Penang Hills and Trails - The 39 Steps
Rifle Range Flats to Air Itam

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 2 walk. 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.

I had long known there was a path up towards the Moon Gate Path from the Rifle Range Flats, but at first sight, it seemed it would be of no use to us in isolation. However, having revisited Bukit Cendana with Mike Gibby, it was clear that this route would probably provide an excellent exit to avoid returning to the Botanical Gardens area by one of the other routes, none of which I find particularly attractive, in fact each in its own way is a total pain.

Of course, Yuehong had no idea where the Rifle Range Flats might be so she had to sit and wait while the 202 bus made its way out of town. Now this is a bus which serves only what you might call 'working class areas' and our presence on the bus so much concerned a couple of older gentleman that they actually asked me (in English) where I was going! Probably if you can't find where the flats are using Google, then you shouldn't try this walk...

From the bus stop we walked back towards the large Hokkien Cemetery and turned left along the boundary wall. Ahead and across if we could see the 'Yellow Temple'. Now I had no idea where the route started, but when I saw the '39' sign, I knew that this was the way because the regular hikers talk about '39', many places on this part of the hill being identified by numbers.

We climbed the steps and came to an area where the locals practise their Tai Chi and exited up another small flight of steps where we found we had 'cut a hairpin' in the road we had started on. It was very pleasantly graded and very soon became totally shaded. I was pointedly asked why we hadn't used this route before and it was clear that no explanation would have been satisfactory.

We noticed that there were stones at the side of the road bearing numbers and eventually twigged that the last one would be 39. We were overtaken by a friendly regular hiker up here and struck up a conversation. He explained that it didn't matter which way we went at the junction but he was going left to visit a temple. He had gone to school in Sungai Ara when it was still a beautiful small village ("It's not now", he added) and when he got fed up with school used to go up the road behind what is now Jalan Kenari and swim in the rock pools. He was naturally amazed that we knew it too.

This is the local owner's house. the gate on the road  before was left open as he was old fashioned and quite happy to allow responsible hikers and visitors to pass through. We carried on up and this was our introduction to the temple, judging from those pillars it had an interesting history and he confirmed it was once used as a church, hence the sign on one of them.

I commented that it was a great place for a Chinese to pray as Christians, Jews and Moslems all worshipped the same God and with the Chinese ones covered here not to mention the statue of the Buddha too, he was bound to be on a winner. He was well enough educated to understand completely! We left him to  his devotions knowing full well he would soon catch us up. We crossed the road which had gone right, to the left is a large meditation centre which is clearly visible from the Hill Railway Station area. We found a set of steps ahead and the sign 'Jalan Lim Kew Lee' which we assume referred to the guiding light of the project to install them.

Now some time back, this path had been in a wretched state, much as the Moon Gate Path has been for as long as anyone can remember, so a group of regular hikers took on the task of improving and maintaining it. Principally, this meant installing a set of steps which would achieve the dual purpose of stabilising the environment and also making it easier for some of the older hikers to use the trail. I think he might have included Yuehong in that group as she hates uneven trails, especially going down them. They've done a great job, it was a real pleasure to use it and from time to time we could see the remains of the old path where they had used a new gentler alignment.

There was even a safety rail to prevent over-eager cyclists hurtling to their doom should they foolishly try to come down this way. Eventually, we came to '39' and the top of the steps. Note the tools to maintain the path, the chief volunteer who normally sweeps it everyday was absent as it was the 7th day of Chinese New Year and a propitious day for a bit of temple bashing.

Ahead was an open area with a shelter where like minded people could gather at the end of the climb. Light refreshments and drinking water are provided as are toilets. Apparently, this was cleared for a proposed columbarium (ashes storage building) associated with the cemetery below, but perhaps not surprisingly planning permission was refused! We talked with our friend and another walker and they said it was a shame that other hikers had not got together to maintain some of the other paths on the hill. It was hard to fault this sentiment.

There are two routes up to the Moon Gate Path, we took the right hand, easier, one and very soon we were back on a well worn trail. We turned left.

This is probably the least degraded part but there are still poor sections, especially where the path comes down from Bukit Cendana. We passed the other path to 39, enjoying the good bits to the full, but there was plenty of evidence that the route is being used inappropriately. What are the chances that something will be done? What a stupid question, this is Malaysia for heavens sake.

We could hear traffic ahead on the Jeep Road as we turned left past the small Hindu shrines just before 84. Note the pathetic yellow sign...

This trail has seen better days and the light levels were low as it was starting to rain. Yuehong was struggling and we found some suitable shelter.

Fortunately we could soon restart and we found a newly installed barrier and signs. The dog warning was worthless, the only one present was about 6 months old and would have eaten Yuehong's lunch out of her hand if she hadn't put it down for him to lick up (and it was Papaya too). We didn't want to go all the way down this path as we have done it several times, it leads to the Hye Keat Estate.

So we turned right along a path which would have eventually led to the Middle Station of the Penang Hill Railway. It would have been great to continue to there, but Yuehong's knees needed resting as we had a long walk booked the next day. Accordingly we took Mike Gibby's advice and took the first concrete path to the left.

So down we went, when Yuehong needed to top up her head pack of ice, someone had provided a swing for this older than average child to relax on.

It's another of those paths where you need a brain to go up but none to come down as other paths joined us. Yuehong is not saying her prayers, she's just enjoying cool mountain water continually piped in.

This must have been a rubber estate at one time, there are many large reminders of this. Today, much of it is a particularly attractive durian estate.

There was one more 'naughty' four way junction, coming up we would need to turn left here. Finally we emerged at the top of what I believe is Jalan Pokok Ceri.

I'll spare you pictures of what is not the best advertisement for Penang's Hokkien culture. The highlight was our brief visit to the famous Bats' Cave Temple (http://www.batscavetemple.com.my) which to put it mildly was absolutely heaving as a continuous stream of car borne visitors came to do their business on a propitious day. Let's just say the temple's bank manager would have had a big smile on his face. The actual cave was unphotographable as it is unlit (of course) but full of smoke. Next door though, some comedian had converted a boulder into a representation of an elephant's head and popped a Buddha on the top. Perhaps not surprisingly, our friend from earlier in the hike was here too, by now I guess he wasn't too surprised to see us here either.

Down by the turn off from the station road, there were lines of what appeared to be beggars who must have had rich pickings earlier in the day. However, I had one treasure left to record, Mike Gibby had tipped me off about this bridge which is one of the few physical remnants of the first Penang Hill Railway - the one where the trains refused to budge. It's behind the car park next to the Fire Station and it ought to be a scheduled monument of course, but up to now no one seems to have needed the stones...  

We had an early dinner by the roundabout and got the buses home. This was a great little walk in what should have been a most unpromising area.