Penang Hills and Trails - The Secret Garden
Tropical Fruit Farm to Pantai Acheh

This is part 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 repeated this walk in January 2015, November 2015 and November 2016 without the side trips, the route remains exactly as before.

The 501 bus service referred to in this report had been withdrawn by September 2022. This makes this hike impractical for anyone without the use of a car.

This was a trail that was fast acquiring the status of a (non) urban myth. I had once read on the web about a mountain bike ride along it and had met a European who told me he had done it but could furnish no more detail other than the fact that he had come out just above the Tropical Fruit Farm on the round-the-island road. So when I met Dave Ray while we were both taking a snack in Teluk Bahang and he told me he had done it barely two weeks before AND had a trace on his mobile phone, I had to sit up and take notice even though it was barely 5 minutes before our 501 was due to take us out to the south end of the island. The upshot was that I got a paragraph of instructions and what follows is entirely down to his passing on his own experience. It's a great walk and, what's more, one where you will have to try very hard to get lost - at least in the downhill direction which we followed.

We did plan to get the 09.45 501 bus from Teluk Bahang, but the schedule slipped more than a little and it was the 12.00 service that we caught (note since then the bus has been retimed, see above). We got out at the appointed spot, some 400 metres before the summit. As I walked up, my wicked wife said "There's a gate!". She might have added that it was wide open...

Soon we could hear dogs barking up ahead but never fear, while the 4 wheel road finished, a motorbike track continued to the left. Soon we were into a durian estate, a little overgrown as it was out of season.

Although we would need to climb eventually, for the time being we had to keep going down. We passed a small shrine and continued, conscious that the path we had followed to Pantai Acheh previously was some way above us.

We passed a wooden bridge and a house, just as the instructions suggested, never mind that they actually referred to the same features some way further on.

We had a last glimpse of the coconut plantation and plunged into the mature rubber, the path was rather better than I had been led to expect.

Best of all, there were absolutely no junctions over which to fret, it was pure relaxation under the canopy. Finally the path opened out and we had a durian estate in front of us, the trespass notice was difficult to read as it was upside down...

'

Ahead lay the real wooden bridge and house. The only occupant wasn't dressed to welcome a lady but he knew exactly what we wanted, even if we seemed to have forgotten our bicycles.

We quickly made friends and he told us to follow the path to the left up the hill.

Actually it appeared we had no choice and at the top of the orchard we found the pile of logs which were almost the last instructions from Dave.

What I had expected to be the most challenging part of the walk turned out to be anything but. We soon joined another motorbike trail, this is it looking back, I'm not sure where the left fork leads to, it must be towards the Teluk Bahang Dam. If you are doing this walk in the reverse direction and don't want to find out, take care here to turn right as it's not that obvious a junction. At the top of the first rise we came upon this incomplete house, on the post next to Yuehong are stickers from some 2012 mountain bike jamboree (http://www.kotrt.com.my/kayuh_lasak_overview.html (link broken by December 2021) and http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/157433641) which confirmed that among certain sections of the 'fresh air community' this is actually a well known trail, hardly a 'Secret Garden' at all.

Yuehong opted for some practical botany with the abandoned house plants and on up we went to the ridge, in Penang it's impossible to climb without breaking sweat but this was as comfortable as they come; the water bottles on my back had barely been touched.

So down we went, into the durians, passing the remains of a house and entering an area which had been cleared for replanting in a less than professional way with some of the gullies badly eroded by the rain.

We got to another hut, almost inevitably there was a bird's nest factory here broadcasting twittering noises to attract customers. Less usual were these two farm birds, which looked like Guinea Fowl to me. Anyway if you are coming up this way in reverse, just make sure you take the path to the right at the junction behind Yuehong. 

We passed another junction and just across the small valley was another trail, almost certainly the one we had come down on our previous venture here.

Ahead was a lockable gate and then we were on the last section to Pantai Acheh. If you are going in the opposite direction and the gate is locked, it would be very easy to take the other path and cross over not so far further up.

I could almost smell the Tiger, we exited the Jalan Kampung and this time went straight ahead past this landmark, Dewan JKKK.

We came out just beyond the school and temple, on the right is a shop with a post box outside it. I was panting but Yuehong was apprehensive as we had probably missed the 14.00 404 bus and with an hour and a half till the next one she was worried she might have to carry her husband on to it.

Actually the 404 bus was running just a little bit late giving us enough time to organise some liquid takeaways, actually more than enough as on arrival the driver vanished into the same coffee shop to collect a takeaway too. I persuaded Yuehong to spend our time waiting for the next 501 at Sungai Pinang instead of going on to Balik Pulau where we would be for only a short time. A happy choice as we could admire the old Chinese school and Yuehong could sample the wares of the travelling salesman, a delicious coated sticky rice packed with calories no doubt.

I had no trouble locating a supply of Tiger at a very good price, no doubt reflecting the fact that it had actually been brewed in Vietnam. In no time, the 15.15 501 bus turned up and with a Nasi Kandar take-away from Teluk Bahang for dinner we were actually home by 17.00. This is a wonderful walk, I'd promote it to my top ten to replace the existing entry for this area except that it lacks the scenery of the alternative route, albeit that getting the views involves walking in countryside more exposed to the sun.