François Hollande rolled into town for the World Future Energy Summit here recently, but hardly anyone noticed. There is little enthusiasm for his thoughts on clean energy deployment. In any case, in Dubai we prefer D-list celebs to A-list politicians. Just over a year ago, Kim Kardashian brought Dubai to a virtual standstill for two days when she opened a shop called Millions of Milkshakes, and bagged £125,000 for her troubles. But that doesn’t mean politicians can’t make money here. Local media reports that Gordon Brown earned £75,000 for a speech in the UAE last year, disclosed in the Register of MPs’ Interests. Not as good as Kim’s rate, but not bad. I get a call from Sheeraz Hassan, the owner of Millions of Milkshakes. ‘You seen that story? Is that Gordon Brown bloke still famous? I’m thinking of bringing him out to Dubai, what do you think?’ he asks. ‘He would probably come,’ I reply, adding: ‘I think he’s still promoting his book Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation.’ ‘No, no, no,’ says Sheeraz. ‘Nobody in Dubai gives a damn about that. I’m opening another branch of Millions of Milkshakes. The thing is Kim’s pregnant, she can’t come. There’d be 50 grand in it for him.’
To the ‘seven-star’ Burj al Arab hotel for afternoon drinks. The Skyview Bar on the 27th floor, suspended 200 metres above the ocean, has some of the best views in town — and definitely the highest prices in the world. The bar’s ‘27.321’ is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the most expensive cocktail on the planet. It is a mix of Macallan 55-year-old single malt natural colour whisky, dried fruit bitters and homemade passionfruit sugar. The resulting cocktail is then served over ice cubes made of water from the Macallan distillery in Scotland, along with an oak stirrer made from a Macallan cask.
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