Backpackers travelling around central Asia should probably give The Fortress hotel in Sri Lanka a miss, it seems.
The luxury hotel, in the southern town of Galle, has just put what it calls the world's most expensive dessert on its menu.
At $14,500, the chocolate pudding contains a gemstone and is "especially designed for the hotel's exclusive clientele", manager Axel Jarosh told the BBC.
Mr Jarosh explained the reasons for offering the extortionate epicurean offering, which consists of a pedestal holding a model of the Sri Lankan emblem of a fishermen holding onto a stilt.
"We felt that there has been so much negative news emerging from Sri Lanka in recent months in relation to the war," he said, "and wanted to come up with something that was upbeat and fun.
"We have had a positive reaction both locally and internationally to the dessert which we don't think is out of place, even in a country where there is considerable poverty," he added.
He explained that a local design team conceived the pudding with the hotel's high-end guests in mind.
The dessert contains an 80 carat aquamarine stone, as wide as the head of a soup spoon.
