Penang Hills and Trails - Middle Station Loop
Air Itam - Middle Station - 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.

We had visitors whom we had dispatched on the train up Penang Hill and we needed a slightly shorter walk than usual. Having enjoyed coming down rather more than normal past the Bats' Cave Temple on a recent walk, we decided to use it for going upwards. We would then revisit the Middle Station and check out the paths to its west which we had been assured would get us back down reasonably quickly and so it proved.

We took Jalan Pokok Ceri, the signs for the temple make it easy to find. I'd hoped for a view of the Bats' Cave Temple clear of cars on a quieter day, but was disappointed, note the rather larger than life adornments to the roof. However, it was only a few minutes walk up till we came to the end of the road and left urban Penang behind. 

The rock pools are technically out of bounds but no one cares, up above we walked through the open gate and into a durian estate.

Just next to the concrete block hut, there are three possible paths on, from our previous descent we knew to keep sharply left, it's possible some of the other trails here go through but it was too low down for that to be of interest. We left the durians and returned to the shade, primary jungle it is not, it's basically very old rubber as is much of this part of the lower hill.

We knew to turn right at the T junction and keep going past several houses until we emerged on the path up from Hye Keat. We turned left here and continued to climb gently.

I remembered the avenue of old rubber trees from our previous visit. Above us on the right, someone had decided to plant some concrete stupas to replace the trees, it looks extremely 'tacky'. We later learned that it had been done by a Taiwanese.

There are several zig-zags here, fortunately they are well shaded, but the path soon levelled out and we took a break under a tree next to a large shrine.

There are paths all over the place here as it's covered in vegetable and flower gardens, but there's no need to get lost, we just followed the contour path onwards. The camera lies, most of this area is an eyesore.

The views would be splendid if it were not for all the concrete. That's the State Mosque on the left and the view ranges through to beautiful Paya Terubong on the right.

The steep straight path up from the Middle Station almost certainly follows the alignment of the original first, disastrous attempt to build a railway up the hill. The Hakka farmer said that his family had been here since before the second railway was built in the 1920s. Mike Gibby had told me about some old rails in this area which probably came from it, they are certainly much lighter than the later ones. One is lying horizontally and two more nearby are vertically, this one still has its fishplate and is used to carry a water pipe over the path. Anywhere else, they would probably be a museum exhibit.

We went down the steep steps to the Middle Station, below through the gap in the trees is an original series of concrete steps downwards which is assumed to correspond to the route of the railway.

5 years ago we were told that the original station and winding house would become a museum, the only sign of this happening is a marvellous toilet block, the female part of which was locked. The winding house is locked up and a security guard is present on the platform to stop idiots walking across the tracks. There's a perfectly good footbridge and if you want a glimpse of the old machinery the opening behind Yuehong is not blocked... The 1970s car is slowly rusting away no more than slightly cleaned since the reconstruction crew moved on.

On the path above the station on the other side, there are further signs of the old railways, the first are probably sleepers from the second railway, the second set from the first railway..

We had been told to just follow the concrete path across and round the hillside, as can be seen from below, this part of the hill has been cleared almost completely, there's very little shade left.

There are quite a few paths here but we were told later that the one on the right below which is bespattered with red paint is the one that goes through to the top of the hill, it will join the upper road system just above the Brothers' Bungalow. If you choose another one you may end up having to cross what is left of the jungle here according to a gentleman we met walking up to the temple round the corner to the left.

We could look back towards the Middle Station (centre) and across to Bukit Cendana which apart from its lower slopes is far less 'developed'. There's a modern small temple here to Tua Pek Kong, there's even a sign saying 'shoes allowed' for those in a hurry.

We were far enough round now to see George Town, that's the Batu Gantang cemetery and the Rifle Range Flats in the lower centre.

To be honest, we could have done without the rest of the walk, compared to the ascent the path is much steeper and lacks shade. This junction fis very useful for getting to the Air Itam Dam, something we've done several times although I've yet to write a proper description.... 

The only benefit of the lack of trees was a bird's eye view of the viaduct above the Lower Station.

Only as we neared the bottom did we get some shade, even then it didn't last as we got a view of Kek Lok Si from which I have cropped out the egregious monster Guan Yin.

The path becomes a road just next to a block of flats which is already beginning to show its age. There's just one junction where coming up you would have a real choice.

We finished up at this gateway for the Thai Sian Low Koong Temple, it's near the police station just before the Air Itam one way system. My priority was refreshment as opposed to jumping on the first bus. If I had known Yuehong's reaction to this, I would have visited the establishment opposite as well before walking down to the Hill Railway Road eating stalls.

As it was I got my Tiger and fortunately for my well being, afterwards a 502 turned up very soon, we had an extremely quick run to Komtar where we immediately boarded a 101. As a result there was plenty of time for a shower and tidy up before went out for dinner with our friends who had actually barely beaten us back home.

If I was to use the last part again it would only be to go up and I would want to start early in the morning. It would be far better, albeit significantly longer to go to the top of its lower part by the route we went up described above.