Shangri-la, Doris Duke's home -- 01/17/2015

I've heard of Doris Duke and only had limited knowledge about her or her home in Diamond Head/Kahala area.  My friend invited me to join his group of friends on a tour of her Hawaii home she aptly named Shangri-la.  The tour was conducted thru the Honolulu Museum of Art and we had to meet there then shuttled to the home in Kahala.  We met the tour guide for the 90min tour at the end of a driveway.  The first spot was what's behind a large decorated door..the Mughal Garden.

At first, I was confused since this doesn't look or feel like being in Hawaii.  

You really get a sense that Doris Duke was really into the Middle Eastern Islamic Art.  We were not able to take any photos of the interior of the home where they showed us her bedroom, which was just opened to the public recently and her ornate bathroom that looks like some Middle Eastern bath house.  After the dining room they took us out to the patio. This is just a sampling of the tile work she has.  Her entire home is covered in tile work, some commissioned, some are antiques, and all were purchased from her numerous travels.  

The other side of the patio offers a beautiful ocean view of diamond head.  I only found out on this tour that the surf spot known as Cromwell's is actually the waters fronting her property and named after her husband, James Cromwell.

Here's a panoramic view I took w/ my iphone.   Here's the fencing they recently put up to prevent people from jumping off the walkway wall. 

Here is the pool house.

Here is the outside of her bedroom, the Mughal Suite. 

This is the panoramic of the ocean front home.

We were lead back to the living area thru another ornate doorway.

And so is the end of the tour.  This is her front door I wasn't able to get a photo of when we got there.  This was my last shot before we boarded our minibus back to the Honolulu Museum of Art.  Here's is the virtual tour website you can see the interior rooms that I wasn't able to take photos of.

Our tour included an all day pass of the Honolulu Museum and the Spalding House up in Tantalus so we went to check it out after lunch at the museum.  There was a Ikebana show and these were not your traditional arrangement as this one was huge.