PADI IDC Guide News

The final part of my adventures in emails between myself and the Dive centre owner:

Cant remember if I told you but the German Course Director won’t be able to stay at the Kata Beach Resort as it is 100% full until April

Have got another extension agreed with my work in the UK and have moved my flights back again so my flights back to the UK is 22nd March. This allows us more time together, myself to do the IDCS with you and Thorsten and Simon and to get more work done.

We need Company insurance to get TAT licence I assume there is nothing in place and will need to get this for the TAT licence. Luckily you are sending me money and simon has paid some of his courses already so got some cash to do this

I have a meeting with AIG rep tomorrow at 1300 to get the business insurance sorted.

Please see previous email about work permits / tat licence – you have a pre-written letter and form to take to the police station when you get back (its in your bedroom) and must take your passport and will be fined max 2000 THB. You wont believe how much hassle / effort and money this has cost so far and was talking to another dive instructor tonight who told me he was lucky to renew his visa / work permit recently one week before the TAT licence requirement came in.

Thank you so much. As I told ou I will go to the embassy on Friday and try to find out if and what we can do. Anyway I am prepared to do a lot of admin stuff when I am back.

We need a room in the divecentre between 22nd Feb and 2nd March and will pay 10,000 THB ? Yes. Thorsten’s candidate will pay 10.000 for the room. I have another request for this PADI IDC. If the candidate decides to do it with us we can book them into Phuket interhouse as well (share one room). I hope I will know next week.

Thorsten wants to stay at the Kata beach resort between 22nd Feb and 2nd March ? Yes. If a room is available. We book it and we get the comission.

Will book 10th Feb South Siam 3 Depart 10th Feb Similan/Richelieu Rock Tour with (4 days/3nights), 22,900 THB but need diving details, last dive / no of dives / padi grade (obviously their pickup location is kata delight villas) Last dive will be one or two days before because the want to do daytrips and beachdives as well.

Both are Advanced Open Water Divers with about 70 – 80 dives. Pickup at Kata delight. Own equipment.

Will get the money to the dive community account once I see it, You do know that we get a reduced equivalent exchange rate when transferring money as it costs to withdraw money

German Couple arriving on the 13th Feb, I will hopefully be in the divecentre that day to expect them. I will be there as well I think.

Pick up couple on the 1st Feb? Karin & Andeas  I assume, I will pick them up but at the moment I dont even get 10 minutes to myself and think a 1 hour 50 minute round trip at possibly unsocial hours (and that is if there are no delays) for them to spent an uncomfortable trip in a dirty dive truck is not a good idea, a nice air-conditioned taxi costs only 600 baht to kata and even though I truely believe in the the idea of great customer service but I think my time and effort wasted here compared with a taxi ride. Please do not think I am not moaning but with the dive centre and diving / teaching / internet / marketing stuff / workpermits / tat licence etc I havent had a day or hour off in the last few months and think my time is too valueable to spend sitting around at the airport. If you disagree I will pick them up but maybe you can see my point. I would even spend 600 baht of my own money to pay for a taxi to avoid the hassle and wasted time of picking up divers /students. I had two lots of friends arrive from the UK recently and didnt pick them up!

I get your point. I will talk to them. Mabe you can welcome them at Kata Delight when they arrive?

Did you ever sell anyone a Dive Community Wetsuit as I saw one on the boat today doing a DSD for Warm Water Divers while wearing a Medium Dive Community Wetsuit, I am hoping she has bought it but I am sure its them that took the regulator from the dive centre and somehow swapped it for the Sea Bees one, result is we have one less regulator ! Probably told you I emailed them about the regulator but they say they havent got it, I first noticed it missing after they left !!

Agreed with Dive Community needing to move location but so wish the location would work out as Im getting to like it but not enough walk ins and lots of noise / high rent is not good / finding something better is going to be hard.

Your CDTC is in the bag relax , they want quality / professional people at the top and you fit the bill (although you did let a certain Russian Instructor through the IDC ! ) here is a snippet of a quick conversation from a certain Russian Instructor from the Similans yesterday:

‘james, my customers now on their second bottle of champagne, can dive ?’
another one
‘james my customer pregnant,is ok to dive ?’
what a great example of a padi professional (both ended up diving with her !)

Why cant somebody send her back to Siberia?

A while ago I met an Instructor from the company that looks after freelance instructors and talked to him about the lack of business in our area (he has a office / house near us) he emailed and talked about sharing facilities and the other day he came to the shop the other day to talk about using our facilities when needed, I told him that he can use classroom / equipment for training for rental / hiring fees and we talked about them using the Dive Centre as their office / main training facility as well. Not ideal situation having 4 of us in the dive centre but would certainly help with the rent, what do you think ?

I think we should talk about that once I am back but in general it sounds like a good idea to me.

Have moved my flights and sabbatical back by one month but I will try to put it back again by one month which will allow me to do the IDC and see Simon thru to Instructor. Is Simon OK with the IDC dates together with Thorsten? That would be very good as we can keep the money (no matter which price ou made for Simon) and we would have an IDC with 2 or 3 candidates + 1 IDCS.

Email from Phuket Hotel:

I am glad to confirm the Deluxe Villa room for your client, Karin & Andeas Beermann from 1st Feb. to departure on 22nd Feb. It has a view to the beach, the bay and Phoo Island.

The rate of Bht. 4,300.- covers room rate only. Breakfast is served at Delight Restaurant, Bht. 150.-/persons for ABF and Bht.110.-/person for Continental

other stuff ………….

I am glad I am busy but still dont have enough customers to justify hiring anyone else which is what we really need, also I really do not like leaving the shop empty during 10-8 as there are people walking past and you only need one to come in per week for liveaboard or courses to give you a little bit more money. Luckily now have Simon here and he is proving a good DMT candidate as he is staying at the dive centre / gets on well with customers and is willing to sit in the shop and help if / when I cant be there. We both spent about 3 hours tonight cleaning and re-arranging the shop.

Have invested a bit of time and money in producing some Dive Community Packs to give to hotels / companies that maybe able to send us customers once in while (kata poolside hotel is my first priority now)

I am please to say that the house nextdoor is finished but…………… they are building a 3 storey building right next to it and as such right next to us, so the view of our dive centre from the road is now permanently blocked as well as having to put up with noise and disruption for another 6 months ?

Nitrox (the cat) returned for a few minutes (after a 3 week holiday !) hissed at the two new kittens I have there and left….. I saw him the other day just strolling around the place

I need another 12 month visa before 2nd Feb and if you have any ideas how to get one I would appreciate it. Think they can only be got from your home country

I got the final documents for the TAT licence today so fingers crossed we will get it then the work permits, Our Thai administration girl  has proved excellent and really hope she doesn’t ‘resign’ and continues to help me.

What shall I do about Simon’s IDC ? i suspect he will be doing it Feb 16th, obviously we want to pay the lowest possible price for it, will you be involved with the IDC and be able to get a lower price for his inclusion or shall I just ask him how much he wants

The final emails:
arrived back in the UK Friday 5am 24 March 2007

Whats happening with Simon, he has moved out now? was angry with Shoko for giving him her house and trying to get him to go there, while she was in the dive centre using the internet at our invitation , she has cost the company money and also didnt want to pay for her discovery scuba diving course as she understood it to be a try dive for free ( she asked me to do it so assumed she knew I would charge her)

Whats the 5000 Baht for ? seems expensive for food and tanks
Chris made me use our tanks for the Instructor Specialities and said he would sort it out with you. I didnt want to give Laura the money back for the manual but understand you agreed to it. There was a section missing in the one you brought us but I correct this and double checked it but still she wasnt happy

What bookings have you got ? and what perspectives ?  Assume you know there is about 41000 THB in the bank

Sorry to hear offspray lost the boat again – hope the customers were happy with an alternative.

cdtc is pretty cool – interesting people, easy assignments. I´ll keep you updated.

I dont know why Simon says everybody is talking about my plans to sell the dive centre. A lot of people saw the strange thing on PADI pro and some asked about that. But the fact is (as I told you) I want to run IDCs with Dive Community and I am planning to travel to Thailand a few times a year. But I dont want to be around all year or for month in a row. And I dont want my life to be ruled anymore by the fact that I own Dive Community. After our last conversation about the option that you become a business partner with Dive Community I had the impression that you are not really interested in taking over shares.

Something I can understand as for you there are too many open questions (Hotels, cooperations etc.) So – as you told me to do – I am considering options. But: You did a very good job for the dive centre and you still do. For many people you are “Mr Dive Community”. I am wondering if you might be more interested in working on for Dive Community (English market, Staff Instructor, English web site etc.) with work permit on a employment basis – this is something I would appriciate very very much. And This is something I will try to work out if somebody else is interested in buying. Please share your thoughts with me.

Seem to be spending all my time and effort with the TAT / Work Permit / Visa issues that are here and coming up, along with everything else, Somjet and his idiots started to do our Balance Sheet (year end results) two months ago, I have been told by our Thai administration girl  that they wont be able to finish them for 3-4 weeks, she rightly states that that will cause me serious issues (my Visa expires 2nd Feb) and need new one which she can organise in Phuket town but need TAT licence / Work permits and to do this by 31st January Latest, therefore I am going to Somjet tomorrow hopefully for the last time to close our account with him, it is long overdue and Im not sure he will let me do it without you but I will try obviously

Really cant believe the wasted time and effort and money that this idiot has caused us.

Phuket Interhouse have been sent an email, I assume Jaime already has accomodation, I have an account with Shanti Lodge also so will try them also
Very sorry to hear all this. I can imagine this was not a good week for you. It´s a shame to come back after such a long time and being overloaded with bad news…

I made a final decision about the dive centre: I sold it 100 %. I will be affilated with it as the Course Director and for European Marketing activities. After you left and made clear to me that you dont want to become my partner (I assume you will stay in the UK now for a while?) I wanted a clear cut and clear perspectives for me and my future before I go back to Europe. I am happy that I found a real good sollution now. The new owner and his connection into new markets will mean a complete restart for Dive Community and I hope the best for its future. I will tell you more details within the next two weeks.
Now I am busy with sorting things out (Nart, rentals, accountant, open bills etc) and will leave to go back to Germany next Wednesday. So the dive centre will be closed for the next month – which is no problem now. But no worries about Harley – Simon and/or Thomas will take care about that.

The cat is in very good hands – Thomas took it. He loves cats and the cat loved him. Simon moved out last Wednesday – I was a bit angry about that as well but I understand Simon. For him it is the much better option. Only Shoko needs to find another cheap internet place.

I made some notes to remind me of how I ended up running a dive centre in Phuket, for information here they are:

Work Rumours about a takeover
Had to have an Interview for own job
Company issues Redundancy Notices (I was ok)
Handbook given and read information about Sabbatical
Robbo – ‘well do something about it’
Sabattical Email / Acceptance
Visa Thai Embassy (Phone Thailand for Company papers)
Office Move
Last Lunchtime with Robbo (my mate)
Last Payslip (ever ?)
Last Day at IT company Tuesday 31st January 2006
Meal with Family and Iwona
Rented my House
Clear out house – Sell furniture / electricals / car (ebay)
My world in 3 bags
LHR > BKK > PKT 13th February 2006
Phuket 14th Feb
Sea Bees – PADI IDC
Pre-IDC 17th Feb – Dominic
Buying First Aid / EFR Instructor manuals
Palm Garden – Neil / Arno
IDC Course 20th Feb 2006
Zebra bar Neil and Ju
Ulf + German (Was ist das ?)
Songkran ! Water Festival
The bar girl and the chicken leg incident
IDC Exams 3rd March 2006
IDC Party Ulf / Bar Girl
Night out (with Neil and Ju !)
First Day as an Instructor
Move to new room
Neil has no money so has to spend the night in my Bed !
MSDT Prep – Dominic
Arno gets bent – then flys home / needs chamber visits
Career Package (go and give your CV out)
Business Cards / CV / Emails
My first Student – He goes backwards !
Motorbike
Crash (New Top)
Petrol! looks like wine and bought in bottles by side of road
Work Permit ?
Ulf – Dive Community
Learning the ropes
Ulf Leaves ! All alone
No Customers / Vistors / Students !
Happy Days !
Poo, Nick, Aaron, Jeff, Lauren, Oi, A, J, Rob, Austin,
Drunken Fun
The Pervy German looking for Bar Girls
Pervy German Removed to the road
Pervy German bent Jo’s Bike
Finding Bike Shop !
Dive Community
Website
phuketdeals
Hotel Meetings
No customers at dive centre for 12 weeks ! (Ulf ‘really bad low season’)
Cleaner
Accidents
Work Visa
With Neighbour Luisa on Kata Beach (while holding BCD and fins !)
Luisa at dive centre
Police – Pool / Police Station / Coffee Shop
Fish and Chip shop – Drunk Uncle asleep in front of Fridge (waiting for him to die !)
The Fish Shop
Sweet (Aunt Porn ! and Uncle Dick!)
Brain Damaged Instructor – Blood bank request
Steve Cook and mates in Phuket
Swiss Instructor couple
Puppy at DC
Motorbike plus Sidecar
Snake in DC
Po’s Sister Husband – His neck just break
Connor and Mum come visit me
Elephant riding
Connor Diving
Zoo – Falang Pricing – Crocodile / Orangutang
Sweet
Sweet’s Uncle Drunk idiot
Steve Flowers visits
Steve, Nart, Me plus Narts mate Phuket town
Open water
AOW – Wrestle a shark (frightened of an eel !)
Truck problems – Porn wants the paperwork sorted
Temple
DC Stats – James Certs (Ulf’s free DSDs)
Monks – Cats and Dogs (upselling dogs as he has many)
Cats – Hot Dog and Budda (aka bud)
Cat Rescue / Cats dont bounce
Catie Smith – Diving fun!
Dive Community / The missing shoes !
Instructors quit! shocker
Simon and Nart’s friend
Simon on beach with Nart’s friend’s gay mate
DM Vicky Haining / Simon
Steve Flowers 2
Steve / Jif / Sea Bees Girl
Simon – Thai Gay approach at Dive Community
Steve and Ulf at Luisa’s
Steve / Simon / Myself Patong Ladyboys !
Diving with Luisa and Steve Perfect
Instructors wanting work
Beach Clean up!
IDC Students – Equipment sales
Massages after lunch
Egyptian IDC Student Couple Phuket Visa
Corrupt Thai people
Disillusioned Instructors
Swedish Couple – Work Permit
Cheree
Freelance Instructor – Sea Bees
Swedish James busts the Village Idiots Teeth in Crash shocker !
Luisa Scarpa
Jamie Lee / Shower / Sweet
Friend beaten and left for dead in drainage ditch
Beach assault
Corrupt Accountant Headlines
Assistant Director of Film Diving
Swedish Dive Master
Tsunami the Aftermath Filming (Hospital, Airport, Hotel – Tim Roth)
Police Video on beach – Move site
Speedboat Instructor in Phi Phi (with Nick)
Anglerfish ! (Free diver – Hotel move)
Free diver above!
Move Accountant
Nart – Company Papers TDA / TAT
Gulya – Russian / Shower / Sweet p
Laguna bar
IDC Staff instructor course / IDC Candidates
Speedboat stolen and stripped part 1
Simon
Gulya – Crazy as a Crazy thing – Walks to Chalong
Joanne secret rendezvous
Jif – Mad, Faints, Fork Stab to Nose
Ulf Busted for WP
Speedboat stolen and stripped part 2
View Point – with po and friend
Austin Run over and Robbed in broad daylight (watch from wrist)
Aarons watch (Nicked by Village Idiot)
Dive Community Police for TAT licence 25,000 THB
Sweet Returns Aarons watch from Village Idiot while Police at DC
Dive Community for sale on Padi.com ? Ulf has no idea why
Visa Run Burma
Dive Communty Accounts 125 THB
Dive Community sale Decision  €70k
Last Night
Clubbing
Drinking
Luisa
Morning Perfect
Last Day 20 April 2007
Massage
Rush
Keys in Car
PKT > KL > LHR
UK Freezing
Dive Community Sold
Facing Redundancy
Happy Days / Aarons Drugs Bust – Corrupt Police 400k THB

Continuing adventures of a new PADI Instructor running a dive center in Phuket, Thailand during 2006 – 07, the updates are in the form of emails sent to the dive centre owner, these are pretty confusing to read but give a few useful bits of information and also hopefully tells you how important it is to keep on top of the work permits / TAT licence / paperwork / accountancy when running a dive centre in Phuket / Thailand

From Dive Centre Owner: First thing: please wait two days or so before you ask the other PADI IDC about Simon’s course. The German Course Director confirmed that he will do his PADI IDC with Dive Community (with some German students). I already asked him if is ok for him if we add another student (I would do the PADI IDC together with you and you will get the PADI IDCS (Staff Instructor) rating at the same time. Also better to have two students in for the presentations.) Start would be around the 22nd, IE Date 2nd of March. If this is ok for Simon we would get all the money for our dive centre and it would be the first “real” Dive Community IDC. I am just waiting for the other Course Director to answer my request but I think it is ok for him.

Can you please check if the Kata Beach Resort has a room available for the Course Director. He wants to stay there and book via us. The candidate will stay in the Divecenter and will pay 10.000 for it. assume thats OK?

I transferred 2000 Euro to your account to cover the deposit for Kata delight and the Similan trip for the two Germans.

Glad to hear Nitrox is alive! Cats like to be free.

I think we should seriously think about moving the divecenter to another location. The construction area, the noise, no walk in and the high rent.

Good idea to have some info-packs for hotels / Tour operators. I have a German couple arriving on the 13th of Feb. They want to dive with us and maybe do a course (she is open water / he is advanced open water diver). They are return customers – they were diving with us about one year ago.

I will go to the Thai embassy on Friday to ask about Visa things. I will ask them about yours as well and if they have any idea I will let you know soon.

Can you please pick up the two Germans living in Kata delight on the 1st of Feb. As soon as I have the flight dates and a picture I will send it to you.

Keep your fingers crossed: This week I expect the notification about my acceptance status for the PADI Course Director Training Course.

I think you should look at the kata beach resort prices as the cheapest room is about 8000 THB, want me to enquire ?

I put the contract with Phuket Muai Thai camp for diving (20 % courses / 10% diving) and within 2 hours got a DSD that I did this morning

Pretty busy at the moment (still in dive centre at 2230 and got here at 0900 for EFR course)

Currently got two people (friends of friends) going to the Similans for two days and on Thursday got a guy going on Sea Bees new overnight to Hin Daeng (walk in customer)

Got Simon EFR / Rescue / DM and on Tuesday got 2 more DSDs from PhuketDeals, its wrong that the dive centre isnt being staffed when I am away and im sure we have lost business, so have asked lots of people to stay here when they can and at the moment Simon is the only one that can stay here when I am not here

On top of this tomorrow I have to sort out more documents  for our TAT licence and then get with a Sea Bees girl in Phuket town for the TAT licence and Work permit stuff, I also have to think about getting a new visa as mine runs out on the 2nd Feb and dont think i can get one from KL anymore

Do you know how many Seeman Sub Regulators we have ? as Beet told us that one of the two that I took to him for service (as they were both leaking) belonged to Sea Bees. I think that they must have got mixed up somehow, Sea Bees do not have any spare ones apparently so I dont know what has happened to our one or how we managed to get their regulator, Perhaps it got exchanged when I was working for them or when Simone / Rolf / Barney dived with them or during the Beach Clean up with Rolf / Simone ?

Beet also told me that we have a certain amount of kit from him (BCD / Computer / Torch  etc) that hasnt been paid for and that we will need to pay for it (approx 50,000 THB) that was a bit of a shock as you can imagine. What should I do about this ? He was asking when you are back but told him you wont be back for a while.

The Swedish PADI Instructors was a bit upset with the lack of work and has been working for poseidon recently, he said that he wanted to be fairly paid for his work when he brings his customers to us and we agreed that he would get 25% of course costs when he brings his customers to us, obviously I am very happy with that as 50% would have been more ‘market rate’ for people bringing their own customers to us. Think he will be happy with things as he has a lot of friends coming soon and will work with him to get him to the beach / poseidon and ensure I do the courses he cannot teach (Nitrox)
Dive Centre Owner: Two divecenters are interested in the dvds for their christmas-business. And if I don’t sell all of them I will bring them to Phuket. Barney paid in the meantime.

About the Swiss Student: her name is Regula, she will arrive on the 27th and come to the shop ont the 28th. She paid already for her OWD and she stays in Kata Palm Resort. She comes following a recommendation of one of Rolfs friends that’s why I told him he can do the course (I told him before they arrived in Phuket.).

I am glad to hear it is ok for you that I am doing all the stuff here at the moment. I really do think it is good for the dive centre and I think its gonna be quite successful. And when I go back I will stay in Phuket for a while so it is better to sort things out now.

Next week I have another meeting with the Divecenter owner from Menorca – he has already confirmed he wants to work with me from next ear on. Maybe this is something interesting for you as well – he has a lot of english customers and he use to have some Instructors in high season (which is the Phuket-low season). If you are interested in something new and in very nice divesites in the Mediterranean I will ask him.

I found a very professional webdesigner who will make some proposals for us. I have a good feeling about him. I hope I can show you something quite soon.

Any news from Aspasia? Did you finally get the gardener or do we still have a jungle-house

Well… you were right – I was shouting at the screen but let me try to answer everthing…

Barney still didn’t pay but I just transferred 750  to your account.

Your work permit wasnt in that draw but assumed it must be somewhere in your bedroom so looked everywhere and found it in the bookcase (Cordura dive log) but thats the good news I have found it

Good you found it – sorry, I thought I put it in the draw…

Apparently, as a company we are liable / responsible to complete the balance sheet at the end of the year and as we havent done this and a month or two has passed we must pay a 2000 baht fine as well as a 12000 baht charge for Phuket Visa and Accounting (aka the idiots) to do it for us. The Thai girl that is now helping us says that 12000 is a good price as 20000 is a standard price but I didnt know anything about this and was shocked when I took the company invoices / receipts into the accountants today and they gave me a 14315 bill for accountancy services and tax and told me that because my friend ! had disappeared for three months they thought we didn’t want them to act for us ! you are probably shouting at the screen now and you can imagine that I was equally pissed off as we should have left that accountancy firm ages ago, they said we had disappeared for three months even though i go in there every month with the company invoices / receipts and talk to them I cant believe them.

What? I don’t understand at all. The never asked me to come or to do anything.

I had to pay them the 14315 baht for the last 3 / 4 months and told them to get the balance sheet done asap, i dont think we are liable to a fine but according to them we needed to instruct them to do the balance sheet ?

As you are not here and you obviously don’t have a visa and your work permit expired 8 days ago we are in trouble! The thai girl says that as its over 7 days expired you will need to report to the work permit department with her and get a fine / charge sheet that you then must take to the police station to pay! (1000 baht) but you must be here for this to happen, you havent told me when you are coming back and I don’t think it matters now if you are 1 week or 1 month overdue.

True – I havent told you when I will be back. As I told you it seems to me much more important to care for all the Advertising/ travelagency / catalogs / partners / PR/ new web provider etc than being back and have not much to do. And I take the chance to earn some money to cover the gap between our expenses (remember there will be PADI fees and other stuff soon. and the Course Director Training Course will cost about 6000 Euro) and the income at the moment. As long as it is ok for you I concentrate on that and I am quite sure I can report some good news soon.

Please do me a favour and send me a scan of my work permit. I will try to sort this out at the embassy here – at least for m understanding. If I have a work permit does that mean I am not allowed to leave the country anymore? Or do I have to plan my trips around the expiry dates of my workpermit? Anyway – my 12 month multiple visa is valid to 25th July, I will ask them soon.

Tomorrow, after running around for the last 2 days getting documentation together regarding the work permit we can submit the application for my work permit, this thai girl has proved to be excellent and found ways around the fact that we havent got a balance sheet and you not being here. She even come in the accountants office with me and organised stuff and done all the work at the employment office as she acted for me with my power of attorney.

That’s really great. Who is she? Sounds she is really helpful.

One of the other Course Directors just came in and was talking about this with him, he has told me about his accountant (again) and obviously we need to move from them (as we needed to move from them in April) when they almost got me stranded in Kuala Lumpur. On the advice from this Thai girl and the other Course Director I suggest that once the end of year stuff is sorted we move from the accountants.

Agreed. Lets move everthing to a new accountant in January and sort everything out for a good 2007.

Hope you understand my annoyance and agree that we need to get on the ball with the paperwork (work permits / balance sheet ) and then get a competent accountant. I am now very worried that the police will get me again and that these fines are the last thing we need.

I hope with no reason. But maybe that gives me a good reason to talk to the Swedish Instructors about the fact that it is better for them and us not to work for us.

I have given your email to the Thai girl so you can help her if she has any company type questions

I look forward to any news and I let you now what they said in the Embassy.

Have also got a cleaner in dive centre, only done it once but pretty good, got a DMT from See Bees in the main room upstairs (Simon moved in the small room to encourage her to move in) and as such we will give him a discount off his MSDT (see previous email) to take into account the cheaper price of the small room (charging 8000 and 10000 for the rooms)
The idiots (accountants) did remove the invoice from the monthly return I gave them but after telling them to find it and to explain why we paid 14315 in November they produced another Invoice and our salary tax payments for three months up to October (they took 5 days to do this) and the salary tax receipts are all dated from 3 days ago ! so once again (like the work permit they did for me originally they only do the work once you get arrested or chase them !) they were trying to rip us off again !

Somjet says we should remove him from shareholder list, I just said yes of course ! I dont intend doing anything for them again and will do my best to ensure that everyone knows how incompetent they are., but we should learn our lesson in future if we start to suspect or experience poor / incorrect service then we should change / move to someone else. I cant calculate how much hassle and time and trouble the decision to go with Somjet has caused but its a lot !

Have arranged a new Accountants (at the top of our road next to Chalong Business Centre) They are acting for a few Dive Centre’s as their own business accountants and first impressions of them are  very good, but due to this taking so long because of the previous company I have to do another visa run to Ranong before a Work permit can be issued ! so here are some important dates

25th Jan Trip to Rangong
3rd Feb 1 year Visa Expires
6th Feb you return
7th Feb you go to police station to pay Work Permit Fine (documents prepared by Nart)
22nd March I go back to UK
25th April My 3 month visa expires and Work permit Expires

Monday 10th
Vicky Divemaster Exams

Tuesday 11th
Alice arrived (15 dive and rescue diver course package)
Did a refresher with her in pool
Alice paid 20,000 baht

Wednesday 12th
Worked for Sea Bees Guiding (very very rough seas) was with Chris’s / Ben’s IDC on the boat – half were sick !
Alice Diving

Thursday 13th
Alice and Vicky Diving (conditions very very rough here at the moment)

Friday 14th
Alice Rescue Diver Course Theory
Website updates (remember the prices on the padi fees that I told you about ? I sorted them all out today English and German) Email queries

Saturday 15th
Open Water Course Cherie / Kate
Meeting with Thomas regarding search engine placements / website changes

Sunday
Open Water Course Cherie / Kate
Allowing Kate to pay in instalments for this course (she paid 4000 initially) he is a school teacher and friend of Cherie
Busy week, got PADI open water / rescue diver / nitrox / divemaster and advanced open water courses going along with booking dive trips and trying to sort out the car.

Monday 17th
Trying to sort out Car repairs, this is not a simple operation, nobody really understands the insurance damage quote or where it should be fixed, complete waste of my time and effort…………..

Tuesday 18th
boring day

Wednesday 19th
Alice Rescue Course (Open Water) took Vicky as part of her DM Course – Racha Noi / Racha Yai 3 dives
Cherie / Kate Open water theory lesson / dvd / quiz / knowledge review

Thursday 20th
Spent another day trying to sort out the Car Repairs, drove all over the place trying to find the approved garage, with the help of a Thai I found the named garage and its booked into be fixed on Tuesday, this repair will take 3 days, lots of hassle / expense and time spent here. Whoever crashed it should compensate us for this. Not sure what I will do for transport yet but hopefully will not inconvenience us much.

Alice and Vicky Diving at Racha Yai with Coral Cruiser

Cherie Open water theory lesson / dvd / quiz / knowledge review and Exam

Friday 21th
Kate Open water theory lesson / dvd / quiz / knowledge review and Exam
Alice Phi Phi overnight with Calypso
Vicky exams

Saturday 22th
Open Water Course Cherie / Kate Open Water Dives 1 and 2 (Racha Yai 2 dives)

Sunday 23rd
Nitrox Course Alice
Vicky Completed all DM criteria , needs to give me final payment and a bit more paperwork and she will be done

Owed to us +92000 (alice / ow courses / DM Courses)
Owed by us -10500 (dive trips)

Still problems with dive community email account
My dive-community email account is working about 1 attempt in 10 it now gets bounced messages so when people send me emails they get their email back !!!1 This is very annoying and stops myself being able to talk to customers / partners about business on the day I want to, not very professional and I think we need to change our service provider if they cannot improve the service.

For your Interest a special Happy Days update ………….
Rob back out of bed (broken leg from motorbike accident)

Another PADI Instructor sent me a text on Saturday night regarding a dive instructor (nobody has found out his name yet but think he is swedish) that needed a- or o- type blood urgenty as there wasnt enough available in the asian blood banks (apparently they all have o- type blood). I forwarded the text to people but found a swedish guy in the bar that had the same blood type and went to hospital with aiden who also had the same type. Apparently the guy had to lose his leg too many people getting killed and injured here recently and they all involved drink / motorbikes and speed !!!

Have attempted to do the PADI PIC online but we need PIC online credits that I am trying to sort out with PADI now

Vicky has been an excellent DM candidate but is expressing a bit of concern about the IDC as she will only have 95 ish dives by the start of it, I have assured here that as she is such a great candidate and already more than competant in the water it wont be a problem (I only had 105 dives at my IE). I know the dives she completes on her IDC will take her over the 100 dive requirement. She mentioned she could sit the IE after the August one or do the whole IDC / IE in September. I said I will chat to you for advice but she is ready in every way apart from dive numbers. She knows she will meet minimum requirements but wants more, I guess that is a good sign.

Hoping to get her PADI IDC materials today !

There are some rumors that Calypso have found a new dive site between racha yai and racha noi and will check it out with them on Wednesday.

Spoke to Billy (EFR and Rescue) who is pretty put out that I am not at the dive centre and there is nobody there when he went there (3 times) he hasnt got time to do anything now even if he gets in touch with Simon and wants a refund, he paid 6000 THB and you can pay it to my account and I will see him when he gets back to the UK (or I will transfer it to him if he doesnt come and see me)

Have thought long and hard about the work I am doing for you and the resulting sale of the Dive Centre and believe (as well as others) that I am owed something for my work. I previously refused your offer of 30,000 THB per month as I beleived the work I was doing would benefit Dive Community and therefore myself in the future, as I am not going to benefit I would like you to consider payment for my work over the last year and 1 month ! I believe I added massive value to the dive centre by keeping the certification numbers up, by getting contracts with PhuketDeals and the other smaller hotels and also the massive amount of work I did on the website,which is surely a bit plus for the Dive Centre as we didnt even have an English side before I came, now its one of the better Phuket Dive sites. I am not going to be greedy but only ask you for 15,000 THB a month as I paid myself commission for courses I did (not beachdives / liveaboards / daytrip sales),Therefore I would like a payment for my work which as you know is a small amount of money for 13 months work but I think you got a very good deal out of me

This would show me that you valued my work and would stop me getting bitter and twisted about this whole thing.  I have got another contract agreed with another hotel (Karon) how do we go forward with that ? who can deal with it ?

I obviously still have a work permit that is valid for another 2 months plus, what should I do with it ?

The idiot accountant cannot complete the Balance Sheet until 10th February (after all that would be 3 months since I first asked them) !!
I told them I would take all the company paperwork to another accountancy practise and get them to do it and terminate our agreement. Our Thai admin lady claims that they havent been paying our social security  tax and told her that we havent been paying for services ? every month I take the invoices and receipts to them and pay them what they ask.

Visited the new accountant and her practise who will look at our paperwork tomorrow 1700 as the old accountants need until 1600 to sort it out and will tell us how long it will take to do the balance sheet which is needed for the TAT licence ./ work permits / visa renewals ! will be glad when this is sorted

We have had a young couple lose a gold wedding ring recently on Kata Beach (North) while fun diving around the reef, if anyone finds it, they would be very grateful for its return, I am sure.

Two German Instructors  ask me if we have any work everyday and I obviously havent had anything for them apart from a English (grim) EFR / Rescue course when I phoned them both 5 times over the period of an hour and they didnt answer,so I had to put the course off a day and do them myself, I now think that it would be an unreasonable gamble to let them work for us without a work permit, due to the potential impact it would have on Dive Community if they were found working for us without a work permit. No other company wants them working without a work permit due to the risk it may cause if they get caught by immigration / the police ? if they are caught the company is liable for big fines and the directors could face imprisonment. As a business decision its unreasonable to take that risk isnt it ? I know at least 2 other instructors that are German speaking and with a Work permit that I have seen working and know they could be trusted with our German speaking students.

Leaving the truck uninsured for 3 months was an oversight but retrospecively it was a big mistake / a bad business move as its our biggest asset, and if it was stolen / damaged the company couldnt sustain such a loss. Isnt giving un-insured / non-work permit ‘tourists’ an equally bad decision ?

I am really hoping for an upturn in business as I am starting to worry that the website isn’t bringing us the business we hoped for, I will be chasing up the Aspasia hotel contract tomorrow hopefully

Regarding the website:

This is excactly the reason why I startet to contact all the travel agencies and potential business partners. I do believe that we need to be in catalogs and do at least some print advertising in diver´s magazines like Sea Bees, Dive Asia and all the others. The website is important but I think it is more the information-tool than the booking tool. I am busy with this subject every day and I truly believe that it has to be done right now before it is too late. And I will spend as many time and money as necessary to put our divecenter in the front row.

Good news about internet: a good friend of mine runs an internet company and I talked to him about our current situation. He offered a lot of technical support for us (eg webhosting with unlimited webspace, unlimited number and size of Email-Adresses, mySQL-database, PHP5, daily backup, weekly server update etc) and he will introduce me to his team of website designers – all for free. Maybe this will help us.
Thomas wrote an email about our google ads (PPC) and I think there are some potential changes I can make. At the moment I spend about 120 USD every month for the google PPC campaign, we have many clicks but no bookings.

Tomorrow I will meet my former boss (still a friend) and we will talk about options how he can help me to place some PR in German magazines. I will let you know soon if some ideas are coming up.

More updates, these are during low season in Phuket where the lack of work and dive students is starting to get annoying.

Monday
Paid invoices (calypso / rent / south siam / scandinavian) ouch

Tuesday
Vicky’s PADI DM watermanship exercises at Laem ka beach.
Went to Big A resort to confirm Monday’s arrival and chat with Thomas about the possibilty of placing people there in low / high season, how many people are booked for the PADI IDC in August ? have you anywhere in mind for them to stay ?

Wednesday
Vicky’s DM classroom work / exams (done 4 now) skills and kit exchange exercises in the pool

Thursday
Cleaned dive centre ( I hate geckos)

Friday
Big day for website updates

Saturday
Vicky DM Mapping Exercise
Vicky DM Lessons / Exams

Sunday
Cherie moved in and paid 6000 baht per month for the small room, once both rooms are occupided the 25000 baht a month rent that we pay for the building doesnt seem so bad.

Monday
nothing much happened today, it rained !

Tuesday
Pool Experience for OM (Christian Aid people), started as a beach dive but visibility poor and surf high. One diver bought a mask, one nearly bought fins but thought they were too expensive (the split fins are priced at 4000 ish ! )

Wednesday
Website updating stuff / paid bills

Thursday
Worked again as an extra on the Tsunami Film

Friday
Checked out some hotels, chatted with a couple in one of the hotels about diving (they may do Open water with me)

Saturday
2 Divers (that I met while teaching for another dive centre) walked in the dive centre and booked dive trips to Racha Yai with me.

Sunday
Vicky done DM Pool skills session, Simon (the other DMT) has injured his hand so can only do theory at the moment

Monday
My dive-community email account is working about 1 attempt in 10, This is very annoying and stops myself being able to talk to customers / partners about business on the day I want to, not very professinal and I think we need to change our service provider if they cannot improve the service.

PADI AOW for a dive centre in Patong (they dont make the students buy the books, naughty !)

Tuesday
Opened account with Waterworld (Chalong) for Cressi products, Re-opened account with DiveMaster (Karon Plaza), bought and sold mask / aow book and PADI pic for mike and another instructor for few hundred baht profit

Wednesday
Opened account with Scandinavian Divers – 1300 for students / divers is pretty damm good DM classroom session

Thursday
Scuba refresher for a lady from OM (charity ship moored in Phuket harbour) doing it for free as they are poor charity workers and they are booking 3 dive trips with me also

Friday
Diving with OM ladies (3 of them ) used scandanavian divers and the fact that you can pay them either on the boat or in their unit in chalong straight after the dive is good news also

Saturday
Diving at Ao Sane with Divemasters (they bought two slates for mapping project)
It rained !

Sunday
Worked as a Film extra for Tsunami film with Tim Roth called ‘Tsunami the aftermath’ (gave out my card a few times

Monday
Our Divemaster candidate, Vicky, moved into Large Bedroom (8000 thb per month to be paid on the 5th) she paid 2000 until Friday when she will complete the first advance payment of 8000)

Tuesday
nothing to report, should have stayed in bed today

Wednesday
Got the kitchen fitters to replace the lock in the Big Bedroom as it didnt work, they wanted me to pay for it so I just said swap it with the classroom one

Thursday
3 Letters given to dive center/ building owner (delivered here), she said something about a property tax ! dont think we should be paying for that as well, she asks when you will be back and I say August ?

Friday
The DMT, Vicky completes the payment of the first months rent of 8000 (will be paid on the 5th from now on)

Saturday
Afternoon spent at Kata Big Rock with Mike and his student (will get the student details stored at DC and get this credited to us) They charged me 50 baht for swimming !

Sunday
AOW for Merlin Divers

Owed to us +48655 (DM Courses)
Owed by us -3000 (Coral Cruiser trips) suprised that havent requested the money yet !

Sonny (Thai Course Director) didnt reply to me about the car transfer, the guy hasnt been back. Did you get my questions about the car / garage thing ? I went to the garage but they didnt want to do it through the insurance and he directed me to an office ? I havent been there yet as dont know what you arranged.

Not one customer in the shop for another whole week although did have a strange bloke come in and talk about diving equipment for a while (he puts regulators and bcds together for Seeman Sub as well as others !)

My dive-community email account is working

For your Interest a special Happy Days update ………….
The world cup England game was nearly a disaster as Arron didnt find the right channel until 5 minutes into the game and we had already scored !

The house opposide Dive Community is still being built and the first storey is almost done

Good start to the week, DM candidate number 2 (Simon) 100% confirmed on his PADI Divemaster course, Documents prepared for the course for the course’s official start date of 10th June, Vicky the DMC will almost definitely be on our first IDC starting on 8th August, she is very keen (even done a dive map of Ao Sane while snorkelling yesterday !!)

The Chain supporting the ‘staff’ equipment rack came out of the ceiling yesterday so I fixed that, also found that the car’s key fob alarm thing had a flat battery so plugged the immobiliser back in and used the new battery in the key fob and worked fine, I also found the immobilizer override button under the steering column, just in case we have further problems

For your interest I have two confirmed DMTs, (Vicky / Simon), 1 Potential DMT, 1 potential Rescue Course, 1 Potential AOW Course, 7 Potential Open Water Course and 1 Potential DSD, all of a sudden things are looking good.

One of the Thai shop owners? came to shop again, I gave her the rent money to save me going to her office on the 1st

Sold the South Asia Fish Guide and bought a new one from Dive Supply when I got Simon’s DM manual

Tuesday
Got tanks filled (5 at oceanzone divers)

Wednesday
Workmen Came to look at kitchen

Thursday
read a bit about the PADI digital photography course
‘ladies night’ in happy days, not much going on there though !

Friday
Took monthly accounts to the idiots (accountants)
Chris rang wanting your phone number in Germany, will email it to him as I assume thats ok with you

Saturday
Cleaned Balcony for bedrooms (it really needed doing)
In the afternoon done some Beach dives with Vicky at Laem Ka and Ao Sane

Sunday
Done guiding for See Bees ‘Super Sunday’ – Unusually the weather was perfect, excellent dives at Phi Phi. The Excalibur II is a fantastic boat – Warm Water Divers were using the boat so will make enquires about having an account with them and see how much they charge for Students and Divers.
Lock on the bedroom door needs replacing so phoned the building owner, who will come and look / fix I hope.

Dani / Birgit are in Vietnam and will return in 4 weeks, have moved their things into the small bedroom as Vicky wants the big bedroom

Not one customer in the shop for another whole week

For your Interest a special Happy Days (local bar) update ………….
Fridays is now ladies night with half price drinks but po (quite common thai girls name) and her mates are the only ones taking advantage of it.

I am still trying and waiting to be able to update the website as its not working, have tried loads of times but never able to update

Look forward to hearing from you (email or skype)