Penang Hills and Trails - Kelicap Circular

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a medium length Grade 3 walk with a significant less straightforward section. 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.

There are a number of streets with 'Kelicap' in their name between Sungai Ara and Bayan Lepas. Frankly, if someone offered me a rent free property there for the indefinite future, I would say 'thank you' but 'no, thank you'. Maybe one day it will be a monument to uncontrolled capitalism but right now it's an all day hell hole with a constant cacophony of building sounds, audible from the nearest hill tops.

This walk was inspired by the prospect of a celebration at the monkey temple in the hills above 'Kelicap' although in the event we were so late starting after a shopping trip enforced by an empty fridge after our visa run in Sumatra that we arrived long after most visitors had disappeared. 

We parked at the turning into Persiaran Kelicap 1, probably the oldest housing development here which nestles against a hill which is unlikely to be despoiled owing to its immediate steepness. The houses are not unpleasant, the meaningless sign understandable in the circumstances but why haven't the residents got together to remove the eyesore rubbish which has been dumped? 

We walked back down the main Persiaran Kelicap and turned right into Lengkok Kelicap. In fact the whole of this early part of today's walk was 'rubbish', we had no choice but to come this way today but every time we do we are struck by the lack of what I would call 'civic pride' in the residents. In my books it's not the council's job to keep clearing it up, the residents themselves should ensure it does not appear like this in the first place. It's not rocket science, it displays an appalling lack of education from far too many people and the situation cries out for a little bit of organisation by some kind of residents' association.

We turned right at the end past the new condo whose potential buyers must surely be put off by the environment it stands in. The road up is less than wonderful with its small scale enterprises but this picture shows how pleasant it could be...

It was very warm and we were pleased to enter the trees even if they were mostly long abandoned rubber initially. At the small Chinese shrine we turned right and entered a well maintained durian orchard.

Suddenly life was much better and we continued up to this house which must have once been someone's pride and joy. Outside, almost inevitably was a pair of rubber rollers (presses), Yuehong has been told that the plain one would be used first, I have failed to find an explanation on the web.

We had to climb above the house into abandoned rubber which is still tapped informally from time to time. We have seen the resultant collected together at this 'crossroads'.

Further up, the path is barely used at the moment and when we crossed the bridge over the stream we came to one of Penang's less well maintained durian orchards. I knew to resist following the stream but to cut left and make our way through the high grass on what, at certain times of year, is a clear path.

It's nothing like as difficult as it looks and very soon we hit a wide track and turned right - as the map shows we could have gone straight ahead at the shrine and turned right at the cluster of oil palms but it's rather longer than the way we came.

This 'road' has been created within the last 12 months to replace what was once a delightful shady path. In theory, the owners should have sought permission to do this and behind the tape is this 'Stop Notice' which sounds awfully grand but in fact is merely 'box ticking' by the local council as history shows that they will not follow it up with effective action. It's dated 18th September 2018, but in fact was not in position on 26th November 2018 when we last came this way and photographed the barrier.

You can see how much regard the people involved have for the council by the fact that these trees have been 'attacked' since our previous visit and underneath the trespass notice are fuel and oil for their chain saws.

Piled up nearby are freshly cut logs, looking back, the extent of the clearance is apparent.

We moved on to the bikers' refreshment stop '541'. Every time we come it has gained more embellishments, there are now plastic vines hanging from the roof and magic mushrooms scattered around the outdoor seating area.

Above the path are giant bells - but don't try ringing them. After the noise over the hill, the Sungai Ara valley was delightfully quiet and peaceful, this is the view looking towards Bukit Relau.

At the bottom of the hill at the multiple junction, we took the small path to the right which would take us up to the 'Blue House' above Sungai Ara. Compared to a year ago, the path had been cut back and was a real pleasure to hike along.

The clearance extended to small fruit trees next to it, but after we came to this junction where we had to go straight on, it was best described as 'ongoing'.

The residual rubber trees were being removed, standard practice seemed to be to attempt to kill them by burning the base, otherwise like our UK sycamores they would just start to regrow. The workers here will be from Myanmar, a country where it is not traditional to tidy up any mess you might create.

The Penang Hash House Harriers and Harriets (PH4, now the Rainforest Hash) are another group with similar habits traditionally - this paper in a plastic sleeve was here a year ago and wasn't new then. Yuehong is standing where their trail branches right into the old rubber. We could have gone this way too but we don't like the dog that lives in the house we would have to pass. To be fair to the PH4, when I put it to them that their plastic sleeves were inappropriate because of their longevity, they agreed to remove them after their Penang Rain Forest Hash Challenge in December 2018 and carried out their promise. Next up, the mountain bikers who are far worse when it comes to plastic litter and an absolute menace when they race along paths in the hills here. 

The cleared path continued along the ridge as far as a patch which was being cleared just off to the left. Thereafter, only the fact that we had been here several times before allowed us to continue, eventually the way being almost blocked by gingers.

Never mind, we made it to the Blue House and took a few minutes out, it had probably been the hottest day of our visit so far. We knew the path down was in fair condition but the outpourings of sound coming up from the multiple building sites below got ever stronger.

Heaven knows what it must be like to live down there and have to put up with it on a daily basis. We could see not just the airport but also a small former hilltop below us which has been cleared and is currently being modified to make it suitable for yet more housing. Who is going to buy it all let alone who is going to live in it is a mystery to anyone studying the local market, it is generally assumed that it is being built for 'investment' and it represents a bubble which so far has failed to burst. We would avoid it all by going straight on at the first U-bend, that parasol is an unmistakable marker.  

Take my word for it, all you have to do is go down through the undergrowth and turn left, taking care to keep near the green wire fence next to you on the right.

Now last time I came this way, I went too far before turning right and this time I didn't go far enough and got a stern lecture from Yuehong. Basically, the correct way is to go down into where the trees are less crowded. Neither of us were totally certain but when I picked a likely 'path' out I soon found myself trampling across an abandoned blue mattress just as I had done last time and very soon we were out onto the road which runs above the temple to the durian orchard with the nasty dog.

So we turned left and very soon again right, what was a broad track last time was barely clear enough to walk along.

Yuehong had got the date right (it was given only in the Chinese calendar), the giant joss sticks were almost burned out and there were few devotees still present.

As it was a pre-Chinese New Year festival there was fruit everywhere, especially oranges.

It was time to go and hunt down some refreshment, neither of us was keen on checking out the scraps that would have been all that was left. It's a lovely route down, too narrow for cars even if that didn't stop me trying (disastrously) once. We could only speculate how it would have been 'back in the day' because now it was impossible to ignore the high rises looming above the trees.

This was a brand new walk, carved out of previously known paths, once again Yuehong was hugely appreciative of the way I keep putting such things together although it is getting harder and harder to be inventive. Fortunately, we have a number of 'shared' walks coming up which necessarily will use tried and trusted routes.