Penang Hills and Trails - Entertaining a Stranger
Pondok Upeh to Jalan Tun Sardon

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a very long Grade 2 walk and as such should be considered Grade 3. 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.

We have a strict 'one day on, one day off' regime which occasionally becomes 'two days off'. Unfortunately, I had to spend my rest day wandering round George Town doing errands and when Yuehong said she needed a longer than average walk, I groaned and asked if we could do that 'next time'. However, when we got on the 501 at Teluk Bahang we struck up a conversation with a German visitor, 'Ernie' who expressed serious interest in joining us and obviously we couldn't have dragged him round the short 'Explorer' I had planned.

We warned Ernie that others who had joined us had always enjoyed the first half of our walks but found the second half increasingly arduous as the effects of the heat and dehydration were felt. In fact, considering it was an unplanned excursion as far as he was concerned, he did very well but between us we really didn't have sufficient water.

For the most part this is through an area we have reported extensively before so there are minimal details for the middle section and fewer pictures, mainly just the key junctions. However, it remains one where we saw very few people, none of them tourists of course. There are no difficult sections but at just a couple of points care needs to be taken to keep to the trail.

We started outside the police HQ on the road between Balik Pulau and Bukit Genting (401/401E/502 bus) and headed down the small road towards the hills. Opposite at the end was the blue sign for the Pondok Upeh Cycle Trail and we plunged into the kampung to escape the hot sun. The only extra item Ernie needed was a large dog stick! Up the hill we went and as we had only previously come down this road, I had to remind Yuehong to turn right at the shrine.

On the way up Yuehong spotted a path on the left which she reckoned might well cut a corner, so off we went. It was pleasantly shady and eventually we came to a section 'under repair'. Afterwards Yuehong declared that the path to the right only went to a house so we continued but not very far as the path ended. Back we went to the junction and of course the path went round the side of the house and back to the main road, fortunately avoiding a long open stretch, so it had been a good option.

This road has got little going for it but does the business. When we came to the 4 way junction, we took the concrete path ahead which soon rejoined the road and then we turned left up another concrete path.

This next section is described in detail in our recent 'Malhom Esplorer' report, just make sure you turn right as shown. Suffice to say it's a very pleasant and straightforward walk more or less along the contour with splendid views out to the north.

After a while the path turns left and starts to zig-zag upwards till it ends just short of the Malihom boundary fence. From here, we just had to turn left and follow the durian estate a short distance before we emerged at the point where you look down on the developed side of the island.

We went left down along the ridge through the rubber and not surprisingly as it is currently untapped, we missed the path on the right and had to come back to find it...

Once on it, we were soon down to the birds nest factory where again the guest workers were conspicuously absent as were most of their dogs. You can't go wrong now, just follow the poles down the road and as always the small Thai style temple is a great place to take a rest. I'd been deliberately taking things easy so far but we really needed to press on, down we went to the valley floor, past the Fig Tree Hill resort and turned left at the cyclists' resting point. 

Yuehong was testing herself and, obviously pleased with the results, left me to bring up the rear. Turn right along the small trail, carry on for a km or so, turn left, go past yet another bird's nest factory, turn right and then go straight ahead.

This was time to start showing off, the next turnings are non-intuitive! Turn left just before the house with the black dogs, go down a short way before taking a half hidden short zig-zag left and emerge on another path where we turned left. I can just read Ernie's thoughts... 'Another hill and I'm almost out of water." 

Actually it's another lovely undemanding section which ends in the bananas. Yuehong got the first bit correct, you turn right and follow the slightly descending ridge as best you can. The Chinese farmer here just stared in blank amazement as we passed.

The next bit is decidedly tricky. There's a barely used path just a few metres below to the left, but it's very difficult to spot the path down. Only our experience of this route makes it a 'right first time' possibility although I am sure there are other ways through too.

Down to the house we went, just 5 dogs here and round to the other side of the valley and up right past yet another bird's nest factory. Yuehong had seen the time and really pressed on. She knew we had previously turned left at the next junction but today I had just a spot of exploring to do and we went right.

It's a nice road but we hadn't been here before. "Do you know where we are?" asked Yuehong obviously a little concerned that a bus on Jalan Tun Sardon looked an unlikely short term prospect. "Yes, I do know" I replied "but it's not where I wanted to be..." As it happens, it was no big problem as Yuehong appreciated as soon as she saw the gap in the metal fence and she plunged through it. 

At the end of this path we just had to cross the road to the quarry and make our way up to Jalan Tun Sardon. It's not the best place in the world to stop a 502 bus even going up hill as we soon discovered. It was now almost 17.00 and the only way we were going to catch the 17.30 bus would be to find a taxi. We walked up a couple of hundred metres and found a better stopping point. Around the corner came an empty taxi (quite rare in these parts), in we jumped parting with rather more than the cost of a Tiger and suddenly we were in Baik Pulau with enough time to say goodbye to Ernie and stock up on fruit and my medicine. Let's just say I rehydrated on several cans of Tiger before we got to Teluk Bahang. It was indeed our lucky day as the wind was blowing hard as we walked up to Seaview Garden and ten minutes later it was pouring with rain.

We had a lovely long day out, it was a full 6 hours on the go. It's always a pleasure to entertain like minded individuals. Ernie did very well indeed and survived despite dehydration but like others before him, he let appearances misguide him. A grey haired British pensioner and a middle aged lady of Chinese origin are a lot, lot tougher than anyone could possibly guess.