Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Kukus

This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a Grade 3 walk. There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed. 

7 years ago, I mistakenly entitled a hike 'Bukit Kukus', I now know it should have been 'Bukit Relau'. It was such an unpleasant experience in an area of Penang which I find repulsive that we never went back until today. The area remains 'unattractive' but I have to confess that the hike was an absolute cracker. It would have helped to be slightly deaf as for the whole hike there was a hum of traffic accompanied by frenzied building work.

To my knowledge there are no buses which pass the start of the Bukit Kukus Hiking Trail. However, now I have done this hike then another time I would start at the Universiti Sains residences on Jalan Bukit Gambir and these are served by Rapid Penang's 302 service, please visit my Penang buses page for information. The water tower is just a few minutes hike from the road. It would also have the advantage of cutting out the part above the entrance to the hiking trail which has steep steps and is very popular with recreational hikers...

'Bukit Botak' is notorious among those who profess to care about Penang's hills and who (with one or two honorable exceptions) generally do very little about actually preserving them. This just about sums up the downside of today's hike, fortunately, there were some very good bits too.

When it comes to encouraging community hiking, the Kelab Pendaki Bukit Jambul do a very good job, this is the way in with clean toilets on the right and a banner announcing an April Hikathon. I suspect most hikers don't make it Bukit Kukus, left, red trail, but instead head for the lesser Bukit Jambul (242 metres), right, green trail.

It was a bit of a surprise to start by heading down but it didn't last long and Yuehong soon found a sign she thoroughly approved of.

There are paths galore here and most seem to have Hash paper on them. These days, their interests and ours rarely coincide so we do our own thing which in this case involved looking for a well used path heading upwards.

This hill is basically old rubber which is rapidly reverting to rain forest, the former still have their tapping scars but it's many years since anyone has shown interest in that side of things. As we went up we were joined by another path from the right, this was an alternative route which had started off towards Bukit Jambul - it's shown on the map at the end.

We came to our first peak which the sign proclaimed to be Bukit Rimbah (335 metres). We headed on up passing some stands of bamboo.

After an hour's climb we got to Bukit Kukus and by now the few hikers we had seen this far up had disappeared. I had expected the path on to be less well used but this was not the case.

However, very soon it branched right and vanished down the hill towards USM, not a good idea for us at this stage. We took the lesser used ridge path and soon found some minor obstructions. 

Thus is the way the serious hikers come and Yuehong spotted some marks on the tree under the Hash paper. Like many places on this side of the island, the ridge seemed to have suffered from the Great Storm of November 2017 but nowhere was it badly blocked.

We would have had to try very hard to get lost, the path was clear and well marked. I especially enjoyed further bamboo features.

At one point we passed a row of more than a dozen geriatric rubber trees and then we were at a second peak, Bukit Paduka (413 metres) a name I have yet to see on a proper map.

Thereafter, we were on what I would call a classic ridge path in the same style as those linking the island's rain gauges, only on this one you could hear traffic, construction and departures from the airport continuously.

As we descended, the ridge got a bit wider and the trees could work together to maintain the canopy. Yuehong spotted what I think must have been the oldest rubber tree I have ever seen. The tapping marks continued some way above the end of her walking stick!  

All good things come to an end and brightness ahead through the trees proclaimed we were approaching 'Bukit Botak'. This dip between Bukit Paduka and Bukit Relau had long been filled with durian and other fruit trees but a few years back 'someone' had decided they could improve things and removed most of them and reshaped the landscape. The area below to the left was more or less left as it was but that to the right has been subject to a number of projects. For the time being the immediate top area has been left as it was cleared with the addition of a network of drains. No doubt those responsible are biding their time waiting for MBPP to lose interest.

The purpose of this network of zig-zag concrete roads is difficult to understand, there's not a great deal of space left between them for planting durians! Maybe they would like houses instead? The title of the area is recent.

The excavator shown in the picture at the start was at the top of this 'road', clearly it's been at work recently. Looking towards Bukit Relau, there were a number of terraces which have been planted with trees (presumably durians as nothing much else is these days). However, there was still work going on there.

This was exhibit A, a huge truck which must have been involved in redistributing the hillside. We wanted to go right on what had been a simple concrete path, this we had used on our hike 7 years ago, but it seemed to have been deemed 'inadequate'. 

At one point the new upgraded version turned sharp left and we could continue on the original path as it curled down through what still passed for a durian orchard here.

I don't think that Yuehong had much recollection of being here before, but this house featured in our 2013 report (right, below).

As before, we continued downwards and since I had left my brain at home, we tried turning right too early. Never mind, that only wasted 5 minutes and we then turned right where we should have done. 

This is the bottom of the amazing concrete zig-zags and our path continued as shown, the same position is shown below right 7 years ago, unlike above it hasn't changed that much.

I knew my report spoke of a long section of 'contour path' so we ignored the chance to go uphill and entered real 'normality'.

Very soon we came to what was expected to be the only house on this section. As before there were idiot and harmless dogs and beyond there had been some 'normal' clearance for replanting. That's Bukit Kukus I believe on the horizon.

On a warm day, it's bliss to meander on trails like this, passing the stingless bees' hives.

I was enjoying inspecting the old Hakka wall when Yuehong stopped to examine some red objects on the path. These turned out to small 'Jambu Air' fruits which Yuehong declared the best she had ever tasted. So much so that I was deputed to shake a few more down. These were packed away to be consumed later at home. They must have been good because while I enjoyed a few here, the rest had mysteriously disappeared when I went to look for them later.  When we came to this left turn to go down, there was a path ahead with markers but we fancied it might have ultimately offered a return to Bukit Kukus which was not on today's agenda. We had seen no other junction, but the 'web maps' suggest we had missed a short cut left. Frankly I don't think it exists as a proper path...

We zig-zagged down to this old house which is now used as part of a small temple complex with an adjacent area for locals to gather for afternoon 'tea and cards'. Nearby was a concrete block which I was sure had once been host to a pair of rubber rollers. Yuehong checked and indeed, they had been 'stolen'. Who by? I think it would be wise not to venture an opinion.

We continued down passing another junction with a nearby house with more than its fair share of dogs. That's a 2013 picture on the right and I assume there's a house up the road on the right which would probably be on the way up the putative path to Bukit Botak. 

USM has erected an updated nonsense sign, no doubt they have yet to open a school of law whose Dean could explain to the Registrar that you can't 'prosecute' trespassers for a civil matter. Never mind, it's a pleasant walk down off the hill.

Now, here's where I have to eat public humble pie. The web maps show a path cutting back up the hill and over a saddle to our starting point but I had no idea where it started. Yuehong got her toy out and proclaimed it would go from beside this water tank and who was I to say otherwise. In the best traditions of our explorations we looked for a gap in the vegetation and plunged in. It could only be better than heading down to the main road and following it for some 3km...

Looking around we could see signs of a trail and very soon it became concreted, probably it had once gone straight through where the tank is now. That was enough to encourage us to continue and skirt a blockage which was quite formidable looking back.

It turned out to be one of those unusual trails that got better and better as we climbed gently. We passed an overgrown orchard and declined a steep path going up the hill to the right. It helped that there were paint marks on many of the trees.

These were not Hakka steps but a modern version and the signs proliferated. This was another path straight up on the right which we declined.

The maps were quite clear, we had to climb, but not much, and gently curl round the end of the hill. We came to a T junction and this time, I suggested we should go right but first someone had to 'phone a friend'. Life isn't fair when your partner is blessed with a far better sense of direction than average...

Round the corner we found a motorbike. I felt that its owner was up to no good 'birding', there being no other reason for it being there. Yuehong vetoed my suggestion that we indicate our displeasure by deflating a tyre and soon we entered a well maintained orchard, the first we had seen all day.

There was what passes for a view in this part of Penang and at the next junction we opted not to go down but continue up and round the side of the hill.

There was a triple set of 'Trespass' notices which no one would ever take any notice of. Maybe I could suggest that something along the lines of 'We Welcome Responsible Hikers' might be rather more effective? Very soon we came to another T junction with a weekend 'Tea Station'. We had now connected with the alternative route up Bukit Kukus and turned left.

The signs confirmed this. We could have plunged right immediately but not surprisingly Yuehong elected to follow a converted rubber terrace.

It was only postponing the inevitable. If we had continued in the same direction we would have ended up climbing Bukit Jambul so we turned right and started on the 'steps', perhaps not what our mature knees would have chosen after 5 hours on the go. We just took it slowly and reminded ourselves that walking along the main road would have been a far worse alternative.

At the bottom some kindly soul had placed a bench where we could relax a little and finish our water. On the way down the road we met the afternoon shift heading for the hills, not really our style but it's nevertheless good to see that some ordinary Penangites appreciate their green hills. 

A glance at the map below will show that a sensible variation for a repeat would be to start at the back of USM, go to the Tea Station and turn right to go up to Bukit Kukus and then continue as before, it's marked in yellow from 'Mile 6'. Unless someone crosses my palm with promises of several Tigers, I doubt we'll try it though in the near future.