There’s carry-on and checked baggage, but what do you call luggage that weighs 506 tons, including two Mercedes limousines and two elevators? It’s just a nine-day trip to Indonesia, but Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz isn’t leaving any of his creature comforts behind.
According to the Washington Post:
The Saudi royal is expected to bring 459 metric tonnes (506 U.S. tons) of cargo with him on his trip — including two Mercedes-Benz s600 limousines and two electric elevators… The Jakarta Post reports that the Saudi group will total about 1,500 people, including 10 ministers, 25 princes and at least 100 security personnel.
But apparently this isn’t excessive, relatively speaking.
While the Saudi king’s colossal cargo hold may seem large, it is not necessarily out of scale with other world leaders. When President Barack Obama visited sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, he was accompanied by 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines, and hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents tasked with helping secure locations in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.
It’ll be the first time in 46 years that the King has traveled to Indonesia, and with that kind of packing checklist, it’s a wonder he travels at all.