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rainbow divers, vietnam
 hellas42  rates it:    Community rates it: (no ratings yet)
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hi!
i worked there as a freelance photographer, but i still have an idea what "normal" work with them means.
unless you´ve really been everywhere else, i´d avoid it.
the diving is medium at best (edit: forget it, it´s positively sh7te!). in nha trang it was rainy season when i was there, so viz below 5m (1-2m sometimes) was normal. but even in better visibility, the reefs are nothing special, i expected a LOT more interesting stuff. egypt or thailand beat it on any given day. the reefs are covered in silt from river estuaries and there´s loads of broken corals. also, there´s not THAT many different fish on a daily basis. ok for a couple of weeks, but then it gets boring as hell.
phu quoc island was better in terms of visibility, but in 2 months there was only 1 day with 10+ m viz. the reefs are even more boring than nha trang.
the people at rainbow are cool for the most part (especially sean (MI), grant (CD) and george (manager in phu quoc)). but jeremy, the boss is VERY moody, so it´s best to stay out of his way. (before i left, he was in borneo building a new shop, so i guess it´s not that much of an issue anymore...)
the equipment is good, adherence to standards as well, but the pay is 250$/month for a fresh inst (!!), and that´s f$%k all, even in vietnam. it´s not that cheap to live there, especially in phu quoc.
ok, you normally do only two boat dives a day for the money and the locals do the s$&twork, but still, it´s not a hobby, it´s a high responsibility job FFS!!!
>:( >:(


so overall, forget the place and vietnam in general, i can´t imagine any place in this country that´s halfway on par with the better places in asia...


and yes, i didn´t make any money there either, doing photos in these conditions, but still i think the facts (viz, state of the reefs, salaries) support my judgement...


alex

Added:  Tuesday, February 19, 2008

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