Perang Penang: Day 1 — The Journey Begins

I have decided to call this trip Perang Penang — an expedition to conquer Penang, one meal, one road and one family moment at a time.

But Day 1 was never really about conquering anything. It was about arriving together.

Leaving Singapore

At 2.37 pm, we boarded Scoot TR424 at Changi. Mak, wifey and Adina were seated ahead of me while I took the aisle seat.

This is my first trip with Mak since Abah passed away. That fact followed me quietly onto the plane. We were also travelling to meet a longtime family friend, and there was an unspoken feeling that this might be their last meeting. Mak would return to Singapore on Sunday to prepare for the big Maulid at the end of September, so our time together in Penang would be short.

By 3.26 pm, the cabin was quiet and cold, carrying the smell of coffee. I was hungry. I read Surah al-Kahf until ayah 50, then ate the provisions Mak had packed: bread and potato epok-epok, together with a sardine epok-epok from Tip Top at Changi. Even the hot-water bottle became part of the journey.

We began our descent at 3.58 pm and landed — rather bumpily — at 4.10 pm.

First Glimpse of Penang

Outside Penang Airport, the first things that caught my eye were a mosque and the greenery. The air felt clearer than the haze we had left behind in Singapore.

At 5.38 pm, we had arrived and the expedition was officially underway.

We reached our room at Urban Suites in Jelutong at 6.05 pm, already exhausted. The building felt like a small vertical town: four lifts serving the floors, car parks on levels 7 and 8, and the pool and shops on level 11. An Old Town neon poster added a little character to the modern surroundings.

We prayed, combined our prayers, and left again at 6.50 pm.

A Family Table

At 7.05 pm, we arrived at my cousin’s place.

Mak, wifey, Adina and I sat down with family and our longtime family friend. There was dinner, tea, kuih and conversation — the kind of home visit that cannot be reduced to an itinerary slot. It carried family history, old relationships and the awareness that some meetings become precious precisely because we do not know whether they will happen again.

The conversation also produced a proper Penang food list: Nasi Kandar Tajuddin Hussain, the sup kambing at Padang Brown, Bombay or Tea Kadai, kuih at Taman Tun Sardon, and Nurul Ikan Bakar. The story of Makam Dato Jenaton also entered the evening’s oral map of Penang.

The expedition already had new targets.

One More Meal

Penang was not going to let the day end with only one dinner. We stopped at a neighbourhood warung before walking home — a simple late-night plate and a moment to sit after a long day of moving.

Two Penangs, Side by Side

Before midnight, we walked back towards our apartment using Lorong Madrasah.

There, we found the madrasah.

It stood inside a kampung, and the kampung itself sat between two urban apartment blocks and modern houses. It was a striking meeting of two worlds: the older, intimate Penang of kampung paths and community life, existing quietly beside the vertical, modern city.

Neither world had completely displaced the other. They simply co-existed.

That may be the image I remember most from our first day — not a famous attraction, but an ordinary road revealing the layers of a place.

End of Day 1

Back in the apartment at last, it was time to bathe, rest, sleep and recharge.

Day 1 of Perang Penang had ended: one flight, one family reunion, a growing food list, and a midnight glimpse of two Penangs living side by side.

Tomorrow, the expedition continues.