Continued from yesterday”¦ We saw several cars escorted by police on the other side of the highway, clearly important officials that were leaving Nusa Dua to go to their hotels or sightseeing.

Just like in Denaru, you have to go through a security checkpoint to get into Nusa Dua when entering by car. The security guards eyed us carefully, checked the trunk, and walked down the length of the car holding a mirror to make sure there was nothing hidden under the car. They waved us through. Nusa Dua was exactly what we expected, with a golf course and perfectly manicured walkways set in and amongst posh, widely spaced hotels.

As we neared the conference center, traffic came to a grinding halt. We got out of the cab and made our way to the Westin grounds. It was 17:00 (5:00 pm) and the conference must have just ended for the day because there were masses of people, all wearing badges, leaving the Westin’s grounds. We eyed the badges, thinking maybe we could make some replicas.

There was a security checkpoint at the entrance to the grounds where our bag was carefully searched before we were waved through. The conference center is in front of the hotel. It has several entrances, but the entire building was surrounded by temporary chain link fencing blocking access to all doors and windows. The fencing was tied to the trees, which we thought was funny. Check out the cute little solar powered car on display. The “trailer” is a bank of solar panels.

We followed the flow of people going the other direction to the hotel entrance. Another security checkpoint where our bag was searched, we walked through a metal detector, and we were meticulously wanded down. Wow. We had made it into the lobby of the hotel. The lobby was crowded with people hanging out in small groups and chatting. Most people were dressed in business attire, a few in business casual, a few in jeans and t-shirts, and a few in distinct ethic attire, such as Indian and African. We tried picking up snatches of conversations, hoping to get some good inside info, but we just heard small snatches of conversations, none sounding particularly important. We didn’t see anyone we recognized, but in all honesty, while we may know some of the bigger names, we probably would only recognize Al Gore and Kevin Rudd by face (Kevin Rudd only because there were campaign ads for him everywhere in Aus). The place was crawling with security from hotel security, to Indonesian police, to UN police, to secret service guys in suits and ear piece.

As we wandered the hotel, we realized that we were the only people in the entire building that did not have a conference badge. We turned a corner and found the entrance into the conference, where the hotel is connected to the conference center via a walkway. We got close enough to see there was yet another security checkpoint, and at this one you actually had to scan your badge to get in the door. Guess they won’t be so easy to reproduce, after all. We quickly turned around, not wanting the guys at security to see we had no badge.

We continued wandering around, then sat in the lounge for a bit, then decided to get dinner. There is a Japanese restaurant in the hotel that does teppanyaki (where the chef cooks the meal in front of you. Usually there are 8 people to a table and they seat non-affiliated groups together to come up with 8). We had high hopes that some delegates would sit at our table for teppanyaki and that we would be able to talk to them, but no such luck. We were alone at the table. There were a few small groups at tables in the other part of the restaurant, but in eavesdropping it was casual conversation, not UN or environmental talk.

The chef came out and asked if we were enjoying the conference. We told him we weren’t part of the conference and he looked shocked. He couldn’t believe we had made it part the first checkpoint without a badge, let alone the second checkpoint. He said every single person staying in this hotel was part of the conference, and no one not affiliated with the conference was allowed in under any circumstances. He told us that the restaurant has been packed for lunch daily and that they have had a large party of very important people for dinner each night, but no one at the conference had gone for the teppanyaki.

A few minutes later a couple security guards came and pulled aside a few restaurant staff. After what looked like a briefing, a large group came into the restaurant and was quickly ushered into a private room. The chef said a couple of them are high up Korean delegates. A secret service guy was posted outside entrance to the restaurant, and another at the door of the private room. The second agent was literally only 10 feet away from us. We tried to shift our bodies so he couldn’t see we were missing our badges and kick us out. We realized then why security needed to be so tight, because in all honesty, we could probably have tackled the guard with our steak knives and broken into the room with the delegates.

A couple of times people walked by completely surrounded by 4 or 5 body guards, so obviously they were important, but no one we recognized by face. Dinner was excellent, with prices comparable to Benihana in San Diego crazy expensive by Indonesian standards but to be expected from a hotel catering to people used to those kinds of prices. The chef convinced Christi to taste a fried shrimp head. Since she is always preaching that you can’t say you don’t like a food until after you taste it, she took a deep breath and took a small bite. She didn’t like it.

After dinner we decided to head back to the marina. While being in the thick of the action was exciting in and of itself, there really wasn’t much going on for us to see. We had high hopes of seeing Al Gore, but we accepted the fact that he probably wasn’t going to come out for us tonight.