What can be more exasperating than your private golden elevator on your plane breaking down, forcing you to walk down the stairs?
This is what happened to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz who reached Russia on Wednesday for a four-day state visit.
Saudi king's golden escalator gets stuck after he lands in Russia on first official visit https://t.co/5KFXmyMaN8 pic.twitter.com/S3ood2biLd
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 6, 2017
According to The Independent, 81-year-old King Salman was midway down the elevator, after exiting his flight, when it stopped working. He waited for a couple of seconds but had to ultimately walk down with the help of his aides after it seemed that the glitch could not be fixed immediately.
It was too tempting an opportunity to let go for Twitter without putting out a few punny tweets.
Well that escalated quickly
— Steve Lamb (@STEVEL11361) October 6, 2017
or de-escalated
— The Life of Brian (@mateybloke) October 6, 2017
Saudi monarch steps down
— Robert Chesal (@RChesal) October 6, 2017
— catina (@catina) October 6, 2017
They don’t make golden escalators like they used to.
— Kepa Laca (@kepalaca) October 6, 2017
You know it's a bad day when your golden escalator breaks.
— Kimberley Murray (@Kanadagirl) October 6, 2017
Saudi King’s golden airplane escalator got stuck in Russia. The poor guy had to walk.
— Gissur Simonarson (@GissiSim) October 5, 2017
Howling pic.twitter.com/cpjM7VHYLY
Good thing escalators turn into stairs when they're broken.
— Dennis Nelson (@1NelsonMandelLa) October 6, 2017
Pffft... that always happens with gold. Everyone knows that you build escalators with diamonds
— Callie Smith (@CallieHelm86) October 5, 2017
National Post reported that King Salman "brought 1,500 people, a golden escalator and his own carpets on his historic, four-day state visit to Russia, a person familiar with the matter said." The King has also got his own furniture.
This is just part of the extravagant preparations made for the Saudi monarch's visit.
A Saudi plane has been travelling daily between Riyadh and Moscow to get supplies. Two entire luxury hotels, i.e. the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons, have been booked for visit.
The report also states that some staff members of the hotels have been replaced with the royal staff "who know exactly how they like their coffee made".