It’s something that many people fantasize about – having a million dollars. A million
dollars certainly opens up more possibilities of what you can do. On our first “What A
Million Dollars Gets You Around the World” show, we looked at the costs of things typically
associated with millionaires such as private islands, yachts, and expensive homes. For
this show, we challenged one of our writers to find weird ways to spend a million dollars.
Our writer’s family has been nagging him to buy some new clothes, so clothing is the
first item on his list. His first stop is Rankar Jewellers in Pune, India. He read a
BBC article about how craftsmen at Rankar Jewellers custom made a gold shirt for a wealthy
Indian businessman named Datta Phuge. The velvet-lined shirt weighs about 7 pounds (3.3kg).
It is made from woven gold cloth and took the labor of 16 people to create it in 15
days. The shirt costs $250,000, so he could buy 4 of them for a million dollars. However,
he considers buying just 3 gold shirts so he’ll be able to do what Phuge does whenever
he wears his gold shirt -- hire a security guard “to ensure the shirt stays on his
back.”
The heavy weight of the gold shirts does not appeal to our writer, so he decides to travel
to the UK to check out another possibility. Richard Jewels of Manchester and Stuart Hughes
of Liverpool designed a dark gray suit that is a blend of cashmere wool, silk, and something
else – 480 diamonds. Stuart Hughes’s retail website states that “each single cut gem
is 0.5cts” that together “total a massive 240cts,” and the suit “took 600 man hours
to create.” The R. Jewels Diamond Edition is supposedly “the world’s most expensive
suit” with a retail price of £599,000 or $760,598.57. The price of the suit includes
an all expense paid trip “to luxury destinations such as the Arc en Ciel in St Lucia.” However,
the trip does not entice our writer to buy the suit. He thinks about how he would be
better off buying a 4,500 sq. ft. (418 m²) ocean-view home in St. Lucia with 4 bedrooms,
3 bathrooms, pool, and jacuzzi for $995,000 or a 3,466 sq. ft. (322m²) Marassi villa
with a view of the Nile and the Mediterranean Sea on Egypt’s North Coast for $894,521.75.
Speaking of real estate, our writer checks out some unusual property in the United States.
Instead of buying a mansion, why not buy an entire town? The only catch is that the town
is abandoned. There are several ghost towns for sale in the United States. One ghost town
our writer can afford to buy is located in Helper, Utah. There is a description of it
on realtor.com. For $199,000, he gets a 154 acre (62,3216m²) parcel of land that contains
the remnants of the old Maple Creek Mine and the former mining town of Spring Canyon. Relics
of this time can be found on the property, including the foundations of 30 old buildings
and a tramway.
However, the US is not the only place to buy ghost towns. Our writer could buy the Spring
Canyon property as well as an abandoned town in Europe. A home website lists several of
them for sale. For instance, the “abandoned shepherd’s village” of Valle Piola in
Italy with a “dilapidated medieval church” can be bought for $592,000. If he wants to
buy just one ghost town, he can own the entire Catalan village of Llirt in Spain, which consists
of a “fully renovated farmhouse and a total of 44 ruined buildings” for $805,000. However,
even though the towns are empty, that doesn’t mean they are cheap. Our writer is scared
away from buying them when he realizes they could easily become a financial nightmare
of costly renovations and maintenance. He might not be able to pay for their long-term
upkeep even if he turned them into tourist attractions.
All of this shopping has made our writer hungry, so he thinks about getting something to eat.
With a million dollars at his disposal, he has the option of eating some of the world’s
most expensive meals. At a luxury resort called Grand Velas Los Cabos located on Mexico’s
Baja Peninsula, he could buy what is considered to be the world’s most expensive taco for
$25,000. According to Food & Wine, customers get “two tacos wrapped in tortillas containing
gold flakes, then filled with langoustine, Kobe beef, Almas Beluga caviar, and [. . . ] a
black truffle brie.” In addition, the tacos come with a lavish salsa that contains “Morita
chili peppers, ultra-premium Ley .925 tequila and civet coffee.” The taco can be paired
with “a $150,000 white gold and platinum bottle of Ley .925 Pasión Azteca Ultra Premium
Añejo tequila.” For about a million dollars, our writer could have 40 of the $25,000 taco
dinners or just 5 of them with the premium bottles of tequila. However, he did not want
to eat even just one taco after he learned civet coffee is made of coffee cherries that
are partially digested and pooped out by jungle animals called Asian palm civets.
Another option is to buy the world’s most expensive pudding. The Lindeth Howe Country
House Hotel in England offers a lavish chocolate pudding that costs $34,000. According to Forbes,
it is made of Belgian chocolate, champagne jelly, biscuit joconde, and edible gold leaf.
It is “styled like a Faberge Easter egg” and “decorated with handmade chocolate flowers.”
It is also “served with champagne and strawberry caviar” as well as a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem,
a fine dessert wine that costs around $788 bottle. What makes the dessert really expensive
are the extras, which include “a complimentary night’s stay at Lindeth Howe and an evening
meal” as well as an adjustable 18k rose gold ring “with a deep chocolate colored
2.62-carat diamond.” Although he could afford to buy 29 of these desserts, the problem is
that he is hungry right now, and the pudding has to be ordered three weeks in advance.
He would probably encounter the same problem if he ordered the world’s most expensive
ice cream sundae made by the Three Twins Ice Cream Company. In order to get the company’s
“Absurdity Sundae,” he not only has to pay $60,000 but also fly to Tanzania in East
Africa and go on a “guided climb” to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, which is the
highest peak in Africa. Then he has to wait for the Three Twins Ice Cream’s founder
to make the ice cream by hand with “glacial ice from the mountain’s summit” according
to the company website. At least the sundae’s price includes the cost of airfare, “five-star
accommodations,” “as much ice cream as you can eat,” a “souvenir t-shirt made
from organic cotton,” and a “contribution to an African environmental non-profit.”
Our writer decides to spend the million dollars on something more fun than food and clothes.
He returns to the UK to check out a Gravity Jet Suit invented by Gravity Industries founder
and CEO Richard Browning. There are 9 of these suits on sale at the Selfridge store on Oxford
Street in London. According to one lifestyle website, the suit weighs 59.5 lbs. (27kg)
and is powered by “five kerosene-fuelled gas turbine engines” that “are fixed to
the arms and back of its carbon fiber exoskeleton.” The suit allows the wearer to “fly at altitudes
of 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) with a top speed of 32mph.”
Each suit costs $440,000, so our writer could afford to buy two of them. But why would he
want to buy two? He certainly does not want to give one to his girlfriend. He imagines
her donning the suit during their next argument, hovering above him trying to get in the last
word like the half-woman, half-bird harpies of Greek mythology.
The Gravity Jet Suit has other major drawbacks. One of them is that it has a “flying time
of up to four minutes.” Browning also cautions that it “consumes a lot of fuel and it is
noisy.” How high could you go without running out of fuel? How do you refuel if you are
in the middle of nowhere? Perhaps those questions are answered in the “mandatory training”
that comes with the purchase price.
After going from place to place and leaving empty handed, our writer decides to spend
the million dollars on something he has dreamed about having since he was a kid – a flying
car. While there are several models to choose from, he picks one made by a Dutch company
called PAL-V International B.V. The PAL-V Liberty is a combination of gyrocopter and
three-wheel roadster. According to Autocar Magazine’s website, it has two engines,
one for driving and one for flying. It takes about 5-10 minutes to switch from driving
mode to flying mode and vice versa. On land, its top speed is 100 mph (161km/h), and it
has a fuel economy of 31 mpg (7.6 L/100km) and a range of 817 miles (1315km). In the
air, it has a top flying speed of 112 mph (180km/h), can reach a maximum altitude of
3500m (11,483ft.), and has a range of 310 miles (499km). The PAL-V Liberty costs about
499,000 euros or $560,322 before taxes. Buyers will receive “power heating, personalisation
options and some flight instruction sessions” with their purchase. Although he will have
to pay additional money for vehicle insurance, maintenance, and obtaining a flying license,
he thinks having this great way to get away from his 30-day challenges is worth it.
What would you buy if you had a million dollars? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure
to check out our other video hat A Million Dollars Gets You Around the World! Thanks
for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next
time!