1,500 people and 500 tons of luggage -- here's how the Saudi king travels

Jakarta: Seven Umbrellas, a golden escalator to get him from his gold-clad plane to the tarmac, 572 workers, 10,000 policemen and five luxury hotels booked.

That a glimpse of what the King of Saudi Arabia needs to visit a country.

King Salman, who prefers to call himsef as the custodian of the two holy mosques, Mekkah and Medina, disembarked from a gold-clad plane via an escalator and had seven aides armed with huge umbrellas to protect him from the rain as he touched down in Indonesia.

Cheering crowds welcomed the 81-year-old on Wednesday as he began the first visit by a Saudi monarch to worlds biggest Muslim nation for almost half a century, bringing with him 1,000 aides and an array of expensive personal touches.

The World has never seen luxury like this. Never before and never will be.

Among his demands for the nine-day trip were a VIP toilet built for him at a mosque in Jakarta and 506 tons of luggage including two escalators and a pair of Mercedes-Benz limousines.

'As the country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia will always have a special bond with Saudi Arabia,' the Indonesia president Joko Widodo told the King at the palace.

The King landed in Indonesia to join an enormous entourage of 620 people as well as 800 delegates, including ministers and 25 princes.

Preparations have been elaborate.

Naked statues at the Bogor palace were covered up before the King's arrival, while local media reported that 150 chefs had been hired to cook for the king's party.

The King will spend a few days in Jakarta and West Java before heading to the popular tourist island of Bali on the Indonesian leg of a month-long Asia tour that's already taken him to Malaysia and which will also see him going to China, Japan and the Maldives.

According to CNN Indonesia, once on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali, the King and his entourage will be staying in three luxury hotels -- including the Bulgari, where the most exclusive villa costs up to $4,400 a night.

The resort also boasts a private beach -- accessible only by an elevator.

459 METRIC TONS OF LUGGAGE

Adji Gunawan, the president of airport services company PT Jasa Angkasa Semestar, said the King will be traveling with 459 metric tons of luggage, the Jakarta Post reported.

For anyone struggling to wrap their heads around how that compares to your more traditional -- if slightly meager by comparison -- 40 pound luggage allowance, the average African Elephant reportedly weighs between 2.5 and 7 US tons.

So take your oversized suitcase, and replace it with two hundred of the world's largest land-based animals.

What on earth does he have in there?

The more unconventional things in his luggage include two Mercedes-Benz S600 and two free-standing electric elevators, according to the Jakarta Post.

This might seem odd, but it isn't even the first time the lavish leader has traveled with an elevator.

In 2015, the King's installation of an elevator on a beach in France caused an outcry, as locals protested its installation as well as the beach's closure, according to Reuters.

The elevators have reportedly already been delivered -- one arrived in Jakarta on February 21 and the other in Denpasar, Bali on February 22.