Pro Dive - Cairns, Australia

This adventure started out back in October. Through what I thought was thorough research. I happily booked a dive trip for myself, my sister and my friend. Both my sister and I were booked for open water dives and my friend for the open water course. We had booked through an agent, Aquapro Dive Travel, AquaProDive.com, because they were offering a slight discount, however the five trip costed us $620 AUD and the OW course $740 AUD.

As we arrived into Australia from Canada, we landed in Sydney where we spent a few days vacationing. The day that we planned to fly to Cairns, Quantas had a labour dispute and shut down the airline that weekend. As a result of this, our flight was cancelled and we could not get to Cairns. I immediately called Pro Dive and explained the situation, however they were apathetic to the reason and told us that because we didn’t cancel within the 48 hours of our plans that we could not receive a refund. I was extremely disappointed.

Pro Dive then offered to credit our money for a period of six months so that we could use it again at a later date with the stipulation that we could only use it as a wait-list for their boats. I did not have much of a choice and therefore accepted. Upon my return to Canada, I began to make plans for the next trip to Cairns to try again to make this great GBR dive.

I kept in contact with Pro Dive over emails throughout my winter months and we came to the conclusion that March would be the best time to go as it was their low season. My sister and I made plans to fly around the world again. We were assured time and time again that the dates that we had planned would be great and that we wouldn’t have a problem with getting on the boat. We had put our names down on their lists for the option of 3 different days and started our travels with confidence.

Prior to our departure from Canada, I reconfirmed with Pro Dive that the dates we listed for would be available and they assured me that we should not have a problem. As we arrived through Hong Kong on our connecting flight, I received an e-mail from Pro Dive saying that things were not looking good anymore but they were trying to keep a couple spots open for us. I was worried and replied that we would be there within eight hours.

As soon as we arrived to Cairns, we immediately went straight to the Pro Dive Shop and introduced ourselves. Nicky, the lady that helped us out immediately provided us with a smile and began to explain that the dates that we had selected were all booked up.  Disappointed and frustrated I asked her if there were any more available, she explained that there was an opening on a Sunday (We had listed for thur, fri, and sat). I jumped at the opportunity, however frustrated because now I knew I would have to re-arrange all our flights, accommodations and my work schedule back home, but I flew around the world just for this trip!

Nicky tried to book us for the Sunday trip however she ran into problems and could not. She called the head office asking for help when they started to explain to her that she was not allowed to put my sister and I on the boat and that we had to be wait listed. The only way was for us to pay for the whole trip again to be confirmed. I was outraged!! I’m standing right there in front of them having travelled for nearly 20 hours and they tell me that they can’t put me on the boat. Nicky then continued to tell me that they were having a special that week and that the trip was cheaper than it usually is, $535 AUD. Although her intention was good, her impact was not. Why were they discounting the trip to fill the boat when they assured me that they were trying to keep the spots open for us before we arrived?!?!

This was absurd! I travelled around the world to use money that I already paid them in confidence that they were going to help us out in getting us on a boat for a range of dates that they confirmed were a good idea. They then would not put us on a boat when I arrived knowing that  I was the one that had to change all my plans (at a hefty financial cost) to accommodate for them. They then said I had to pay again!!!!!???!!!

I was naturally upset, however, I remained calm and tried to reason with them. They had already taken my friends money with no regard or refund, and were trying to swindle more money from us. I offered to pay them a premium (of about $100 AUD) to confirm our spots on the boat for Sunday, however they refused. After a while of pacing and realizing that I did not want to miss this opportunity having flown around the world, I tried to make other compromises. I asked if I could have the credit made transferable so that if I could make this trip I could at least give it to a friend of family member, they refused. Finally, I said that I would pay the price of the confirmed trip providing that they take the monetary value of the credit and give it to the crew as a gratuity. The business had already taken my friend’s $740 AUD without providing services, why should they take our money as well?!? I was more than happy to make this deal because I could see that Nicky was frustrated too and that she did want to help us. The company still refused!!

At this point I was very angry. My sister was in tears and I knew that I had a lot of work to do in order to change all our plans and still have to pay the full (but discounted for this week!) price to make this dive happen. Here came the biggest mistake I made, I paid for the trip in full, again!!

Their consolation was that they would keep our credit live for another 6 months and now offer transferability of the name, but why would I let someone go through the exact same experience I just had?!?

I am really disappointed in the way this business is run. I understand that every business is out to make money, however this business pretty much bullied my money out of me. My mistake was letting them do it. Every business will come into contact with extenuating circumstances, it’s how you deal with those circumstances which speak loudest.

-When Pro Dive refused to give us a refund or even partial returns, they acted like a greedy company.

-When they were told that my friend could not return for a second trip to Australia from Canada, they refused to allow any transferability of his credit and said that there was nothing they could do.

-When they told me that they were doing everything they could to hold our spots for our arrival, tell us that it’s a good time to travel, then say that the spots were full, and I find out they were offering a special week discount to walk-ups for those dates that we had agreed to, they were being UNTRUSTWORTHY, DECEPTIVE, and MANIPULATIVE.

-They would not empower their own employees to do what they knew was right.

This company is not reputable in my books and I feel like I let them steal from me. I suppose part of the problem was me letting them do what they did to me and now I hope that this won’t happen to anyone else.

The trip went well and their staff was professional, it’s a shame that they have to work for a company that does not put their guests first and is run solely for the purpose of extorting money from their customers. The way I was treated by the company makes me feel bad for the way they may treat their own employees.

It is my recommendation as a traveler, diver, employee of a major airline, that this company is not well run.

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS.

I know that I am not alone in similar opinions as when I spoke to other in the region while I was there, many people did not have a good opinion of them, had I known this, I would have never booked this trip with Pro Dive. Do not make my mistake! There are better businesses out there that deserve your hard earned money!!!

GBR Diving

Great barrier reef... Wow, what a season to go diving, torrential down pours, big waves, low visibility... It definitely was not what I was expecting.... I'm quite disappointed. And to top it all off, I had quite the case of sea sickness. It was quite the trip. I'll post of pics of the dive and a full review of Pro Dive Cairns when I get back home. I can tell you this though, it won't be a glowing review.

Cairns - day 2

So, we hired a car and drove up the coast to Daintree Village which was a bit of a disappointment. We were hoping to visit the rainforest which I think we were driving through but never really got a chance to actually walk through it. To actually see the rainforest, you had to take a ferry to cape tribulation which also required a 4x4 vehicle... We had a hyundai Getz.

So after driving a couple hours in massive rain, the likes that Canada would never see, we stopped at the shannonvale winery. This place makes wine from exotic fruits, not grapes. We enjoyed a free wine tasting of wines made from pineapple, mango, sapote, ginger, and purple mangosteen. They were definitely unique and I ended up purchasing some ginger port and mango wine. I've yet to figure out how to get them back... Lol...

We stopped at Kuranda and visited the Barron Falls which was quite spectacular. Finally, we came back to Cairns and capped off the evening we a drink and headed to bed early.

Day 1 in cairns...

Wow what a day so far. We landed and headed straight for pro dive to check on our diving trip only to be disappointed that the days we wanted were full... Ugh. Now I have to resched all my air fares and lose out on a day of work, I'm extremely disappointed.

Pro dive was not much help in the matter ad made it quite difficult to work things out... Nicky, the front desk girl that we talk to was super friendly, what this company misses out on is empowerment. How can you entrust loyalty of customers without empowering your employees to make the tight decision. Due to the situation, we could not use the credit that was extended to us by the company for our five on Sunday, forcing us to pay full price for the trip. This is a loss of 620 Australian dollars. I had tried to make two concessions, one was to take my credit and give the full amount as gratuity to the boat crew that would be taking me out on the dive or give me transferability. I was disappointed that they chose the later. Honestly, Nicky was good enough trying to help us that I would have tipped her the 620 dollars then let the business keep it. The business thought otherwise.

So after having it all settled, we've walked around cairns all day and are trying to figure out what to do tomorrow... Winging the next two days... Any ideas for things to do in cairns?

Here's some random photos throughout the day...

Hong Kong - 3 hour layover

Just landed in Hong Kong after a 13 hour flight in economy class on board a Cathay Pacific 747-400. My bum is numb. Managed to watch 4 movies, In Time, Money Ball, and 2 Chinese movies. Service was excellent as is to be expected from an airline like Cathay.

Right now I'm trying to consume a one liter bottle of water before going through security to get to our transfer gate... Why is there a security check point for internal transfers? Anyways...

I'm about half way done the water now... Should go get some food... Got another 8 hour flight to go for Cairns.

I'm a little worried because Pro Dive, our dive company says that their boats are filling up. I guess I won't know until I get there tomorrow.

Enjoy the pics of various randomness as we wonder the hong long airport in the international wing. I swear, if I didn't know better, I would think this place was a mall instead of an airport.

Adventure begins

Alrighty folks, finally on vacation... Mission: to fly to Australia on standby to try to get on a dive boat on standby from cairns to see the great barrier reef. This whole standby thing is pretty unpredictable... Well, it was last time...

I will be blogging from my iPhone for the next couple weeks, so please forgive the formatting issues.

Just landed in Vancouver and are currently waiting for the next leg of the journey, a 12 hour flight to hong kong. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the first meal of the adventure, the inaugural feast, the start of it all...!!

Burger king...

Basil - Calgary

Basil

Here is a delicious place for some pho located in the NE of Calgary just off Barlow Trail and 32 avenue. The short and sweet of this place is...

The restaurant is very clean and presentable. The pho is actually quite tasty and well proportioned. Unfortunately they only have one size. Prices are decent for a Pho restaurant and their sate soup actually has sate flavour, unlike other restaurants that usually just put hot sauce/oil into your soup. I ordered the Pho Dac Biet with sate soup and it was quite enjoyable.

Come on by for a taste. The soup was good, not great, it could have had more flavour but it wasn't the worse that I've ever tasted. In my opinion, it is a worthy bowl of pho in Calgary. It is really tough to write a lot about pho since pho is pho... so if you have never tried it before, just head on out to your local neighbourhood pho restaurant and try some.

Petites - Calgary

344 17 Ave SW

On the joyous occasion of my significant other's birthday, we had decided to make reservations at Petites in Calgary. This is supposedly a french cuisine restaurant that apparently had decent reviews so it was the woman of the hour's choice to head down and give it a good tasting.

We had made reservations for about 12 persons and we awkwardly seated at a mash of 2 person tables pushed together. Large groups is definitely not a speciality of this restaurant. To support that as well, they were insisting that our food choices be limited to a smaller menu that the chefs had apparently pre-prepared for. I found that a little disconcerting that they could not support their full menu just because we were a larger group. It kind of boggles the mind actually, I mean, what if everyone in the whole restaurant ordered something different? Does this mean they would have difficulties in keeping up? It did not really make sense to me. When comparing our limited menu to the full menu, there was not really much of a difference other than about 5-6 dishes that were eliminated, one being the roast canard that the birthday girl really wanted and with some near-begging, was allowed to order, like they were doing us a huge favour or something.

The meal began with complimentary foccocia bread and a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dip. We ordered the beef tartare to start and I had the Beef Tenderloin done at medium-rare. The food arrived promptly and the Tartare was fantastic. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture since I was hungry. I do recommend the tartare though, it was an excellently prepared appetizer. Well proportioned and made with excellent spices, the aromas were delicious as we spread it over some lightly toasted bread.

The beef tenderloin was very well prepared. Succulent and juicy, so tender in my mouth that it felt as though it was nearly melting. It was rich with flavour and a great cut of meat. The potatoe puree ( also known as mash potatoes to us laymen) was a good side as was the vegetables. Presentation seemed a bit messy and not the most appetizing, most definitely not what you would expect from a classy french restaurant. It was like they just blobbed the mash potatoes on the plate and put the beef on top with a ravioli hat, smothered in gravy. The chef could use a little more creativity.

The plate of duck was even worse for presentation, however it did taste very good as I had a couple bites to taste. The arctic char that the other's ordered had a nicer presentation, however I didn't have a chance to taste it. From their feedback though, it was very well received.

Service was decent. We were served by two asian male servers who seemed well knowledgeable about the dishes that were being served. They were always around to make sure our water was full and made sure that any drink orders or whatever else we needed during the meal was available. Unfortunately, their lack of a french accent took away from the fantasy of french cuisine, however that is to be expected in Calgary.

The mandatory gratuity was added to our bill which is something that I have always despised. I am usually a 20% tipper when the service and food are excellent but when I am forced to pay gratuities I tend to pay down to the last penny. It is a disadvantage to the service staff in my opinion as I have a pretty high tolerance for poor service, after all, I have worked in the industry in the past.

Overall, I would recommend this place for a night out with a few friends or even a date, though not a regularly occurring night out. There is comparable food around Calgary for similar, if not less, prices.

Oyster - Vancouver

I am sitting here at Oyster in Vancouver right now, what a quaint little place. A definite posh Vancouver hideaway. They specialize in oysters and have a great happy hour special for a buck a shuck from 4-7 pm everyday. That's a great deal. Here's a great place for an after work date that is intimate and romantic.

The one server/bartender is busy but helpful.

We ordered the motoyaki and Rockefeller cooked oysters and 10 of the buck a shucks.

Both cooked oysters were delicious, leaving us to crave more... Despite the simple pricing here, I can see myself spending hundreds turning into an oyster myself.

The raw oysters are tasty and worthy of the dollar. They came with an assortment of sauces, cocktail sauce, a Japanese ponzu sauce, a garlic vinaigrette type sauce, and the traditional Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. A yummy combo. I would come back anytime. Reservations recommended as this is a small place. Happy shucking!

Blogged from my iPhone

The Main Dish - Calgary

The Main Dish
903 General Ave NE

We were on our way to the Blue Star Diner, one of my more favorite places for a delicious breakfast, however because we were pressed for time, we headed down the street and endewd up at The Main Dish. This cafeteria like restaurant just happen to be serving a weekend brunch which was quite good and worth a good blog.

First impressions of the restaurant were nice. It was seperated into stations where you would go to order hot meals, deli, soup/sandwiches, and coffee/alcohol. The place was bright with ample sunlight and provided are very confortable atmosphere for a saturday morning brunch.

We found a table and headed straight over to the hot meals station and ordered our food; Quinoa Oatmeal, Ham and cheddar stuffed frenched toast, and their West Coast Eggs Benedict. Presentation was nice and being able to see the food stations and the chefs prepare the meals were well considered atmospheric perk.

The Quinoa Oatmeal was an excellent comfort food. There was a good mix of oatmeal, quinoa and fruit. It was an excellent take on mom's good old oatmeal when we were kids. The consistency was what you would expect however I found that over time it was turn too mushy. I know that's probably normal of oatmeal, however it got pretty thick pretty fast. Good thing is still tasted good.

The stuffed french toast was enjoyable. It was well portioned and had a good ratio of bread to filling. Although enjoyable, it wasn't something that I would remember forever. The combination of savory with sweet was a good idea and it wasn't too sweet for my palate. I am not much of a sweet tooth and this was pretty much the perfect balance.

The west coast eggs benedict was a little disappointing. It was a hard poached egg on a bed of shrimp over a croissant as opposed to the traditional english muffin. The croisant was a nice change, although I would have preferred the english muffin since that is what I would normally expect with an eggs benedict. The shrimp were of a decent size and the eggs would have been much better had they been soft poached. The most disappointing part of this whole dish however was the hollandaise sauce. It was sour to my tongue. So much so that at first I thought it had gone bad but then realized that it was just an over zealous chef and their lemon juice. When it comes to eggs benny for me, it all comes down to the hollandaise and had that sauce been done right, it probably would not have amplified any of the other faults.

Accompanying our meal was their coffee which to be honest, was quite good. I had a double americano and it was rich, bold, and delicious.

What you see in the above photo came out to about $40.

I think I would come back here to the Main Dish. The open concept is great and it's a great place to meet with friends to catch up. The atmospere is definitely a plus here. The only thing is that I would not make specific plans to come here for brunch, a light lunch or afternoon coffee would be my ideal visit to The Main Dish.

Welcome to March...

Where has the time gone? It is already March, two completed months in to 2012 and an extra day to boot. Geez, March is usually an exciting time, Day Light Saving time changes, the onset of spring, and for me, a last quick trip to Cairns, Australia.

With time going by this quick, the end of the world may be approaching too quick. There is still so much that I have yet to do and things that I have not seen. If only I could win the lottery.

A quick one month recap of my blog, I just started blogging a few weeks ago and already my blog has gone international with visitors from Russia, Taiwan, China, UK, USA, and even Hong Kong. Thanks to everyone for the support and remember, spread the word, I'll be sure to fit in a visit some time in my life to your home country.

In the meantime I suppose, I will be stopping by a few great restaurants in Calgary and dropping a few more reviews here before I take off to Australia. I will be sure to keep you all up to date with my adventures. Hopefully I'll have time to stop and get a sim card so I have data access to update this live from down under. Take care folks, and welcome to March...