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The Hotel on the Roof of the World
- Five Years in Tibet
- Narrated by: Steven Kynman
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
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The Hotel on the Roof of the World
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Summary
The very aptly named Mr Pong had the kind of breath that could stun at over 10 feet.… This wasn’t just bad - there was something rotten down there. Something had crawled in and died. Gunter howled with laughter as he saw the look of horror on my face. It was the best entertainment he had seen since he had watched Chef chasing yaks through the kitchens.
Few foreigners are lucky enough to set foot on Tibetan soil, but Alec Le Sueur spent five extraordinary years there, working in the unlikeliest Holiday Inn in the world. Against the breathtaking beauty of the Himalayas unfolds a highly amusing and enlightening account of his experiences. Fly infestations at state banquets, unexpected deliveries of live snakes, a predominance of yaks and everything yak-related, the unbelievable Miss Tibet competition, insurmountable communication problems and a dead guest are just some of the entertainments to be found at the Fawlty Towers of Lhasa.
Le Sueur, the only Westerner since the days of Heinrich Harrer to spend so long in Tibet, examines the country’s intriguing cultural background, providing a fascinating insight into a country that was only just opening up to the outside world.
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What listeners say about The Hotel on the Roof of the World
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Oli
- 10-07-15
Fun story with interesting historical context
An interesting, amusing story with an easy to listen to narrator. An unusual insight into Tibet.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 24-01-20
Fantastic book!
Amazing story, very humorous and well read!
Really recommend this audiobook if you want to hear about day to day life in Lhasa from a foreigner.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-11-22
The funniest book I’ve listened to
Fantastic book! I laughed out loud so many times, causing weird looks in the middle of a train or street. The narration is superb! And it’s extremely well written.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Matt
- 21-04-14
The best audiobook I have listened to
What made the experience of listening to The Hotel on the Roof of the World the most enjoyable?
The story is brilliant, the narrator gave the book a perfect flippancy and captured the situation perfectly. I have listened to this book several times and is performance is the best of any audiobook.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Hotel on the Roof of the World?
The description of the Chinese airline and the onboard magazine made me laugh out loud.
Have you listened to any of Steven Kynman’s other performances? How does this one compare?
I haven't unfortunately
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
They make running a hotel look easy...
Any additional comments?
Funny and thoughtful. I felt like I was there with him and shared in his experience. Can't recommend highly enough.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 27-05-20
Not to be missed!
Such a brilliant book and it’s nice to have a narrator without an annoying voice!
A fantastic mix of humour, history and great insight into this unlikely hotel. It is one of my favourite books ever. If read this before when I came across a paperback in India, but listening to it has been even better. Brilliant accents and good descriptions with correct pronunciations for the Tibetan villages and historic landmarks have made this even more enjoyable.
I’ll never forget sky burials, Himalayan hamsters and the hard yak cafe!
A must read for all. Especially those wanting a humorous, yet sensitive and informative adventure. I just wish there was an audiobook version of Alec’s Belgian adventures too.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Avid Reader
- 25-10-21
Glorious
A glorious book, witty , observant and poignant about a Tibet we will never see again and read marvellously by an enthusiastic actor who brilliantly captures the cast of the hotel and the story of à young man catapulted into an extraordinary part of the world at a period in history both appalling, and fascinating. There is so much to love and of course so very much to regret. Long live Free Tibet
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Joy
- 25-07-21
Sympathetic view of Tibet - despite culture clash
I really enjoyed this book. The author recounts his experience in Tibet working for Holiday Inn in the late 1980s/early 1990s - I had no idea that Holiday Inn had been in Tibet! It provides interesting insights into setting up and running a hotel in which a company with a very clear policy on how things should be done based on Western ideas tries to introduce them into a country with a very different set of ideas about how to do things. The author also describes his trips to the countryside and how Tibet was changing under the Chinese. The author is very sympathetic to the Tibetans and the situation they find themselves in - yet he honestly admits that he is not a historian nor a detailed understanding of the politics nor know a lot about Bhudism - nevertheless I think that's possibly a strength of the book. I'm pleased to see that the author has written another book which is about his adopted country - Belgium - which I will look out for.
The narrator is also easy to listen to.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cagos
- 22-02-21
A hoot!
There are very few books that actually make you chuckle out loud, and this was one of them. It was both fascinating and comical at the same time and interesting from a political point of view as well - a wonderful insight into a country we know little about.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Miss Sammy K Whitehouse
- 04-09-20
Excellent narration, entertaining book
This book was easy to listen to. The narrator was an excellent story teller, so had me engaged throughout. I learned some about Tibet but the focus of the book was the funny goings on of the hotel. It really was like listening to real-life Fawlty Towers stories.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ian W
- 24-06-15
Must listen to this if you are going to Tibet
Would you consider the audio edition of The Hotel on the Roof of the World to be better than the print version?
No idea! What a silly question!
Who was your favorite character and why?
The author, it is mainly autobiographical.
What does Steven Kynman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Levity
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Not sure
Any additional comments?
Very very good insight into Tibet. Made me less nervous about going!
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