A Sunny Detour to Balik Pulau

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoSun today, properly so, the kind that makes yesterday's rain feel like something we imagined. Breakfast happened indoors, air conditioning doing the job the outdoors clearly wasn't interested in — Penang heat has a way of announcing itself early and meaning it.

After that, the day needed a plan, and we gave it one: laksa. Not any laksa — proper laksa, the kind worth a drive for, which meant Balik Pulau. Fortunately the new highway has shortened what used to be a proper trek into something almost civilised, and we made good time, stopping briefly at a vista up the hill where Penang spread itself out below in that hazy, sun-flattened way islands do at midday. Worth the two minutes it cost us.

Balik Pulau delivered, as promised. We found Fara Idlan Cafe, selling something called Laksa Ikan Sekoq, which sounded specific enough to be trustworthy, and was. Properly good — the sort of bowl that justifies the entire detour on its own, no further discussion required. Sometimes the whole itinerary is just an elaborate excuse to end up at one plate of food, and today that was fine by everyone.

The drive back went via Telok Bahang, which is scenic in the way that mostly means winding, and winding in the way that Anita does not care for. She bore it with the particular patience of someone who has voiced her opinion on hairpin bends before and will again. We stopped at the Spice Garden, or rather stopped outside it — too hot to venture in properly, and Anita hadn't come dressed for a jungle trek, entirely reasonably. So we admired the entrance, made a mental note for a cooler day that may or may not arrive, and carried on.

Back at the hotel for a rest that felt earned, the kind where you lie down with every intention of a short lie-down and the day quietly negotiates otherwise.

Evening took us to Batu Ferringhi with the boys, seafood on the agenda, which on Penang's coast feels less like a choice and more like an obligation you're happy to meet. Plates arrived, conversation drifted, the sea did whatever the sea does after dark that you can hear but not see.

And somewhere between the laksa and the seafood, the low-grade realisation set in that we'll be missing Penang before we've even left it — that specific, slightly premature nostalgia the place seems to induce, as though it knows exactly how good it's being and wants credit in advance. Fair enough, really. It's earned it today.

Rain, Rice, and the Road to Sungai Petani

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoSlept like something that had earned it — properly, blessedly deep, the sort of sleep that makes you suspicious of yourself the next morning. No idea what triggered it. Possibly just the accumulated debt of the last few weeks finally being called in.

Woke to rain. Not the dramatic tropical kind that arrives, makes its point, and leaves, but the patient, all-morning variety that seems to have settled in for the long haul, more houseguest than weather event. Breakfast came with it as a soundtrack — that particular hush that rain puts over a room, cutlery a little quieter, conversation a little slower. There's something almost indulgent about eating while it pours outside and you're not required to be anywhere near it.

We weren't, for a while. The morning had no urgency built into it, so we let it have none. Coffee, the rain doing its thing beyond the glass, that unhurried stretch of time before a journey where you're technically getting ready but mostly just sitting with the idea of getting ready. Eventually the day insisted, and we set off for Sungai Petani.

The drive had that grey, washed-out quality rain gives to a landscape — paddy fields blurring past in shades of green that all rain seems to bring out, whether you asked for it or not. We were headed to see Teh, and it was the kind of visit that needed no agenda beyond itself. They looked well — genuinely, which is always a small relief you don't realise you were carrying until it lands. Conversation did what it does with people you're fond of and don't see often enough: picked up as though the gap hadn't happened, filled in what had, and left plenty unsaid because it didn't need saying.

Back at the hotel, the boys had opted to stay in — their own quiet rebellion against the itinerary, and fair enough. Evening arrived with canapés first, the sort of small, deliberate bites designed to make you suspicious of your own appetite for the buffet that inevitably followed. It did follow, and it was generous in the way hotel buffets are generous — too many good options, none of which you can do proper justice to, all of which you try anyway.

After that, nothing much. Which was rather the point. We settled into the hotel for the evening, no plans beyond being comfortable, the rain presumably still going about its business somewhere outside. Some days are built for motion. This one was built for its opposite — sleep, breakfast, a familiar face, a full plate, and a room that asked nothing further of us. I'll take that arrangement most weeks, if offered.

Sunday, Off to Penang

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoUp early to get everything organised before the drive, the boys already keyed up about it — they'd been looking forward to the E&O for a while now, and it shows when they get like that. Quick breakfast, nothing fussy, then on the road before eleven, which felt like a decent achievement given how the morning had started.

Stopped at Tapah on the way, the usual sort of break, stretch your legs, grab a coffee, let everyone shake off the first stretch of road. That's about when Anita found out her reunion venue had changed — got the message mid-drive, and you could tell straight away it wasn't sitting well with her. Not the news itself so much as finding out that way, stuck in a car with nothing to do about it but sit with it. Quiet stretch after that.

Got into Penang before four, which was a relief after a drive that had picked up a bit of weight along the way. Settled into the room, and once we'd got our bearings, turned to sorting out the venue business for the reunion — a few calls, working through the change, trying to get Anita back to feeling like it was in hand rather than sprung on her.

Evening brought canapés, then a complimentary dinner at Java Tree, and honestly it did a fair bit to smooth the day back out. The place has that old E&O feel to it — colonial luxury the hotel's been known for since 1885, and Java Tree itself sits right in that spirit, tables in white linen, that big painting of the java tree on the wall, everything understated but done properly. Food matched the room — good mix of Nyonya and European, nothing showy, just done well. Exactly the kind of evening you need after a day that started a bit rattled.

By the time we got back up to the room, the venue matter had settled, Anita seemed more at ease with it, and the day had rounded itself out nicely despite the bump in the middle. Turned in early, worn out in the good way — not from stress, just from a day that had covered a lot of ground, literally and otherwise.

Tomorrow's its own thing. Tonight, just glad to be horizontal.

Saturday, Scouting Kelantan

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoGood sleep, properly good, the sort you wake up from without needing five more minutes to argue about it. Breakfast made up for it too — nasi nerabu, the real Kelantan version, herbs and rice and everything piled together the way it's meant to be. Not the sort of breakfast you rush through.

Program started at eight, and I was packed and ready well before that, bag by the door, nothing left to sort out at the last minute. Small thing, but it sets the tone for a day when you're not scrambling before you've even started.

The venue turned out better than I'd expected, genuinely. Walked in half-braced for something that would need a lot of imagination to work, and instead found a space that could actually handle the ASM in 2027 without much compromise. Main ballroom takes a thousand people easily, no squeezing required, and a decent spread of breakout rooms besides — enough to run parallel sessions without everyone tripping over each other. There was a whole other floor given over to food and more pharma booths than I was expecting, which tells you something about how seriously the place takes these events.

Had a good wander round with the managers, the kind of walk where you're mentally placing registration desks and working out sightlines, half tour and half site inspection. Useful, that. You learn more about a venue walking it with people who run it than you do from any brochure.

Had to head back to KL after the final talk wrapped up around four, which came round faster than I'd have liked given how much ground there'd been to cover. But the drive back more than made up for the rush — the sunset on the way out of Kelantan was something else, that kind of sky that makes you actually slow down a bit rather than just barrel through it. Worth the drive on its own, honestly.

Got home in time for a quick dinner, nothing elaborate, just glad to be sat down after a day mostly spent on my feet. And then straight into packing again — Penang tomorrow, so the bag barely had time to be unpacked before it was being filled again. That's the rhythm this stretch of the year seems to have settled into, one place folding straight into the next without much of a gap in between.

Good day, though. Venue looks right, the walk-round gave me what I needed, and that sunset's staying with me a while. Bag's packed. Penang next.

Friday, A Short Flight and a Quiet Room

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoThe day began where the previous one had left off — one more ward round, one more morning clinic, the last outstanding threads of the week gathered up and tied off before I could allow myself to think about being anywhere else. Handover done properly, patient sorted, nothing left dangling for whoever picked up after me. There's a particular relief in leaving things tidy behind you, the sort that lets you actually enjoy the leaving.

From there, straight to the airport, driving myself rather than being driven, which always changes the character of a departure slightly — less ceremony, more errand. Lunch was had at the lounge, unhurried in the way airport lounges manage to feel even when the rest of the terminal is anything but, a small pocket of calm before the business of flying.

The flight itself was smooth, no complaints, the kind of short hop that barely gives you time to settle before it's asking you to prepare for landing. Midflight, satay appeared, which felt like a small and unexpected kindness — proper satay, not the sort of apologetic snack one braces for on a domestic route. I wasn't expecting much and got rather more than that, which is always the better way round.

Checked into the Renai Hotel on arrival, into a square suite that had the particular tidiness of a room built more for function than flourish — nothing wrong with that, especially after a day already full enough of its own texture. There's something quietly appealing about a hotel room with clean lines and no pretensions, a blank enough canvas that you can simply exist in it without it asking anything of you.

I'd thought, briefly, about heading out — Kota Bharu has its own particular evening rhythm, and there's always some pull towards seeing a place rather than just passing through it. But the day had been long enough in its own right, ward round to clinic to drive to flight to check-in, and the idea of putting on real shoes again lost out fairly quickly to the idea of not. Ordered in instead, ate without ceremony, and let the evening close itself down at its own pace.

No regrets about staying in. Some trips are made for exploring, and some are simply made for getting somewhere, doing what needs doing, and getting some proper rest in between. This one, at least tonight, was firmly the latter. Early night, then — tomorrow will ask its own questions, and I'd rather meet them having actually slept than having merely wandered a strange city on principle.

For now, square suite, quiet room, and the particular contentment of a day that went exactly as long as it needed to and no longer