Penang Hills and Trails - Above the Relau Pass
Relau to Balik Pulau

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, with a short Grade 3 element. 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.

As of January 2023. the key section below Nanshan which connects to the Balik Pulau valley appeared totally overgrown. Attempt to use it entirely at your own risk.

To me, 'Relau' means not the overgrown concrete jungle at the bottom of the hill but the area which was cut in two when they built Jan Tun Sardon 40 years ago. This walk takes you from the col at the top of the pass over the top and down to Balik Pulau. We did this walk in February 2015, but being lazy I didn't bother to take many pictures of the first half which come from a different walk in 2014 and I have recycled words and pictures. You should have no difficulty spotting where the 2015 bit takes over.

Having come from Balik Pulau we had some begging to do get the bus driver to drop us at the col but he kindly obliged - there's no real stopping point. The beaming smile was because she has a brand new hi-tech walking stick and on my back is a super new mini rucksack from a UK charity shop (a snip at GBP 8) which has a special cold compartment with three iced towels for her and which in future will carry a cold bottle of Tiger for me in addition to the usual water. Well that's what I wrote last year and now we have two sticks, two bags, a bottle of water, two Tigers, a thermos with ice cubes and just one cold towel. Call it acclimatisation or whatever but the hills and the island seem to be shrinking as we get fitter and fitter.

Never mind the stick looks like an assault rifle, it's a great route indicator, after a left at a Y, the first two major junctions require a right and a left and then it's straightforward. We'd both enjoyed a very good UK Christmas and these walks are very necessary to get us both back into shape.

Knowing the route, in almost no time we were into the vegetable gardens, behind Yuehong is an area of wild ginger and we took the narrow trail off after the small bridge up to the upper Nanshan gardens.

The route up through the ginger is probably a lot easier going up rather than down and as long as you're careful you'll soon come up to a small hut and another 100 metres on is a 5 way junction at a small col. It's a good place to take a break as the view from this area is pretty impressive. Having said that, it doesn't bear close inspection, but compared to 2014 the site of the former Lee rubber factory has been cleared.

Take the path ahead to the right which winds down to the 6 way Nanshan Highlands junction. From here take the track which goes straight down in the direction of Balik Pulau until you reach the hut shown below. The trail goes between the green plastic walls.

We knew to ignore a turning up the hill and this becomes a seriously nice path until it finishes in an open area with durians. There is no easy way through the section ahead but I had been here recently and the account below, I believe, offers the least awkward approach.

Basically, we followed the route of the stream below the hut which soon comes to the key big rock in the streambed. Crossing it we found our way through the bananas on the right and then down the smaller rocks until you come out at the other end.

Along the way there's the encouragement of the sight of the rubber ahead. There was no point in explaining to Yuehong that I had been through here three times a few days earlier to try to find here something better, I just ignore that 'look' drunk my Tiger and waited for her brighten up as she surely would on the paths to come.

That's a hut looking down and there's another path up to the left (to be investigated soon as it's under development) and another to the right going over a bridge. Of course, the way down is behind the hut. Not much further down was the further hut and just beyond it a substantial house and the junction shown below looking up. This time we took the road to the right, behind the camera the road climbs before dropping down to the Air Itam to Balik Pulau road - it represents unnecessary effort!

In no time we found this junction just before another house and going down to the right we soon came to the road as expected. We've never been up it, the area beyond the inevitable house as far as we know it impenetrable jungle, I'll save it for a time when I'm bored to confirm it.

The road has a very sensible barrier to keep out unwanted visitors, there's no room to turn and once they've reversed out all the way down the hill they won't think of returning. The big smile on Yuehong's face says we have reached the road over from Air Itam.

I've got no fundamental objection to people building houses up here, but surely there's got to be a better way of doing it than trying to start with a 'clean slate'? When we built our own country house in Jiaojiehe in China we left all the old trees and indeed added plenty more.

One thing I can be sure of and that it that the owner of this 'bungalow-to-be' will never raise a sweat walking the hills around his new property. As it was 20 minutes later we were back in Bali Pulau in time for some refreshment.