dive that day and he said yes, no problem each time. But then when it came time for the dive, he again asked me to dive with another guest as my buddy. Even though we had agreed to it at the beginning of each day and/or the night before, this occurred each and every day. Disappointed, but understanding that things change even though I was given no explanation, I had "rolled with it" each time, although I was beginning to feel taken advantage of. Then for my last day, after earlier in the day talking about what sites "he was going to take me to tomrorow", I was told at the end of the day before that since he needed to pick up his wife at the airport the next day, I'd be on my own to dive alone on the house reef. There actually wasn't even a flight from Bali in the morning when I was to be diving...despite it never being discussed that he was going to have to change his plans on my last day, he could have easily dove with me in the morning and picked up his wife from the airport in the afternoon. At the same time he gave me the bill for the couple days of diving, and I noticed I was being charged full price for my solo house reef dives and dives with the other guest and decided that we finally needed to have a talk. It was one thing for him to change his mind every day after committing to something else earlier leaving me to dive on my own, but it was another thing to charge me full price as if he was there! Although I asked to talk to him in private away from any other guest and did explained my position calmly, he really flew "off the handle." Among other things, he said his wife had told him "I was going to be trouble," again for some reason mentioning that I had chosen to stay somewhere else, that no guest had ever had any problem, and it was "his place, his rules." Although I was never threatened like the OP stated he was, the manner in which I was spoken too was rather threatening, and the things being said I could only best describe as being childish. I continually got told off for about 5 minutes until I'd enough of it and just started packing my gear to leave. I told him, honestly, did he think a guided dive should be priced the same as a solo house reef dive, especially when his inexplicable last minute cancellations forced the dive to be solo anyway? I told him of course in diving with 100s of dive ops that has never been the case, but if it were, why wouldn't be post the price for this or tell me it was the same somehow? While it's true I never asked, it's also true that the solo dives were last minute due to unexpected cancellations on Kermi's part. He then told me if I didn't want to pay the full amount, I couldn't dive the next day, since I felt "I had to dive with him." He just somehow didnt get how diving with an experienced dive guide as promised should be any different than diving on one's own. As a very experienced diver, I have really minimal needs...again just want a guide who will find stuff for me to photograph. I have no problem adapting to last minute changes (although not every day) or diving solo, etc...but NONE of this was ever planned or discussed...and this was through no language barrier or other misunderstanding. I may have had a poorer experience from a service and professionalism standpoint in all my years of diving, but if I had, I can't remember it. Make your own decision about diving with Ankermi, but I'd pass on it and stay/dive with Sea World. It's too bad...Ankermi as a resort is nice enough, if fairly basic, the food is better than at Sea World, and he has a nice and friendly staff. On the dives he actually goes on, I had no complaints with Kermi as a guide...diving wasnt exceptional but he appeared to work hard every dive to find stuff.

One other thing to watch out for if you do decide to dive there is how they do their pricing, something else I haven't seen anywhere else that I've dove with. They price in euros, something many ops do, and they accept other currencies, also like most ops do, but if you DONT pay in euros, they price on what it will cost them to convert your currency TO euros, even rupiah! They also don't post these rates, and it's a huge difference. One shore dive (with your own gear) is 20 euro, or the equivalent of $26 USD right now...but the USD price per dive is $32...a more than 20% premium per dive. So make sure you have euro or can pay in rupiah, which isn't at least a 20% mark up.

 

[Uli Kunkel]

Nice to hear about this place a little more- thanks for your experimentation and trip report.
Im glad I decided to avoid the place last summer.

Did you ever see the other owner, Claudia I think her name is?

 

[ocdiver1]

I think you made the right decision Uli! No, I never met Claudia, she was in Bali. She was the only person I ever communciated with on email though.

 

[o2dependant]

It was as I thought through reading this thread. Whilst i felt the OP made many of his own mistakes during his dives it was clear that the Real problem was with the dive op. It seems that they are good when you just roll over and accept their terms. The whole euro to dollar debacle is that you over complicate things in these countries when you don't go with their desired currency. If you notice things are priced in euros bring euros like you have learned anything else is just going to cost you. I’m in Cambodia at the moment and am experiencing the same thing. The local currency is reais, they will gladly exchange Thai baht for no commission, ATM's only dispense US dollar and vietnam dong is widely accepted. Everything is priced in US dollar so even using local currency you lose out.

I plan on going back to Indonesia to dive and will avoid this place like the plague. Thanks for the update and confirmation on an otherwise debatable thread

 

[ocdiver1]

No problem O2..but I want to clarify what I mean about the pricing and how it is different from what I think you are describing which, while an annoying part of traveling, is at least common practice. Most places who price in a hard currency like euros (or dollars) will accept that currency, or you can pay in the local currency at either a price that's very close, or one with a conversion rate that's slightly off market (of course that always favors the merchant). For example, it's typical to see 9000 IDR to USD used instead of 9600. You always lose, but at least it's only 3-4%. But in all these cases only one conversion is being done, whatever currency you're paying in to, in this case, rupiah. But what Ankermi does it essentially perform an additional conversion. Say you pay in USD...they will convert to IDR...THEN TO EURO, at the buying rate for IDR to Euro in Flores! If you pay in IDR, same thing..they convert it as if they are going to buy Euro with the money in Flores. I have no idea why they would do this...if they just stopped at IDR step they wouldn't erode the money they then lose at buying Euros in Flores, not exactly a world banking hub ..but I guess they think it's fine as they just pass the (whopping) cost along to the consumer. They say right at the website that they buy Euros in this manner and, although they warn that this may result in a higher rate, they describe it as "slight." The usual BS 3-4% is "slight," the 20+% I've described (and that being on their least expensive dive) is not "slight" by any stretch! I've never seen any place price this way (and the IDR and USD prices aren't listed at the website). Thankfully I was able to cover most of my bill in IDR where the mark up at least wasn't quite as high as USD.

Now this issue is nothing compared to the others I feel that exist with this place, but if someone does decide to stay/dive there I want to make them aware that if you don't pay in Euros, you will have a nasty surprise that you will not have run into in the same situation elsewhere in your travels.

 

[Quero]

I’m in Cambodia at the moment and am experiencing the same thing. [red]The local currency is reais[/red], ...

I was so surprised to read this since I thought only my own country of Brazil used "reais." And in fact that's correct. Cambodia uses "riels." Close, but still different!

Quite often, the refusal of a company to accept the local currency for purchases in that country means that they are doing their accounting with two different books--one for the "official" taxable income (in local currency) and the other off-the-books income, which, because it's in a parallel revenue stream, is not reported. I'm not saying that Ankermi does this, but rather that all over SE Asia when I see this, it gets my attention. (OTOH, if you're in one country and are buying services that will be delivered in another country with the funds transferred to that country to cover the costs of the service provided, then it's different since foreign invoices/receipts may require a company to account for the income in a wholly different manner..)