Penang Hills and Trails - The Voodoo Lily 
Titi Kerawang to Balik Pulau

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

The first half of this walk has the minimally altered text and the same pictures as our 'More of a Good Thing' walk, click here if you want to skip that and read about the second half of this walk for which we were joined by fellow masochist and old friend from Bangkok, John Baker.

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

Some time earlier we had walked into the hills above Titi Kerawang and back again down a different route. It was a terrific experience and unusually, we decided to go back to the same area for our last walk of our present session in Penang. It was not something to be done lightly as it was clear that what had been the downhill section would have innumerable junctions going up many of which would not be intuitive in terms of which way to go. Fortunately, I had made a careful record coming down and we were able to ascend without any problem at all. At the same time, we did want to look for alternative routes and spent some time checking these out.

If you intend to repeat this walk, please print it out and take it with you or at the very least make some notes. If you don't, then I promise you will get lost.

We started with a Roti Chanai in Teluk Bahang and joined up with John who had had the benefit of a full hotel breakfast. Thereafter it was the 10.30 501 bus which dropped us off at our kicking off point, the first path up after Titi Kerawang, it was more than a month since we had been here, but the ascent went faultlessly, it was just as well that the old pictures were taken on a fine day, because the haze had returned.

We always like to start off with a view but this was pretty mediocre, that new housing estate is yet another blot on the landscape. The first junction was easy, just straight ahead back into the old rubber.

This is a proper view. The round-the-island road is just off centre and the hills behind are the last peaks before the National Park, we've done some very nice walks in there.

Back into the welcome shade we went and after a zig-zag or two we came to the first critical junction - that small path on the right is what you want. We haven't tried left but we suspect it crosses the Titi Kerawang stream and goes up the into the durian plantations on the north side - with no known exit!

Time to check that the Gods are still on our side, that's Bukit Laksamana I think in the distance, it's unlikely to feature on these pages owing to the reported ropes on the major access paths. Yuehong is only teasing, don't take this or any other contour path, at least not yet...

This is critical junction number two. If you're stupid enough to turn right, you'll probably (not confirmed) find yourself on a path that zig-zags up to the top of the cultivated area and then stops. Instead turn left and treat yourself to what for a while is a gentle shaded trail.

Your reward will be another very nice view looking north. The new house is built in a splendid location we visited it back in early 2013.

That's Bukit Laksama ahead with a solitary nutmeg. Cue the next critical junction...

Do not take the curved exit left but continue straight ahead up what is to my eye, the minor path.

Don't ask me where the other path goes, this is what it looks like from above, it seems to be heading for yet another durian orchard. Our chosen trail winds up and above it and soon reaches the single most critical junction of the whole ascent. You need that small path behind Yuehong while the concrete version carries on up. I did check it for a while, it seemed intent on heading for the top of the cultivated area, not a good idea at all.

You've earned a gentle spell, follow this path straight across a four way junction with brand new concrete left and right. I didn't check either side but from what I know of this area they are of no use to us. Now if you've got this far, then you won't be tempted by what was obviously once a gateway to another orchard, just turn left.

The path now is not much used, it was totally clear in the dry season and if more hikers don't start to use it then it may be less pleasant to tramp in the future. For us, it's what it's all about, we had been down it three days earlier and consequently knew exactly where it would emerge. Firstly through wild ginger which was about to flower and then into overgrown rubber.

The rest was easy, Yuehong is very fit now and that succession of cold towels is working a treat. All the way to the temple is a wide road through first durians and then near jungle. I had fancied checking out this trail but a local handyman dissuaded us. As we confirmed later, it is most unlikely there are any conventional paths over the hill top to the other trail up from Titi Kerawang.

Since our previous visit, hundreds of devotees had been up to the temple on an auspicious day and had left an appropriate pile of rubbish (gone a month later), its environments are rapidly becoming a disgrace and there is now an excessive amount of concrete too. Continuing we passed a Kapok tree, something I don't see too often in Penang, the cotton like material in the pods can be used for stuffing in mattresses and pillows.

The avenue of ginger may look attractive but it's a signpost of former environmental degradation, after ferns, it's one of the first plants to colonise an abandoned cleared area. The flowers though are astonishingly beautiful.

Very soon we were at the turn back point, today it was pretty warm, so here's one I took last time. Yuehong is on the road from the temple and that's our onward trail on the left. This is the nearest thing I got to a sour face all day, the sun was beating down but I wanted to show the onward trail climbing out of the valley.

This area is a disaster compounded by guest workers wasting water on mint plantations. No wonder that right now there is no water left in the stream below Titi Kerawang after what little gets that far is abstracted for the water works. Anyway, we were glad to pass on to the next section beyond the bamboo.

I had a hankering to explore below the next open area, previously we were discouraged by several farm workers but we had since found a connecting path with Sungai Rusa using the wide track seen on the right of this panorama.

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I dispatched Yuehong and John to follow that route 'just in case' and set off down the wide track. This was always going to be easy to start with, I had seen the route all the way down to the limit of the cultivated area.

I had a slight interest in tracks to the left although I was sure they would not go through. Looking across I could see where Yuehong and John would descend, but they would be sometime later as they had to cross the top of the valley first.

There was one major junction which I would have loved to investigate had I had the time but that wasn't going to be today! I took the right turn on down and soon came to a 'homestead'.

Just below was a small shrine dedicated to 'Datuk Merah', the origin of that will need a bit of research... The local dogs eventually caught a whiff of my special 'Burmese goat flavoured' shirt but by now it was too late.

On the road went, much to my amazement but in my heart I knew it wouldn't go on for ever. The concrete ran out and almost immediately so did the wide path. It was time to go 'off piste'.

The good news was that I knew it was not that far down to the next durian orchard, it would be steep but I wouldn't have to worry about Yuehong and her knees and although I was alone, I had had the benefit of a bottle of Tiger to spur me on. It had been a path once but quite a while ago. Parts of it were steep where the old path had become blocked and I had to short cut down and parts were quite civilised. It's probably not clear from the pictures which is which. 

I am sure it would have taken a lot longer if my companions had been forced to come down this way and it certainly would have taken longer going up. Importantly I left the secondary jungle with two water pipes - coming back up, I knew I would have to turn left at this point. Well used this path was not, but the fallen tree indicated the way to continue.

And in no time, I was looking down on a familiar location, the top of the lower path that followed Sungai Air Puteh - not that many other people would have recognised it. If you are thinking of following the trail in the opposite direction then it shoots up to the right in the second picture - the main path is the one we had followed previously and which I now had to follow to meet Yuehong and John as I had asked them to wait at the top of it in case I had had to traverse the fruit orchard.

I now had a 20 minute wait for my companions, I had no Tiger to console me as I had left everything except the camera back by the bamboos. Yuehong dutifully made her thanks for the safe return of husband and prayed for a safe delivery down the next stretch which was always going to be challenging in parts owing to the known fallen trees.

.I can upload the first picture knowing safely that she is tucked up in bed and won't see it for a day or three. As for John he was holding up quite well considering he lives in an area like Bangkok where the only steep bits are the emergency steps in high rise buildings. 

Somewhere in this secondary jungle - I know exactly where but I'm not going to reveal it here for obvious reasons - we found this magnificent member of the Arum (lily) family. I believe it's an example of "Amorphophallus Prainii" and while not exactly totally unknown in Penang, it's rarely reported, see http://tungkinfoongsblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/amorphophallus-prainii-aka-voodoo-lily.html. In English, it's often called the "Voodoo Lily" or "Devil's tongue" and its Latin name is unsurprising given its shape. It's another one of those plants attracts pollenating insects with an awful decaying smell. Certainly, I've never seen one before and it was an absolute treasure.

.There was no more nonsense to come, we just had to break it gently to John that there was an ever such a small hill to climb because the road right would lead to the dreaded Botanica development.

.I think he had failed to work out just how tough Yuehong is these days and he took every opportunity to recharge his batteries.

We could have done the boring thing and gone down the concrete road which we knew would wind around and bring us gently down to the concrete path to Jalan Chai. Or we could take the possible short cut on offer to the right, fine except the path expired when we met the estate boundary and Yuehong was left with her unfavourite minor scramble.

However, it was definitely another 'no pain, no gain' situation as almost immediately we joined another concrete trail and while John didn't know it (and wouldn't have cared by now if he did), this short cut had saved at least 10 minutes walking.

Since we were now on very familiar territory, I put the camera away and let the knees take the strain on the final descent to Jalan Chai. At the start of the day, I had estimated that we would be in Balik Pulau around 17.00 and for quite a while it had been apparent that it had been a very good guess. We camped out on the round-the-island road and relaxed before the 17.30 501 bus turned up. After which we had a Nasi Kandar in Teluk Bahang, dropped into the shop next door to restock the fridge with Tiger and went home on a 102. As John was staying in the Jetty area he went on the next 101 and we'll see how he goes on what I have planned for him tomorrow. I've agreed a day off with Yuehong as she needs to pack up everything before we fly back to the UK later in the week.