In search of memories

I previously wrote about Dr Heaslett, my friend Diana's late father who worked in a little town in Johor called Cha'ah during the Emergency.

Researching the post, I managed to reconnect with Diana who had since moved to Australia. Then a week or so ago, I received this email:

'Hello!!
I came across your blog during a search for my family history and have enjoyed reading it.... I was so surprised to read about your friendship with Diana Heaslett!! She is my Aunt!! Dr. Heaslett was my grandfather!! I enjoyed reading about what happened to him, I do remember as a small girl him telling me the same story.... thank you so much for writing and including them.... do you possibly have a photo of the street sign named after Dr. Heaslett?? I would love to have a copy if you do- and, if you have anymore wonderful stories of him or my Aunt... I would love to hear them!!
Thank you so much and Happy and careful travels!!!
~Anna Heaslett-Brown'
Well, no more stories of the good Dr Heaslett, but it did set me thinking... And so as I prepared to go up to KL for Alex Yap's farewell, I made the decision to take the scenic route and drive through Cha'ah.

The last time I drove through, Cha'ah was still fairly small, a backwater town with a strange name and not much else of prominence. It seems to have grown in the last 5 years or so though - new double-storey shop houses, more streets, and a larger footprint on the map of Johor than I remembered from before.

Going through the new bits, I spied the Police Station which I had dropped by, asking for the whereabouts of Jalan Heaslett those years ago. I took the next right turn off the main trunk road and found a few new buildings dotted here and there. I recognised the little stadium, now roofed, and turned into the street that I remembered to be Jalan Heaslett, renamed as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

The shops looked very much the same but I could find no street sign to take a picture of. The only one in evidence was faded and I could just make out the current name - not the first prime minister as I had remembered, but Tun Dr Ismail. One doctor's name replaced with another.

I wandered off to have lunch and found an old hawker who remembered the Mat Salleh doctor dimly.

Anna wanted a picture and the one I had taken many years ago had not been unearthed in my brief search before I left. A new picture was imperative... so I strolled down the short street after lunch, snapping some pictures.

Jalan Tun Dr Ismail was a throwback to an earlier age, but it was almost at the very end that I finally found what I was looking for. A set of old blinds hung down the front of a shop. And there, on the partially unfurled middle one was the name of the street. The original name: Heaslett Street.

I snapped a couple of pictures and was sure Anna, and Diana, would be pleased.

A shot in the arm for the good Doctor

I've been busy planning a route and if you take a look at the Google Map below, you'll see a few places in Johor and Melaka which I've marked out. I'm not certain of going through those towns yet - and I do intend to be quite flexible about my route - but they're places I've either been to or have some intention of visiting for practical or other reasons.

Johor, despite its size, seems to have a dearth of places I'd really like to visit. I've considered one or two other towns I have not marked yet, including Bukit Kepong, whose place in Malayan history was immortalised in a movie which used to be played on local TV on an annual basis. It may be just that little bit off my intended path though.

If you have any ideas of places you think would be worth a visit, for whatever reason, I'd like to hear from you.

Meanwhile, I'm reminded of a tiny town with a strange name, set in the mid-north of Johor, just west of the Endau Rompin National Park. Cha'ah shares its name with a type of tea, though just why that is so is not yet known to me - I promise I will research that, but if you can shed any light on the matter, please do tell.

I must have heard my father mention the name when I was very young. He roamed all around Malaysia, hunting and fishing in remote villages and forests and I owe a great part of interest in the smaller towns and villages of Malaysia to him.

The reason I mention possibly hearing the name is because the next time I heard the name in the early 90s, I instantly recognised it. The person who mentioned it was a Singaporean friend, Diana Heaslett. Diana is now resettled in Australia, but was born in Singapore to English parents. Her father, Dr Heaslett, had lived in Malaya and actually spent some time in Cha'ah during the emergency. He was very well liked by the locals supposedly because he would treat everyone who came to his clinic, regardless of that person's politics.

One evening, returning to his home on the fringe of the estates surrounding the town, his new car was ambushed by some communists. He was shot, but he and his driver survived.

The next day, lying in bed in hospital, he received a strange visitor - one of the communists who had ambushed him the day before. He sheepishly presented the popular doctor some flowers and fruits and then apologetically asked 'Why you don't tell us you got new car, Doctor? We didn't recognise your car... thought it was someone else and ambush you by mistake....'

As evidence of how well liked he was, a street in the town was named after him. If you visit Cha'ah, just off and parallel to the main road, not far from the police station, you'll find a short street running between a row of shophouses and a little football field. It used to be called Jalan Heaslett and you might still see that name in small letters on the road sign. Just below the current name, Jalan Tun Dr Ismail...

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