I am looking to get beneath the waves and finally get some fresh air.
For those of you have gone this route before, I’m curious…when you began, did you do the discover dive first or go straight for the PADI certification?
Would you do it again the same way?
The DD costs about 2500NT and you can get an open water dive that day…which is cool.
The PADI certification course is about 21000NT and takes a couple of weekends to complete, but once complete, I can dive whenever I like.
Just thinking out loud here.
Thoughts? Experiences?
I just did the open water course right away. However I did it on Koh Tao in Thailand where it’s only 8000 baht. Perhaps do a discover dive to check it out and see if you can find a better rate or a group deal or something.
Are you sure that’s not for the advanced course + open water?
For that price you could almost fly to Thailand and do the course there for the same price.
are you sure you are going to like diving?
if so, then do PADI…otherwise DD lets you get your feet wet.
Why pay all the money for certification if you aren’t going to like it or dive that much.
Also its cheaper elsewhere in Asia if you don’t mind making it part of your vacation time.
[quote=“chichow”]are you sure you are going to like diving?
if so, then do PADI…otherwise DD lets you get your feet wet.
Why pay all the money for certification if you aren’t going to like it or dive that much.
Also its cheaper elsewhere in Asia if you don’t mind making it part of your vacation time.[/quote]
I snorkeled before and love to swim…just not laps…so I’m going to go for the padi. I hope that scuba will give me more desire to travel in asia. 
The deal I mentioned in the original post includes a wetsuit, mask, finnies and diving thangs I don’t yet know the names of…have to call the guy soon. So the pricetag of 21k is not so bad. Again, I’m more into not getting killed or having my eardrums explode.
I must say though A LOT of people pmed me about Scott Stevens and he seems like a legitimately knowledgable guy BTW. Hope to meet him and some of you diving folk in the future.
Peace
I was just in Kenting and was BLOWN AWAY with snokeling. Really increadible - I went to Houbihu and then to BaiSha. Houbihu looks gross, with the Nuclear plant and the pier there. It’s omnious looking. But once you put your face under water, it’s fantastic. It could be super crowded on the weekends. Baisha was very nice with rock outcroppings and sandy bottoms - but the waves were a bit scary.
Anyway…
The company I used to rent the equipment - boots, wetsuit (great floatation and sun protection), fins, mask, and snorkel - is Ocean World near DaKuang. The website is rey-ray.24cc.com
Anyway, It’s two guys named Ray (One spells it with an ‘e’). They do a DD and open water course, as well. They both have pretty good english and seem to understand the foreigner way.
The open water course they can do in three days and will give you accomodations as well. I didn’t ask about the price. But I may do it soon.
cheers - hope this helps and let us know what you decide.
Newman
PS: the website isn’t working right now… here is the email rey.ray@msa.hinet.net … The COASTAL PURSUITS guys seem good, but where do they do the training - one to one ratio is nice.