Dubai's still got it, at least when it comes to offering the kind of largesse, luxury and opulence that can impress even a pampered multi-millionaire like Kim Kardashian.
Fans of the Kardashian clan in the UAE will have to wait until next month to watch an episode of one of their four reality shows featuring Dubai.
But footage of the four-day stop in October by the 30-year-old superstar of the family and her mother, Kris Jenner, aired on Sunday night in the US on Kourtney & Kim Take New York. The show's second season only launched in the UAE on New Year's Day, meaning the episode should air here on February 12.
In it Kardashian oohs and ahhs over first-class treatment aboard Emirates airlines – "Oh my God you are going to die when you get on this plane," she tells her mom, who (luckily) was on a separate flight – and is greeted by Sheeraz Hasan, who brought the duo over for a high-profile opening of his Dubai Mall Millions of Milkshakes outlet.
"Everything in Dubai is so stunning," says Kardashian, while being escorted into a luxury suite at Atlantis, The Palm. "I'm so excited to be here."
She was welcomed with what could have been world's largest bowl of fruit as well as a personal butler. After one summons with the press of a button, Jenner claimed he was so "cute" she was going to take him back to the US.
In one scene, a pair of fans in a Dubai taxi wave at Kardashian and Jenner in their limousine.
"Look at their faces, they're frantic," says Jenner.
Cameras also capture the crowd of an estimated 3,000 people who turned up to the store opening at Dubai Mall, many of them having waited for hours.
"There are so many people just like, screaming. It's so crazy..." says Kardashian. "It's a pretty special moment."
The segment of the episode that is getting the most attention internationally, however, shows Kardashian admitting to major cracks in her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries. In one scene before she leaves New York, the professional basketball player asks if he can come along.
"Kim does not want you to come," older sister Kourtney tells him. "She is so excited for this break."
During one particularly long, dark limousine ride in Dubai, Kardashian confesses to her mother that she is unsure about her new marriage to the 26-year-old Humphries and admits that being away from him felt like a "huge relief".
"There's something in my relationship I just feel isn't right," she says. "I don't know, I'm just learning a lot of things about him that I didn't really know before. I don't know, married life just isn't just what I thought it would be with him. I mean, is this normal? Should I be feeling this way? I just feel like something's off."
Insert awkward pause before Jenner replies: "No Kim it's not normal. It really isn't normal to feel like you don't want to go home to your brand-new husband. This is the stage in your relationship where you should be obsessed with each other."
But it's a new year and all that is over – along with the marriage, which Kardashian dissolved two weeks after leaving the UAE. So when she took to Twitter while the episode aired it was to call the visit "epic" and thank Hasan for organising it.
"I miss Dubai!" she wrote. "Such good memories! Need to go back soon!" Humphries tweeted a grumpy "I can't wait for the truth to come out".