new royalty arrived in thailand

- royal enfield flagship store in Bangkok -

me and my lovely half finally managed to buy tickets to thailand few weeks ago, we went and... my 'royal' blood made me check if there is a RE dealer i could visit and say hi. i mean to say sa wat dee kraap :)) there was one. and what one

i contacted the owner of RE, mrs Ployanapat Leenutaphong before going to the trip. if she/they would be interested to meet me and chat a bit and do few photos for my blog. i did that boldly on instagram :) response? positive. YES! let's do this!

meet mrs ploynapat, the proud owner, the queen to rule over the two wheeled royals in thailand :)

we have a saying in my country

"as many languages you know, as many times you are a human being"

and for that reason let's dive into a tiny lesson of thai language

sooo - sa wat dee simply means hello

and because the beautiful people of thailand are super polite they always (often) add a polite word.

a man uses 'krap' at the end of sentences or phrases (spelled out as khrap as well): sa wat dee kraap

if a woman says hello - she uses 'ka' (or spelled out as kha): sa wat dee ka

there you have it. how does it feel to be a human being +1?

i have to start with the feeling you get entering the store. it's beautiful. a truly representing space any brand would be proud to have. you feel that you're not 'accidentally' at some dealer that sells enfields among other brands. this is it. royal enfield, looking sharp. and you are here for your enfield. and they represent the brand and represent it beautifully. it's all about the big gun in the logo and nothing else. it fills you with some sort of pride to 'belong', to talk to people who get it, sell it, live it

i had one pre-photo/interview meeting with ms sudarat songpradit and XXXXXXXX from the marketing dept, we lined out a little battle plan for the photo shoot day and - i DO apologize to them here right now - i was like a kid in candy store, i started to take 'few' photos of the store and got 'lost'. with my camera to walk around and take all that in :D thank you again so much for your help and patience with me!

i have to mention something. little detail because details impress me. i think the little things show how much you care. i had the chance to meet this gentleman there on the first day while he was picking up his new bike. can you remember your happy day? that was a like little celebration, right? and that's my point. it was a big deal for me too to pick up my bike. i saw on my dealer that he didn't care much, he sells bikes every day so how special is it to him. it was special for me but i didn't have a red carpet :) that got me here. i can appreciate something like that. this is how it works. 3 steps: 1. red carpet, 2. thai bow for being a customer and - 3. your smile.. done, it's yours, you know it. you have to grin, you just picked up your enfield! and because it is enfield - the smile won't go away.

note: if you picked up your bike on a red carpet before - write me. yeah, i didn't think so :D

jeff - good luck, enjoy the new chrome head turner!

but now - the main day. i didn't have to focus on the store anymore and this day was all about mrs ploynapat, customers and surprise visit (to me) :) but what an honor. i got there little bit sooner and hey - don't waste time, who are those guys? came to get their bikes? gentlemen, could i borrow you for a minute, if you could just stand here at the wall for a bit :D

as i was just wrapping with the guys i heard mrs ploynapat is on her way and she walked in with few extra people. gentlemen from RE india who were visiting, they were told about 'peter's visit' and came back to the store to meet me. pleasure and honor meeting you, gentlemen! we took more photos, talked a bit, it's all about making enfield friends! and thank you so much to khun ploynapat for the time in your busy schedule. we didn't have so much time to talk but she promised me to stand for few portraits and i cannot be more thankful for that. plus she agreed to answer few of questions in writing i had ready for her.

the little questionaire will be at the end of the blog