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Beach Babylon

Beach Babylon

by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous

Corgi, HK$102

If this is your introduction to the Babylon series you will stop at one. A so-called expose of five-star holiday resorts, Beach Babylon reveals 'the scams, the drugs, the excesses, the mark-ups' of one unnamed hotel with 140 villas ranging from US$1,500 to US$6,000 a night. Imogen Edwards-Jones wrote the book with the help of an anonymous manager of the resort. Unfortunately what he told her would surprise few. So we have snooty guests making ludicrous requests (for boats, nannies ... one Russian customer books a sandbank) and inane complaints. Then there are the crises: not one drop of Dom Perignon until the next shipment days away, or staff affairs that lead to surprise resignations. Less boring are the revelations of rip-offs, for example concerning champagne: a US$62 bottle is sold for US$1,600 to holidaymakers too pampered to care. Should you hanker for such experiences at least make sure you have a little star beside your name on the guest list, which means you know the owner or a member of his family. Beach Babylon may reveal a parallel world of excess but it offers no vicarious thrills to lift it above tedious.

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