1 Way to ‘Achieve the Dream’, Relocate to Thailand & Train for a New Career
Posted by Pattaya Ghost | Blog, Pattaya, Reader Submissions | Posted on August 25th, 2009
Based on the surprising amount of e-mail feedback I’ve gotten from my one little comment on LMW’s post, there seems to be a more than a few of you out there looking to ‒achieve the dream” of living – and working – in Thailand. With much gratitude to the Mango Boyz, I’m here to explain one way a whole bunch of guys of all ages have done just that.
If you missed it, my brief advice to LMW was that if he wanted to relocate to Thailand, he should continue to work. It’s very apparent after about two minutes in Pattaya that guys who come here with nothing to do but party quickly lose whatever tenuous hold they had on reality to begin with. What I offered was for him to e-mail me and I’d refer him to a program that would offer an end-to-end solution to get him set up in Thailand and provide him professional training in a new career so he could work in Thailand or anywhere else.
I woke up this morning to more than a half-dozen e-mails from guys just like LMW (but, oddly, not from LMW) asking how to do just that. Thinking these guys were just a few of many with similar ambitions (and to save myself writing a bunch of individual e-mails), I persuaded SideshowBob to allow me a brief – and hopefully not painfully annoying – infomercial about what The Ghost actually does to pay the rent. (God knows blogging doesn’t.)
Can You Swim?
I’ll spare you reading any more by asking a couple screening questions. First, do you swim? If not, then what lies below will be a waste of your time. Second, would you like to work outdoors, have an active lifestyle and meet people from all over the world? If so, carry on.
I am a partner in a company called Aquanauts Dive Career Development Centre in Pattaya which, while doing scuba diving trips and courses for tourists, also operates a professional internship program that takes people from all ages, countries and walks of life and, over the span of 2-7 months, turns them into certified instructors under PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
Sitting back in your Farangland cubicle, you may never have even considered diving. You might not even have done it before. Remarkably, more than 25 percent of all our students over the past five years were not even certified when they started. They simply know they can’t tolerate their current job any longer, love the outdoors/water and have decided that the quality of life is more important than the quantity of money they make.
There have also been a whole lot of Thailand lovers among our student population.
Sound Familiar?
Adrian, 39, was one of those. He was on holiday from driving a bus in the English midlands when he first visited Thailand and fell in love with it. He still lived in his parents’ house, had no real social life and a job literally going in circles. He’d never had much experience diving, doing it only on holiday a couple times, but knew working in a tropical climate on the deck of a boat beat the heck out of the British winter.
Alicia and Tom, both in their late 20s, were working in High Street retail in London when they first came to Thailand. They’d backpacked around the world, done environmental conservation work in Central America and settled down for the career track only to discover they hated it. Both thought they were still too young to be stuck climbing the ladder, paying a huge mortgage and planning for 2.4 children. They both quit their extremely high-paying jobs and came to Pattaya where they spent a year becoming very qualified PADI Instructors. Both are now working on the beaches of the Andaman Sea, living the dream and have vowed never to see snow again.
Tommy, a divorced American guy in his late 40s, had visited Thailand a half dozen times before he decided he needed something to do during the day, other than nurse a hangover. He took a beginner course at Aquanauts, got hooked and joined the internship program. Having finished his training several years ago, Tommy is now a highly successful independent instructor. He captains his own yacht and has standing offers around the world to teach classes and lead dives whenever he makes port, be it in the Caribbean or Southeast Asia.
‒The great thing is you don’t have to be 19 or 20 to do this program,” Tommy, now in his 50s said. ‒You can start at 49 like I did. It isn’t that hard.”
Details Please
As has been pointed out on the blog in the past couple of days, just picking up and relocating to Thailand isn’t all that easy. What we’ve done is create a package that makes it as simple and painless as possible.
For starters, we arrange a one-year non-immigrant visa for you, sending you all the documents Fedex Global Express and telling you specifically where to go so that there are no worries about your visa being denied or shortened. We include your own private studio or one-bedroom apartment. No dorms, no sharing and few compromises. Each condo is fully furnished, includes free wireless Internet, cable TV, air conditioning, your own toilet/shower, 24-hour security and more. You simply send us your flight details and we pick you up at Suvarmabumi and move you into your new place.
Once you’re here, your training begins. If you’ve never been scuba certified, your program taking you to the first level of PADI instructor will be seven months long and all-inclusive for the duration. If you are certified with PADI or another organization, your program runs six weeks to three months. You can, of course, stay on and proceed to the second and third level of instructor with the same all-inclusive program. Some guys have spent more than a year living here, training and enjoying their ready-made lifestyle.
The program is easy. This is not ‒school” in the traditional sense. Assuming you’re on the seven-month program, you spend fewer than five days sitting in a classroom during your first three months. Virtually all your training is done from the Aquanauts boat, under the sun with the reefs off a bunch of tropical islands as your office. We also provide you a full set of dive equipment that’s yours to keep.
We call our program an ‒internship” in that once you get into training to become a ‒Divemaster,” a professionally certified dive assistant, you will start to be given some responsibilities, such as leading dives for tourist customers and assisting instructors with courses. But there’s no menial labor, such as pumping tanks, cleaning gear or scrubbing toilets. (We have Thai staff to do that.)
You dive as often as you like. Some guys, particularly ones in their 40s and 50s, take a more leisurely approach to training, diving as few as two or three days a week. Many of these guys don’t really intend to work 40 hours a week in the dive industry upon graduation. They simply want an easy way to settle down in Thailand and gain a vocation they can fall back on anytime.
Near the end, once you enter the instructor development stage, it does get a bit intense, but by that point you’ve hopefully gained plenty of experience and it will seem like second nature.
Working in Thailand
Once you’ve completed your internship, you’ll be a qualified instructor under PADI, which enjoys a 75 percent market share worldwide. Basically, you’ve obtained a passport to live and work in some of the world’s most beautiful locations; places few people could ever get a job in other fields.
About 20 percent of all Aquanauts graduates in the past five years are still living and working in Thailand. What do they make? Not a lot compared with some of their previous jobs, but comfortable, if not good, for Thailand. You can expect to earn a minimum of about 40,000 baht per month in the low season, but as much as 80,000-120,000 a month during the high season. Keep in mind to earn that you’ll likely be living in southern Thailand near the beach, eating Thai food and diving every day. Without much nightlife, your expenses will be minimal.
Overseas it varies. A Canadian couple who joined us a few years ago got jobs with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line where they each earned about US$3,000 a month and had their room and board paid for. That’s a good job. Others are working for lower wages, but enough to live comfortably on. And our grads are doing it in such places as the Philippines, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, the Florida Keys, Bermuda and, of course their own home countries of the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and Australia.
Paying the Piper and Learning More
Of course, all this comes at a price. Aquanauts has three programs to fit all budget levels, but from ‒zero to hero” over seven months you can expect to spend US$6,000-$10,000, depending on the package. There’s also a lot more detail you should read about. Specifics on pricing, more information and a place to ask questions (and enroll) are all on our website at www.DivingInstructorTraining.com.
Again, thanks to ssB and pmmp, for allowing me to pimp my company. I moved to Thailand six years ago and used diving as a way to make a living here and it was the best decision I ever made. If even one person can achieve their dream of making it work in the Land of Smiles, then this little piece of puff was worth it.











I tried diving once… where was it now?… umm – oh yes.. Tulips.
Didn’t even need flippers…
View all comments by doctorbond
While I have yet to visit you in your establishment that earns you money, I have only witnessed where that cash ends up. Great Post. I am PADI licensed. I just may end up there.
View all comments by I Phukit
db – with all the stuff I can remember doing at tulips I think you should not be diving there.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
That’s awesome – but I think the question on everybody’s lips is: how much pussy do diving instructors get?
View all comments by human tsunami
Just to give a perhaps unbiased opinion . . .
I am a PADI certified Master Scuba Diving Instructor. I never taught as a source of revenue. The dive shops back home usually do the open water course as a loss leader to get people into the sport and spending money on gear (or more diving). I was making six figures and teaching on the weekends where I was making a whopping $400 – $600 for two 12 hour days work (all day Sat in the pool and classroom and Sun doing 2 – 3 tanks). I’ve allowed my cert to go into non-teaching status because I don’t want to pay the liability insurance anymore.
I would seriously consider going this route but – at least at the moment – people are willing to pay me a lot more to do something else. Otherwise I probably would have ended up in Phuket rather than Bangkok.
It’s a very demanding job though and I think people really need to understand that. You aren’t learning to become an instructor just so people will pay you to dive. You’re being paid to take responsibility for people. And in the water that responsibility can have life or death consequences.
I’m everyone who dives often enough has horror stories where some complete ass risks his own life as well as that of the divemaster/instructor and perhaps even other divers as well. Diving in the Bahamas we had a guy and his girlfriend decide that since it was the last dive of their trip they would ditch the group and dive 300 feet off the face of a wall that bottomed out around 6000 feet.
The divemaster had to make a decision on whether to let them kill themselves or risk possible decompression sickness (as well as leave the other divers) to go chase these jerkoffs off the side of the wall and bring them back up. She did and she’s very lucky nobody – including herself – was injured.
I don’t say that to scare anybody. I really, really highly recommend the job if you have the temperament to deal with people like that and the patience to educate people in an environment that might be very scary to them.
But the satisfaction you get after taking students down and having 50 and 60 year olds rambling like school girls about all the cool stuff they’ve seen is well worth it and one of the reasons I chose to teach despite the crap wages being offered. I loved sharing that experience with people.
Just remember that as a divemaster or instructor you literally have people’s lives in your hands and people should appreciate that as much as they do the Thai food on the beach and the laid back lifestyle.
View all comments by Billy Bangkok
Ghost – I thought that you were probably part of Aquanauts… small world, as I probably spoke with you about half a year ago on the phone. I will email you for a further discussion regarding internships and how flexible they are.
Cheers for the info.
View all comments by Dreamlord
Good info…
Personally, I find it safer to stay in my job in the real world and party in Thailand for 5-6 months per year.. at full speed.
View all comments by Daywalker
Spending up to 10.000 USD of (plus flight and many living expenses) to become a diving instructor if you start from zero?
Here is my non-profit advice:
In most Western countries you can become a member at a local diving club (for usually relatively low fees), get your diver’s certificate and eventually get your PADI or whatever diving instructor certificate at seperate courses. Even in the inland of the USA or Europe you find plenty of scuba diving clubs. And all that for FAR less money. Plus, you can keep your job, earn money in the meantime and even put aside some savings for relocating to Asia. You are also able to do much more dives and to really gain experience in diving over a period of let’s say 2-4 years.
The fact that you get your certificate faster if you go through the above mentioned internship program does not make up for the many disadvantages.
Why give up a daytime job, a life back in the West and even spend a lot of money instead of doing it the other way around and achiving even better results: certificate, plus steady income, plus savings? 7-months diving instructor crash-course abroad? Not recommended.
View all comments by Donald
Thanks for the Info, Time to start saving I think
View all comments by Irishfella
Donald – for some people, it is not just the money and cost that is the deciding factor. Some of us simply want to escape the misery of a monotonous life and try something new.
I have been considering doing this course for a while (not knowing that the Ghost was running the shop I was thinking of using) and it is not just about doing diving. For me, it is about taking a break from everything. From a ten hour a day desk job, lack of a good social life, stress, heartbreak of failed relationships, rain and cold… Yes, I could train over the weekends. But the idea of spending hours in a pool or in murky cold lakes somewhere in England, still being exhausted from the Mon-Fri working life, compared to, say 2 months off in Thailand, the second choice is rather much more appealing.
And at the end of the day, two months (or six months) is nothing really compared to a life time, for a chance of experiencing a different lifestyle that I might or might not (I have no clue at the mo) like.
But I am starting to think that you only live once, and you have to make the best of it. And I’m thinking…the dream that LMW mentioned, I guess the dream is feeling happy with your day to day life.
End of rant.
View all comments by Dreamlord
What are the prices for Christ sake. You always seem to mention the prices for the outtake but then nothing for the intake.
You’ve gotta be the cheapest bastard on the planet.
Did you pay anything for the advert here???
View all comments by John Brown
Insightful Ghost…
Now I picture you some where in soi 6 sitting at perverts row every night wearing floats on your arms, a speedo and snorkel with a mask.
Other than that good advice. Nice to see how many people took time to share stories and how much attention LMV’s post got.
SSB – I read R.N’s report on the ‘double dip’. Scary shit. You ever see the video on youtube where he went before the senate committee/ congress a year or so before the shit hit the fan…
Congress laughed at him and a member from the senate, said on the microphone mockingly, “Well, I guess we’ll all need a drink after that report.”
I wonder how many drinks that guys had since… ?
View all comments by Canadianboy
Ok, a guy published an article saying he wanted to relocate, then you have a guy who publishes a response on how to live that dream by paying him up to $10K……LOL
View all comments by BillGates
jb – there u go again. I did not see it as an advert and ghost contributes a bunch to the blog. if some people find some interest then cool
unlike many farang I know in thailand – people like the ghost help other farangs and I think doing the same thing is cool
farangs in thailand are all about tearing each other down. u seem to be in a similar mode at times.
readers are smart enough to decide for themselves if this info helps them or not and the 3 posts about this are creating records traffic and high comments
unlike yours – most of them have been very positive or helpful or poke holes in the theory but not the poster
View all comments by sideshowBOB
One thing that’s so True… Farangs are worse than some of the BG’s. I wouldn’t trust’em to make me a cup of coffee. Some are just rusting, bitter dicks.
And they are the ones who seem to have bought the girl a house, a pickup truck and in the end lost everything. So they go around telling people what a shitty country Thailand is and go out of the way to discourage people who want to take a shot at living/ starting a business here.
A great example of success are the burnouts who run this site and the Mango. They seem to be doing it right and took what Tony Montana said to heart… “Don’t get high off your own supply.”
They seem to be lasting longer than the average farang doing business in Thailand. It doesn’t appear that they have their heads buried in the fridge drinking the supplies away, instead they got it buried more in pussy.
Then again… i could be completely wrong and they are the ones extorting Tesco’s.The only thing they are getting high off of is the smell of pussy fumes.
I’ve backtracked all the articles on this site and its one of the best resources. From the shut down in Nana to the rebuilding stage just a few soi’s away.
I’m surprised they let actually post the shit i write cause I’d be the one for the downfall of tfs2m.
As for PG contributing; the guy has talent. C’mon… the guy has his shit together. I’m sure anyone who has followed him in his writings can tell if he’s throwing shit in your face.
*after writing this bias post i hope i get a discount on burgers*
View all comments by Canadianboy
When I say, burnouts… its in a good-hearted way. Take no offense.
View all comments by Canadianboy
I thought the late Steve B at Mermaids started all this zero to hero stuff….
View all comments by MSB
I’ll second ssB on what he said and I don’t even dive and I figure CB’s remarks could have gone even farther.
World-wide, it seems that expat communities are either supportive of their new and wounded members or they peck at them like a gaggle of whiskey-warehouse guard geese.
Where’s the love I ask ya?
View all comments by Prufrock
Dive instructor along with teaching English is one of the few ways Joe Blow can work his way around the world. Guess which is the most fun? It was my choice when I was in my 20′s and I had a blast. Someone asked about pussy? Yes I got loads. You’re not supposed to drink before diving so girls learning are relatively tea-total until they pass. On the night after their last dive they’d get fucked up and it was odds on that I’d get a shag. It was a fantastic way to score because usually the girl would be moving on the next day.
I stopped in my 30′s because I wanted to make some real money and my taste in women had become more focused and my sex drive had decreased. I learnt in Egypt and had more free pussy there than any other country.
View all comments by Poodle
I thought 6K to 10K US sounded reasonable. I did the open water PADI course years ago and it certainly wasn’t free. I would imagine you’ll spend at least that or more on similar diving courses in the west, plus these guys will help you get your VISA sorted. Sounds reasonable. I’d still check around and see what else is on offer, but if it’s much cheaper than that then it might come down to “you get what you pay for”.
View all comments by MonyetNakal
Hi all, sorry for the late reply. Been offline for about a day…
H.T. — If you got the money and the time, the p is just what you have when you’re not diving. Or you get lots of tourist girls to choose from.
B.B. — Great points, thank you. The money is a bit better over here at Open Water courses are what people come to do.Gear not so much. But all your other points are absolutely true and reasons why diving kicks the butt out of English teaching.
Dreamlord — Thanks man. Will catch you on the e-mail, as well as lots of others of you who wrote me today. Will be knockingout replies ASAP.
DONALD – The price shown here was just the overview and I did note that you do need to check the site. Sorry, but once you do you’d see you are actually quite wrong. $6,000-$10,0000 is very affordable when you consider that, in addition to the courses and materials, you get UNLIMITED DIVING 7 days a week. That alone covers the costs when you look at what dives costs per day elsewhere. You also gat a full set of equipment and and all your accommodations, plus job placemnet, visa assistance and about 17 courses… Plus what Dreamlord said after.
CB — Soi 6 = Muff Diving, Muff Diving, Muff Diving, Muff Diving, Muff Diving, Scuba Diving, Muff Diving, Muff Diving, Muff Diving…
BillGates — There’s many ways to reloacte. You pay someone no matter what you do. Some people want an option where its all done, in one place, for them.
MSB — There are lots of companies around the world trying to do the same. As with anything — computers, cars, search engines, etc. — who does it first is not important. Who does it best is.
Again, this wasn’t really an advert as it was a chance to ssB to do what he’s done before: Help a friend during tough times when they needed it. The offer had been made numerous times before, but I thought with the two posts this week, it offered me a chance to help others who want to make the leap.
Peace.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost
Interesting post.
Appreciate Ghost giving us an illuminating insight into ways of living the dream.. English teaching isnt for everyone, after all..
View all comments by ziggypop
Presumably all diving instructors working in Thailand need a work permit? Is it straightforward getting one? Perhaps the steps that need to be taken to work legally in Thailand should be posted.
View all comments by Brewsterbudgen
Good point Brewster and one I expected someone to bring up at some point.
The simple answer is “yes,” to work legally in Thailand, you need a work permit. However, in reality, it’s not so simple.
Most dive instructors in Thailand do not have one and in most places, immigratin does not check. It really depends on the area you’re working in.
In Phuket, there is a local program that allows dive shops to obtain floating permits. Thus your shop will assign you a permit and charge you a fee out of your monthly salary of a few thousand baht.
On Phi Phi Islands, no one has permits, there is no immigration office and no one cares.
IN Pattaya, immigration solicit bribes all the shops to offer “protection” so as long as they get their monthly payoff, they don’t hassle the shops, as long as the instructors aren’t doing something dumb like sitting behind the counter and taking cash for retail sales, etc.
Shop owners, like me, obviously have one. Guys/Gals teaching? Not so much.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost
aren’t the wrong people getting bribed here? i thought work permits were issued from the ministry of labour, not immigration. i’ve heard a few stories of labour officials paying calls to farang outfits and causing all sorts of trouble (usually as a result of an angry former thai employee)
View all comments by generous sponsor
They are, but immigration checks if people have the permits. They shake down all the dive outfits in town, some more than others. I have a well-connected Thai-lawyer, so we get off easy.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost
I only make the post BTW to warn off the hornets that prey on the stupid cunts that couldn’t get laid in their homeland. Then, they come to Thailand eventually and get laid miracously. Fucking hell.
Yeah, come to Thailand. You will become wealthy and get laid….
Go to the moronic Pattaya Ghost diving school…
That’s what most cunts do…
Adverts are a no,no in Thailand
View all comments by John Brown
Canadian Cunt.
… it sounds like you “about” to get
View all comments by John Brown
I’m currently pondering moving to Bangkok. Originally from Australia I currently live in Boston, and am luckily enough to be able to work from almost anywhere.
I run my own company and deal with people in a wide variety of countries, Thailand being one. I just had a very nasty breakup with my GF in Boston and as she was the reason I moved there in the first place. Although I really like the place the ties to the place are not so strong.
So here are my ponderings on making the decision. I lived in Bangkok for about three months 7 years ago, so am pretty sure I can make it work.
It would cost me about 10% of what I currently pay for a much nicer apartment in BKK. Boston is not a cheap town to live.
New Englanders are not very friendly and I end up hanging out with all the expats anyway, so I would just be swapping out one set of expats for another.
The winter in Boston is oppressive and I’m sick of digging the driveway and the sidewalk out every few days!
I travel a lot to Europe for work, but I also travel to Australia, and various Asian cities, so it’s a balance of costs and time and energy.
All in all, I’m pretty sure I’m going to do it. The key factors really are that my cost of living will be so much less, and I think my quality of life will improve considerably. I’m in a perfect position to make this choice and I appreciate that not everybody is. I am my own boss, I have no employees and my business runs from my laptop.
Bangkok is ideal for my scenario.
View all comments by wineguy
Wineguy — Sounds like you are in a good position indeed. I have only one concern: Have you looked into getting a non-immigrant visa and work permit? I’m not sure how easy it would be to obtain these items as a self-employed man with no Thai employees. How did you do it seven years ago? Were you working here?
View all comments by Ling
Ling, I’m still working out the mechanics, I have a friend in BKK who is a lawyer and is working on this for me.
He has said that I essentially have a couple of options. One to do the visa run thing, which for me isn’t an imposition as I spend half the month on the road anyway. The other option is to set up a shelf company and employ some people and take my business in another direction. I operate a export consultancy so it isn’t such a stretch. Regardless it’s easier than going through the hoops here in the US.
View all comments by wineguy
1-year visas are a slam dunk. And work permits are no problem as long as you have the money. Usual fee for company setup, with Thais, and work permit is 50,000-70,000 one time and then monthly paymetns of about 8,000 baht.
We handle the vidas for people and can refer to the right guy for the company and work permit if desired.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost
Thanks mate, will let you know when I’m further down the track.
View all comments by wineguy
@wineguy – 1 year Type-O other at a consulate (not an embassy) and skip the paperwork. Everything else ends in tears for telecommuters, or rich lawyers and accountants. You might be able to get more legal with arcane corporate structures setup to employ yourself, but you are just shooting yourself in the foot and you are better off just keeping everything offshore and staying here as a long term tourist forced to go on holiday every 90 days.
View all comments by Cabby
Great article of one route to potentially making it in the land of smiles.
I don’t care if this blog came off like an advert, why not i ask? it was decent of the Big Mango to give PG some column inches!
Point is so many people who have been to Thailand search feverishly online for avenues into Thailand to possible settle and enjoy all that is Thai.
The cost aspect i worked out is around £6.5K (sterling) for a year, with courses, accommodation, equipment, visa/ permits and assitance i think it’s a lot of money to pay upfront, but over the course of the year im sure a person will see that it is pretty good value for money. Where else whould you get all of this in such pleasant surroundings for just over £500 a month?
As already pointed out by a contributor to this thread – i too would also prefer to do my training in Thailand than the bloody UK (no need to give you the usual shopping list of reasons why)!
Thanks PG, when i have the means to give this a go i may just contact you and find out what i should do next.
Now, wheres that lottery ticket i bought?
View all comments by Eddie T
Being a long term expat in Thailand is for people that HAVE money already not really for those trying to MAKE money. Living above the squaller/Pad Thai baseline requires deep pockets, a full expat package job with a multinational corporation,an emabassy/consulate job or a trust fund. If you are under 40, the opportunity costs are just to great and chances are you will end up one as one of those huch back 60-somethings attached to a beer barstool bitching about the price of a Singha in your ‘golden years’.
View all comments by Spermacide