by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
executive editor of the German language weekly newspaper, the Pattaya
Blatt, is a very determined Austrian woman, Elfi Seitz. As the interview
concluded she said, “I want to make the Pattaya Blatt the best German
paper in Asia, no matter what it will cost!”
Elfi was born in Austria, the youngest daughter of a
restaurateur and a seamstress/tailor. Running restaurants had run in the
Seitz family since the 15th century, so it was natural that Elfi was
introduced to restaurant work from when she was old enough to hold two
plates without dropping them (actually from the age of six years). “I
was getting used to life,” said Elfi.
Her parents also ran the business of the local swimming
baths, so Elfi looked first at the business world, and completed a
business degree at college in Austria. However, by the time she had
finished, she knew that this was not her true calling.
She had an eye for art and beauty, and told her mother
she would like to be a cosmetician, and there was a course she could
attend in Vienna. Unfortunately, even though Elfi described herself as
being the youngest in the family and “the spoiled one”, mother was not
going to let her baby face Vienna alone. Permission was not granted!
However, Elfi did also enjoy dress design, interior
design and window dressing and these courses did receive the maternal nod,
and she graduated with qualifications in them all.
Like many young women, she was unable to fully develop
her career with these qualifications, as a man appeared in her life, who
married her and took her to Munich, where she began working in their new
businesses that included a transportation company, an antique furniture
company - and a restaurant! The daughter of the restaurateur was back with
plates in her hands!
For the next nine years she worked hard. Holidays did
not happen, there was too much work to be done! However, eventually she
insisted that she needed a four week break. China had always figured in
her imagination, but the borders were closed, this being 1976. The next
choice was Thailand. “It was inexpensive and exotic,” said Elfi. She
and her lady-friend travelling partner looked at the map of Thailand,
decided that Bangkok looked too big, and said they would go to this town
called Pattaya, because it was close to the sea and had a beach.
So they arrived in Pattaya late in the evening and
hungry. They already knew that there was a curfew, but they were soon told
that Pattaya was a free-wheeling sort of town, and yes there would be
places still open. Restaurants were not the only things that were open -
so were Elfi’s eyes when she inadvertently walked into a go-go bar and
found that the toilets were communal! She also noted that she saw
foreigners sitting around, enjoying themselves in this resort city.
Something quite different from her way of life in Europe. “Wow, this
looks good for a change,” thought Elfi!
Her four weeks in Pattaya were enough for her to look
critically at her situation in Germany and decide that her way of life,
including her marriage, was not really satisfactory. Four months after
returning to Munich she was back in Thailand, looking for work.
“Once a restaurateur, you are always a
restaurateur,” said Elfi, so it was natural that she would open a small
coffee shop restaurant. The first customer was a Peter Malhotra, a man who
was to have much significance in her life over the next 27 years.
In those days, Peter Malhotra worked in the family
tailoring business, and after a year of having many coffees in Elfi’s
coffee shop, he convinced her that she should come and work in the
tailoring business too. After all, she was a qualified dress designer and
window dresser, so she joined Classic Tailors and found herself dealing
with foreign customers, speaking in German and English, and then having to
get those concepts through to the Thai tailors. She apparently began using
the local language quickly, though she did admit, “I had no formal
training. You just pick up a little every day - and I’m still
learning!” (Aren’t we all!)
However, after five years away from Europe, she felt
that she needed to return, and went back into the restaurant business
again, running a very successful operation for the next five years. But
after five years, she had a yearning to return to Thailand, and Pattaya in
particular, where she had so many contacts and so much experience.
Classic Tailors were always in need of assistance, but
by this stage, Elfi was interested in expanding her ambit and took over
running a travel agency, and then began writing for the Pattaya Mail,
newly established by Peter Malhotra, who had also left the family
tailoring business.
Having decided that Pattaya was indeed her home, she
became an integral part of the local expat scene, becoming involved in
many charity organizations such as the PILC, the YWCA, two German speaking
clubs and was also awarded a Paul Harris Rotary Fellowship for her
contribution to many charities in the community. For a while she was
president of the Pattaya Professional Women’s Forum, and then five years
ago became deeply involved in meditation and Reiki healing. Now she runs
two meditation groups, one in German and the other in English. Despite the
Buddhist leanings in meditation, Elfi remains a Catholic, though has a
personal credo that “Religion is made by man, not by God. I believe in
the universal truth.” (If this were accepted by the world, we would all
have a more peaceful existence!)
With the many facets to her life, Elfi remains a very busy person, but
in the little free time that she has, she enjoys reading, both in English
and in German and dreams about travelling one day to Tibet. She is
persistent enough for it to happen (as well as the Pattaya Blatt)!
