Penang Hills and Trails - Sungai Air Puteh 1
Continuing the Challenge

This is one 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.

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.

Look at a terrain map of Penang and you will see the Sungai Air Puteh valley pointing like a dagger straight towards the heart of Penang Hill rising from just east of Sungai Rusa, midway between Balik Pulau and Sungai Pinang.

We had first visited this area approaching from Jalan Chai near Balik Pulau. We had looked up at a cultivated area above the valley which at the time we did not know was accessible by the concrete road from Titi Kerawang. We asked a farmer below about the possibility of climbing up the valley and he said words to the effect: "Yes, but the path is very overgrown and difficult to find." Later we asked other farmers at the top and they said "'no way". That's what I call a challenge.

So once again we were on the 10.30 501 bus from Teluk Bahang and we had no choice but to walk up through the vile Botanica housing estate - the route description is on another page describing a walk over the hill to Sungai Rusa. We carried straight on up past the turning to the left which we had used to get to Sungai Rusa.

The next junction was as far on today's route as we had been before, we had come down from the right on our way from Jalan Chai. Now we turned left, the sign indicated the Ratanagiri Bhavanarama (Forest Meditation Resort).

I had anticipated that the road would lead to the Resort and we would look for a path off but in fact it split in two and we chose the left side as that was nearer to the stream. In front of us we found a house (looking back we could see Pulau Betong) and the road continued beyond it. It steadily grew narrower and we passed under a large rock (in the style of the Golden Rock of Kyaiktiyo in Burma) which had been mentioned by one of the locals so things were looking promising. Round the corner we went and the path continued upwards; the views back were getting better.

The good path ended at this bridge, beyond was yet another bird's nest factory, as later seen from above.

A smaller path, however, led upwards and on it we found an encouraging remnant from the Hash Rainforest Challenge of December 8th 2012. This was yet another piece in the puzzle as we knew they had started to climb Bukit Elvira (way back near Balik Pulau) and we had seen signs of their trail near the Titi Kerawang Concrete Road above us earlier this year. Still the view got better...

In this sort of case, you just keep your fingers crossed and keep climbing, we knew that eventually we would have to cross an overgrown, even jungle area, if we were to make it through. Crunch time was just around the corner, the fruit orchard trail would go to the right (maybe it would go through but for the time being that's an unanswered question) but the hash trail went left past these large bamboos.

The best I can say about this path is that it was 'underused', it had once been concrete but it was breaking up and the gingers were growing up through it. These days I have mixed feeling about the hash in Penang, but in this case their footprints were reassuring and I am sure the path would have been impassable without their mass use of it. Often it was not so much a path as a channel through the undergrowth.

In fact, this trail had been used not only on December 8th 2012, but also between 9th and 11th March 2012 (on the Malaysian Nash Hash) if some of the markers were to be believed. The concrete turned to sand and even though I offered to lead the way, I was relegated to tail end Charlie. Suddenly we were confronted with a section of recently felled trees. It was not the disaster it might have seemed because we could see that there was a fruit orchard just above us, hence Yuehong's smile although the temporary diversion was the hardest part of the whole day's walk.

We now knew that we had successfully made the transit and could relax and look back...

I suspect that this trail dated from the time before the concrete road above had been built and had afterwards fallen into disuse. Ahead of us was a small blockage which could safely be ignored and beyond the way was open to the top. We now had no further need for the hash paper and where it went from here, I neither know nor care!

There was a huge smile on Yuehong's face, a far cry from her last venture 'off piste', just to her right is a flight of steps which should be ignored by anyone doing this walk in the opposite direction. More importantly, it was time to thank the gods for yet another safe deliverance.

The trail broadened, we could even see a motorbike parked ahead and these days even the local wolf pack lying in ambush holds no terrors for Yuehong.

We knew exactly where we were, confirmation from a guest worker was hardly needed. It was lunchtime, using a convenient shady bush. For me it was a double-barreled day and the first Tiger slipped down in the sure knowledge that we were close to familiar territory.

On up we wound and as we rounded one bend, we discovered that someone had anticipated our needs...

Very nice, I nearly broke open the second Tiger...

While we were the beneficiaries of the clearance, I have to say parts of it are a mess. Ferns are always a sign of bad management and, as for bananas, the politest description is inappropriate.

And that was almost that. We were now on the Titi Kerawang Concrete Road walking through the rubber. A couple of the inhabitants of the dog farm startled Yuehong so much that she temporarily lost her hat and soon we came to the start of the main descent. That's a brand new sign warning motorised traffic that there is a barrier in 2 km which they will not be able to pass without authority. An excellent development in my book as this area is totally unsuited to lazy tourists. 

We passed this lovely orange flowered tree - the same type as we had seen near Nibbinda no doubt. Yuehong wasn't the only one smiling, we were making excellent time and were nearing the view point where we could afford to rest up for an hour or so.

 I had unfinished business - a second Tiger - and Yuehong curled up. That will have to do for the last view of the day.

The afternoon light was glorious and if you want to know why Yuehong is so happy, then it might be because we had found a high quality ripe durian which seemed to have fallen off the back of a motorbike, so damaging itself that it was no longer fit for sale.

The hi-tech barrier was still in place and in theory we should have had plenty of time to walk round to Titi Kerawang for the 17.30 501 bus. However, it was running earlier than normal and fortunately we were well placed to stop it when it surprised us - there was a relief driver in charge. In fact the only sour part of the day was the amount of plastic 'Macau Trailhiker' rubbish which we removed from the part of the concrete road we followed. It's inexcusable bad manners not to use either biodegradable markers or remove markers afterwards if they are made of plastic. MT stands for international shits in other words...

As you can see we had our usual Nasi kandar in Teluk Bahang. I was so laid back that while I remembered to restock the fridge, I forgot to buy any bread for breakfast... Never mind, it had been an absolutely cracking outing.