Our Biltmore Estate visit this Summer whet my appetite for a closer look at the lifestyles of the rich and famous. I delayed getting tickets for SHANGRI LA , home of Doris Duke, the richest woman in the world in 1993, till it was too late, but I prayed and asked the Lord God for me to be able to see it anyway. There's is always a couple of people who won't show up, right?
The tour originates from the HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART . So after brunch, we hitched a ride to the museum, got on the tour's waiting list, and sat down with my Hawaii-appropriate blue BV @ their Palm Courtyard to wait. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Were there any available spots for us in their 10:30 AM tour??
The answer was YES! Yes, yes! Yipppeeee!!!! ... but only 1 ticket was available ... oh no! That meant my photographer-son could not come along. I was left with only my cell phone's not-so-great camera for pictures. Oh, well. Que sera, sera. Off *I* went on the 30-minute shuttle bus ride to begin my guided tour of Shangri La; and off son went -- on foot-- to who knows where with only his smartphone as his guide.
The home had heaps of treasures for tourists' eyes to feast upon. Oh, what pretty things Ms Duke's money could buy! She literally created her version of paradise on earth through her home. Ms Duke may have had an empty life (lost her dad at 12, sued her mom, divorced twice, no living children, her butler was her most trusted companion), but her money was invested wisely in Shangri La with us tourists as beneficiaries. We are the recipients of one woman's intense focus on collecting beautiful, rare, intricate, and mostly one of a kind Islamic Art and priceless treasures, with Syria, India, and China thrown in. That was what I found to be the biggest difference between Biltmore and Shangri La. The Vanderbilts' collection was more vast, more valuable, but it was to me a hodge podge collection ... anything and everything that caught Mr Vanderbilt's eye. I enjoyed Biltmore immensely. I enjoyed Shangri La even more because it was one quick intense lesson on a more or less single subject I knew almost nothing about, and I came away feeling that I had actually learned something.
DOOR NUMBER ONE: There were two entry ways as the shuttle bus lets you off at the courtyard. Here is the entry-way to the main building. These are 18th century Chinese smiling Camels Ms Duke bought from Gumps, HI to guard her front door. They were installed in March 1939.
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| via: onegirlsstyle.blogspot |
DOOR NUMBER TWO: The other entrance leads to the side garden -- the Mughal Garden --- which was the door most of Doris Duke's guests entered to get into the house.
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| via: onegirlsstyle.blogspot |
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| ... the view behind the garden door |
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80.07.19.18
