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Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure
Fifth in a series of award-winning humor books from Travelers' Tales, "Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why" gathers wide-ranging tales from hardy, hilarious, outrageous--and even reluctant--voyagers.
232 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 6, 2026
I have never rated a book prior to reading it before, but I'll start early on this one.
This book has, hands down, the UGLIEST cover I think I've ever seen. It's so ugly I am keeping it face down on the nightstand until I finish it.
It may be the reason why book covers were invented in the first place.
Do people ever burn a book just so they won't have to see its cover again?
Okay, okay...on with the show...
As with any collection, some submissions are better than others.
My problem here is that I was led to believe that most of this book would be funny- and most of it was definitely not.
It was more often just about misadventures on the road and those were, by and large, NOT funny.
Aggravating? Frustrating? Uncomfortable? Unpleasant? Even relatable...but not funny.
I felt, and feel, let down because I expected humor and didn't find it the majority of the time.
It's an decent read for people interested in various aspects of overseas travel- but not very amusing.
Time to get that ugly cover and its contents out of the house and settle into my next hopefully enriching book...onwards and upwards!
This book has, hands down, the UGLIEST cover I think I've ever seen. It's so ugly I am keeping it face down on the nightstand until I finish it.
It may be the reason why book covers were invented in the first place.
Do people ever burn a book just so they won't have to see its cover again?
Okay, okay...on with the show...
As with any collection, some submissions are better than others.
My problem here is that I was led to believe that most of this book would be funny- and most of it was definitely not.
It was more often just about misadventures on the road and those were, by and large, NOT funny.
Aggravating? Frustrating? Uncomfortable? Unpleasant? Even relatable...but not funny.
I felt, and feel, let down because I expected humor and didn't find it the majority of the time.
It's an decent read for people interested in various aspects of overseas travel- but not very amusing.
Time to get that ugly cover and its contents out of the house and settle into my next hopefully enriching book...onwards and upwards!
March 27, 2008
Hyenas Laughed at me and Now I Know Why is a collection of twenty-eight humorous travel stories written by various travel writers. These stories educate, terrify, and entertain readers with cultural miscommunications and misadventures in various exotic locations.
These tales vary from quirky ironic situations such as William Dalrymple's I am an Englishman where the author must translate English with a heavy Indian accent to English to downright dangerous, funnier after the fact, stories such as Patrick Fitzhugh's The Snake Charmer of Guanacaste in which the author must convince another man that a snake is indeed dangerous. Many of the situations are funny after the fact or because they didn't happen to you. Some of the stories will even make you grimace and shake your head but ten minutes later you will find yourself relaying the story to your best friend or your spouse.
It is difficult to choose a single favorite story as all of the stories were enjoyable. I enjoyed Elliott Hester's When Fists Flew on the San Juan Special at the shear idiocy of the entire chaotic flight. I was enthralled and appalled throughout Jono Marcus' It's Dar es Salaam and I Am Not Dead as the author described his ordeals with criminals, police corruption., and border crossings. I think I even learned a lesson or two during that story. I felt a sense of ironic kinship with both Rikke Jorgensen's Ravioli, French Style with unwanted extras in her lunch and Bradley Charbonneau's Hungry? Where that author just wants some chicken.
This book is intended to entertain. Some of the stories contain some potty humor or rather underpants from hell humor. Thus, this book is intended for a somewhat mature audience. Furthermore, some of the stories could scare younger readers into never setting foot outside their own home town. Nonetheless, this is a hilarious book to read while you're on a plane, sitting on the beach, or lounging on your couch. I think this book would even be suitable for one of those days when you need to be reminded that someone somewhere is having a worse day than you.
These tales vary from quirky ironic situations such as William Dalrymple's I am an Englishman where the author must translate English with a heavy Indian accent to English to downright dangerous, funnier after the fact, stories such as Patrick Fitzhugh's The Snake Charmer of Guanacaste in which the author must convince another man that a snake is indeed dangerous. Many of the situations are funny after the fact or because they didn't happen to you. Some of the stories will even make you grimace and shake your head but ten minutes later you will find yourself relaying the story to your best friend or your spouse.
It is difficult to choose a single favorite story as all of the stories were enjoyable. I enjoyed Elliott Hester's When Fists Flew on the San Juan Special at the shear idiocy of the entire chaotic flight. I was enthralled and appalled throughout Jono Marcus' It's Dar es Salaam and I Am Not Dead as the author described his ordeals with criminals, police corruption., and border crossings. I think I even learned a lesson or two during that story. I felt a sense of ironic kinship with both Rikke Jorgensen's Ravioli, French Style with unwanted extras in her lunch and Bradley Charbonneau's Hungry? Where that author just wants some chicken.
This book is intended to entertain. Some of the stories contain some potty humor or rather underpants from hell humor. Thus, this book is intended for a somewhat mature audience. Furthermore, some of the stories could scare younger readers into never setting foot outside their own home town. Nonetheless, this is a hilarious book to read while you're on a plane, sitting on the beach, or lounging on your couch. I think this book would even be suitable for one of those days when you need to be reminded that someone somewhere is having a worse day than you.
December 15, 2008
not as funny as I expected, but still an interesting read. It was great for killing an hour waiting in the car.
November 21, 2010
Collection of humorous travel writing -- Disappointing
October 6, 2011
garbage
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews