Kathmandu: An Upgrade For Christmas

I'm taking a trip down memory lane with a look back at our trip to Nepal last December. For all of the entries about our trek, click here.

{Christmas decorations at the Samsara Resort}

As our trek was nearing its end, D and I mulled over what to do during our final few days after we returned to Kathmandu. We originally considered taking a short trip to Chitwan National Park, but given that we likely wouldn't see any wildlife due to the season, we decided it'd probably be a better idea to just hang out in Kathmandu instead. However, we did decide to splurge a bit, and upgraded from our standard room at the Samsara Resort Hotel to a club-level room at the Hyatt Regency Kathmandu. 

After breakfast at the Samsara and second breakfast at Pumpernickel Bakery, D and I stopped back at Pilgrims Book Shop to pick up a Christmas present for Bharat. Then we returned back to our hotel (where they had started to decorate for Christmas) to check out and move to new digs across town. We originally planned to take a taxi, but given that there was a student strike recently in the area where we need to go through, taxi rates had skyrocketed. We ended up taking the hotel's car service to the Hyatt Regency instead.

Upon our arrival at the hotel's grounds, our car was stopped at the gate and was security checked before we were allowed in. Once we arrived, we were ushered up to the sixth floor where we checked in. Oh my, our room was amazing. Perhaps the best part was the huge bathroom with both a ginormous shower (with plenty of hot water) and soaking tub. The first thing I did upon our arrival was take a nice long bath. One bonus of staying at the Hyatt was that their electrical power was pretty much seamless. Due to an overtaxed electrical infrastructure, Kathmandu has multiple power outages during the day (and night). The Samsara typically ran their generator when the power went out at night, but during the day, when the power went out, that was pretty much it until it came back on. At the Hyatt, the power would go out for a short second before the generator kicked in. Pretty nice!

{Hyatt Regency Kathmandu room and ginormous bathroom}

In the afternoon, D and I headed to the hotel's restaurant on the bottom floor for lunch. We both opted for Western meals -- fish and chips for D and a tomato and mozzarella panino for me. While there, we decided to sign up for the hotel's Christmas Eve buffet dinner. Prior to dinner, however, we headed to our floor's lounge area for the evening cocktail and hors d'oeuvres hour at 5p. I may or may not have tried just about one of everything on offer. After stuffing ourselves (okay, myself) silly, we headed downstairs for dinner. The buffet dinner featured a wide variety of options including Mediterranean fare (hummus, tabouli, and the like), traditional Christmas dishes (roast turkey with all the fixin's), and traditional Nepali fare. D and I enjoyed our dinners along with glasses of mulled wine. We completed our (beyond satisfying) meal by sampling several of the desserts on offer. After reaching our fill, we basically rolled ourselves back to our room for the evening.

{lunch, cocktail hour, and Christmas Eve buffet at the Hyatt}

{Christmas Eve}