Penang Hills and Trails - The Fruit Orchard Trail
Balik Pulau to Air Itam

This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a grade 2 walk based mainly on length. There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed.

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.

Living half way along the north coast of Penang means that we get to the south end of the island via Teluk Bahang. This needs careful planning as the 501 buses from there to Balik Pulau go only five times a day (In November 2016 at 07.50, 10.30, 13.10, 15.50 and 18.30, each having started at Balik Pulau an hour and twenty minutes earlier). It's by far the best bus ride in the island, the views are stunning and tempting as it might be to stop for a freshly fallen durian, the wallet would be empty before the next bus same along:

The back end of the island is still hanging on to its traditional charms, but only just. There are big developments in hand around Sungai Pinang but most seem to be stalled for lack of buyer interest. The main street of Balik Pulau itself still looks like any small town used to in Peninsular Malaysia 40 years ago but around it, the raised up kampung houses are fewer. Having said that, the drainage in the area remains poor and anyone coming to live here would find their houses invaded by large quantities of mosquitoes.

The 'road' to Air Itam is well known but since it passes by Air Itam Dam with its steep ascent, the temptation to upgrade it has been resisted so far. It runs as an extension of the main street past two colonial educational legacies, the St. George's Girls School and the Sacred Heart Convent School. There are even one or two very nice traditional Chinese wooden houses here:

After a mile or so, the road narrows and four wheel traffic is almost non-existent. When I lived here in the 1970s, I rarely left the island except to leave Malaysia. Penang people rightly feel superior over their fellow Malaysians, in fact in many ways the island was (and is) Malaysia in miniature. Walking on, we passed a rubber smallholding:

There is even a small Indian temple on one hillside. The road is lined with flowering plants which seem to have been planted by the residents:

It's difficult to get lost on this route, there's just one key junction where you need to take the right hand fork which is where it becomes a concrete motorbike trail. Just the place to stop to take a rest and eat the durian which we had bought back down in Balik Pulau. There are Durian trees all over the place here, but crafty locals climb up and tie up their prized fruit against passers-by who might try to shake them loose...

Every good walk needs a great view and in this case it's looking over Balik Pulau down to Pulau Betong:

Along the roadside, someone had planted a row of palms (areca / betel I think). They were obviously so well suited to the environment that the seeds were sprouting underneath.

Soon we were at the summit where we met some other mature walkers. From here there is a motor bike trail that runs towards (as we confirmed later) paths that link to Sungai Pinang and Tiger Hill, something we left for another day. After which we strolled down to Air Itam dam past the small Chinese temple (Au Ding Fu De Ci)

We tried our best to ignore the misguided monstrosity which has been erected above the Kek Lok Si temple. It's the sort of thing that belongs more to mainland China than the 'Pearl of the Orient'. After that we could have done without the stroll down, but after a drink and the inevitable light 'late lunch', it was just an hour and a bit (quite a bit as it was rush hour) home on the bus.