This is a short birthday trip for my beloved fiance in year 2012. I bought this Koh Samui travel deal from Groupon somewhere in May 2012.
3D2N Koh Samui for 2 pax (RM 2,700)
Package includes:
- Return flights with Firefly
- 2 nights stay at New Star Beach Resort
- Daily Breakfast
- Return airport transfer
- 1 x Thai set dinner for 2 persons
- 60 mins oil massage for 2 persons
- Free Wifi
As per terms and conditions stated in the deal, we may need to top up certain amount depending on our travelling date. And hence, we top up another RM 450 due to specific date that we wish to travel.
I would say this is the best deal ever that I bought from Groupon.
Day 1 - 11.11.2012
My first time flying with Firefly!
What to comment about Firefly? Errmmm... The space between each row of seats is slightly bigger than Air Asia and they served nuts and one piece of sandwiches to all passengers. Not a bad experience. Our flight is at 1.35pm and we reach Koh Samui at Thailand time 2.35pm. Not that far, so, it's okay to travel with Firefly.
The airport is small compare to ours in Malaysia. When we stepped down from the plane, they arranged big buggy to send all the passengers to the immigration counter. The airport looks like a resort. Once you passed the immigration counter, you may claim your luggage just right next to the immigration counter and you may proceed to the arrival's lobby. We get confused where to go when we came out to the arrival's lobby. I had send an email to the hotel to ask where should we wait for airport transfer upon arriving few days before we depart but unfortunately I did not receive any reply. Well, it doesn't matter, it's only airport transfer, we can figure it out. What we can see from the lobby is many transport agencies were trying to get customers. We decided to go to the airport transportation counter to get a shared minivan. Not cheap but at least the van is very comfortable. They will stopped each passengers at their hotel lobby.
Along the way going into our resort.
The moment we reached, we were welcomed by a very friendly staff. He helped us to get our luggage and lead us to the reception hall. Welcome drinks and a hot towel were given to us. I'm not so used to be served like a queen. Haha... When we present our Groupon voucher to them only we get to know they had arranged airport transfer for us and the staff is still in airport. But, too bad, we didn't see any and there were too many people at the airport and we didn't know where we should wait.
New Star Resort is located a Chaweng Noi Beach, slightly further down from the very famous town, Chaweng.
The hotel lobby is so cooling~~~ I love it. No aircond, just fan.
Here's our room key.
After the check-in procedure is done, the staff lead us to our room with a buggy. Just a short distance, we can walk~~ =) But the staff are really helpful and friendly. We loved them. Every of them carried a smiling face.
A very BIG bathroom I would say.
These little cute guys at the bath tub already became the symbol of New Star Resort. The resort is collecting rubber ducks from all over the world. Their aim is to have the biggest rubber duck collection in Thailand and Asia. They welcomed every guests to bring their own country's rubber duck and exchange it during their stay at New Star for a free gift. Otherwise, you can send them by mail and they will send your free gift to your house.
Very very comfortable King-sized bed.
Complimentary welcome fruits.
We got no chance to sit at the balcony. There were mosquitoes!
Here's our voucher for the Thai set dinner and oil massage. We had make reservation for the dinner when we check in and we were asked to make a call to the Spa Centre to make reservation after deciding when to have the massage.
We were told by the staff that they will be sending some tourists to the Chaweng town in the evening and he asked if we were interested. Of course we are, free ride!
There were lounges and bars, western restaurants, McDonald, souvenirs shops and stalls, and also massage services along the street.
Everything doesn't look cheap at all. I guests it's because this is tourist spot. We simply get into a restaurant which served local Thai food.
This is what we ordered - fried rice, clams, stir fry kangkung, and the most expensive among all , baked cheese lobster! My first ever experience eating one whole lobster. But the lobster meat is not much. :( Costs us RM 100 ++ for this dinner.
There's no birthday cake to buy, so here we are, Haagen-Dazs! Hehe....
After many times flipping the menu, we decided to go for this. Don't ask me if this is cheap. No, it's not. This is Haagen-Daz, ok?~~
What is the must do in Thailand area? Massage! Yes, we went for foot and neck massage, it's cheap, but I couldn't remember how much. This business is so competitive in Koh Samui as well, so many options. This is my first time going for massage too. You know, I really don't like people touching me, especially people I do not know. But it's good to have some massage for my poor leg after walking so long.
Next, we went to those souvenirs shop to see what can we get for our friends, and also visited their mini mart to see what they sell. Lays at 10 bath per pack and so many flavours! How not to buy it! Many types of alcoholic drinks are available at very cheap price too. We had one apple cider and one Jack Daniel's.
How do we get back to our resort? Good question. Another experience for us, we took a cab. Quite expensive, about RM 30 for just a short driving distance.
So this is our first day!
New Star Beach Resort
Chaweng Noi Beach, 83 Moo 3 T.Bo-phut,
Koh Samui, 84320 Thailand.
Tel: (66) 77 422 407
Fax: (66) 77 442 325
