In his grandfather's footsteps

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In his grandfather’s footsteps

Mads and Terry Rahbek traveled in March and April around Thailand and Malaysia to rediscover the places which Mads’ adventurous Grandfather has described in four books that he wrote about his travels among indigenous tribes in Bandong - today Surat Thani - before the First World War.

By Gregers Moller and Terry Rahbek-Nielsen

Apart from being an adventurer and a planter, Olaf Ascanius was also a captivating writer. He wrote four books on his travels among indigenous people in the area.

Around 110 years ago, Mads Rahbek’s Danish Grandfather, Olaf Ascanius, explored the jungle inland from Bandong - today Surat Thani. He arrived in 1909 and spent the next 7 years exploring the jungle and negotiating with tribal elders for elephants and access to teak and rubber. In this capacity he was crisscrossing the land and hills north east, south and west of the Phum Duang river going inland from Surat Thani.

Olaf also set up the sawmill in Bandon for the EAC, based on the teak concessions and deals, he negotiated for the EAC.

In 1916 Olaf returned to Denmark, married, and with his bride Karen came back to Malaysia where the couple stayed until 1927. In Malaysia Olaf was manager of Teluk Merbau Plantation.

Olaf’s son Erik Ascanius followed in his father’s footsteps and began working for the East Asiatic Company from 1951 to 1961 as manager of Padang Maya rubber plantation. He was accompanied by his wife Ulla and during their stay in Malaysia, Mads Rahbek Ascanius was born in Penang in 1956 as the couple’s third child. His older brother was also born in Malaysia – only their older sister was born back in Denmark before their parents moved to Malaysia.

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Mads and Terry Rahbek also enjoyed exploring Thailand during their research.

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We started our search for Teluk Merbau with the hope, but not the surety, that there still was something of it to find

Mads has continued the family tradition of living a globalized life. His wife Terry is a Canadian and the couple live in Canada today.

But the most adventurous of the family was without a doubt Mads’ Grandfather Olaf Ascanius. His books were widely read and he traveled around Denmark giving speeches about his time in the jungle and on the Teluk Merbau plantation.

This was the first place, that Mads and Terry tried to find during their research - and what an adventure!

Mads Rahbek on the stairs of old EAC Headquaters in Bangkok

Teluk Merbau: Wow!

“We started our search for Teluk Merbau with the hope, but not the surety, that there still was something of it to find,” Terry wrote back to friends in Canada and family in Denmark.

“We knew the plantation had been located near a place called Port Dickson, and our internet searches revealed an active business called Teluk Merbau Plantation Limited in the general area. It seemed a good place to start, so we contacted the business by email several times, but received no response. We also found a few variations of the name, Teluk Merbau, in the general area.”

Since Port Dickson and our various possibilities were only 90 minutes or so south of Kuala Lumpur, the couple decided to just head out and find what existed that they could locate.

“Google Maps took us to a small town called Sungai

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Mr. Lim, right, who saved the day by bringing Mads and Terry to the Teluk Merbau plantation where they were allowed in to see the - basically unchanged - house that Olaf Ascanius had lived in.

Pelek. The Teluk Merbau Plantation LImited was near the town and we assumed it to be the remnants of what had been the plantation. Since we’d come on a Saturday and the business was closed, we took ourselves for a little walk down a paved road among the palm trees.”

“The place was rather sad. We came across a few none-too-well-kept houses, passed a barking mother dog, and encountered a lot of garbage dumped at the side of the roadway. Marauding monkeys were all around the area, probably feeding on breadfruit that seemed to be everywhere, chattering in gangs, and transporting plastic bags retrieved from the garbage piles. It was sad to find that such an important place in the family history was now so sad and neglected.”

“Back at our rental car, a nice young woman stopped to ask if we needed help with directions. Her English was very good and we explained our quest and said we hoped to find the remains of the plantation and the house Oluf and Asta once lived in. Mads remembered a photo of a big house on stilts and a circular drive in front of it.”

“Our friend made some calls and eventually had us follow her into Sungai Pelek to meet someone who might know about the history of the area. She wondered if we had papers proving our family ownership of the property, and it took a little explaining to clarify that we did not own the land or the house. We were not on that kind of search.”

“Our friend introduced us to Mr. Lim a local businessman

who immediately understood and asked if we were looking for the place of Andersen, the Old Dane? It took us a moment to understand he did not mean Oluf Andersen Ascanius. Rather, he meant the ‘old Dane’ Hans Anton Andersen, the founder and owner of the Danish East Asiatic Company. He would have been Oluf’s big boss. He would have been the owner of Teluk Merbau.”

“Bless him, Mr. Lim said the Telek Merbau plantation house was still standing and he could take us there. We were thrilled. The house is in good repair and pretty much as it was when Oluf and Asta left it in 1928. It now commands a kingdom of only 6 acres of land, but does have its own tennis court and pool, and some enormous trees (some mango) that are definitely from Oluf’s time. we took as many pictures of the exterior as we could through the metal fencing and wondered aloud if it would be possible to go inside.”

“Luck was on our side again! Norman and Anna and their teenaged son live in the house now. Norman is the property manager who now works for the company that currently owns Teluk. Norman and Anna graciously allowed us into their home. They told us that as the house is a heritage house, not a lot has changed. Stone tiles with stars still pave the front entrance area, and the polished teak flooring is original, as are many of the light fixtures, the

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In the book we would like to show the places he described in his books as well as in the many speeches and slideshows that he held all over Denmark after his return. Ideally, paired with a photo from today, standing at the same spot

A selfie with the Teluk Merbau sign. What a day!

dining room bar, the bannister and the large upstairs deck.”

“ Mr. Lim also took us on a drive around the original Teluk Merbau property. The original plantation lands seemed to be endless. Lim told us that the Teluk Merbau plantation was the catalyst for the town’s existence. It provided employment for local Malay people, attracted thousands of workers from India, and provided business opportunities for the industrious Chinese population who settled there. Originally focussed on rubber and coconut, the town grew up around the plantation. Bordered by the Selangor River and (Badang Landing) the Malay Gold Coast, the plantation covered a space of 20 square kilometers in total.”

“Wow! We said that word so many times yesterday afternoon. When you hear about something for years, but can’t really put it alongside anything actually familiar, and when you see only the occasional old black and white photo to offer a small sense of what it was, experiencing that entity in the flesh can be just a little overwhelming. How is it possible to adequately describe the size of the enormous tree that stands to the right hand side of the house, or the one at the front with the great, thick branches? What does it feel like to walk into your grandparent’s home 100 years after they first moved into it, and 40 years after they both have died? What is it like to touch the trunk of a tree planted by your grandfather - a

tree that now is the size of the house its planter lived in? And when you drive the circumference of the lush, rich land your grandfather once cared for, ‘wow’ is about all there is to say.”

“Wow!” Terry ends her letter that day.

Penang revisited

Of course the hospital in Penang, where Mads was born, was on the long list of places that Terry and Mads planned to visit during this trip. They managed to be there on the very same day on 24 April, that Mads was born!

“We have decided it is time to translate the four books that Mads’ Grandfather write so they can have a wider audience not least out here in Asia,” says Terry.

“In the book we would like to show the places he described in his books as well as in the many speeches and slideshows that he held all over Denmark after his return. Ideally, paired with a photo from today, standing at the same spot,” Mads adds.

When the books are ready to be marketed, ScandAsia readers will be informed of the opportunity to obtain a copy. The 2 other books mentioned above can be bought here: http://scandshop.in.th/shop/category/scandmediabooks/

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