Penang Hills and Trails - The Buddha's Revenge
Malihom to Anjung Indah

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.

IMPORTANT

As of January 2024, the route south from Anjung Indah has been blocked by a new owner with a security fence backed up by razor wire.

This walk owes much to Peter van der Lans who had described to us the 'new section' in the middle in advance.

The theme of the current visit has been 'ridge paths' or perhaps more accurately 'ridge trails', the remains of largely forgotten and disused paths that followed the ridges of the island's hills. With very few developed paths left to be discovered, we have chosen to try to connect them together and the various sketch maps I have drawn, particularly of the southern half of the island now show rather fewer large blank areas as a result. Today's walk was designed to look at the ridge between Malihom and Anjung Indah. Beyond Malihom at the south-west end, one part of the ridge swings to the left above Teluk Kumbar and down to Bayan Lepas, being quite overgrown for the most part. The other descends rapidly to the pass below Bukit Genting, the presence of the nearby road to Malihom is a disincentive to explore it.

For pictures and details about how to access Malihom, please read the Bukit Pondok Upeh report, basically you get off the 401/401E bus near the top of the climb from Bukit Genting and follow the access road.

As usual, we turned right at the corkscrew statue and made our way round below the 'hotel complex'. At electricity pole OJK 93 26 where the path starts to descend, we turned left up what will soon become a full concrete path. It was hot, overcast and very muggy, conditions which do not suit Madam at all.

We maintained height by keeping left and promptly a Kingfisher shot out of a hole in bank, definitely an adaptable bird. I got a smile when we entered the rubber, she had yet to meet her first mosquito, it wouldn't be long now.

Where the road goes left and down to Pondok Upeh, we continued on the ridge. It looks overgrown but it is actually quite clear.

Very soon, we could see the other branch of the road and ahead of us the area occupied by an anonymous Buddhist meditation centre with a large collection of black plastic water barrels. Now if you (probably unknowingly) occupy part of a traditional ridge trail then you shouldn't be too surprised when hikers turn up from time to time.

The area to the left is occupied, as are parts of the ridge but they have enclosed the overgrown area to the right starting down the hill too and that makes it more than difficult to pass through. That just invites people to climb over the fence and join the road beyond.

The sensitive area is the Meditation Centre at the top, so we were sure to turn right as soon as we could. Even so, we bumped into two men and a dog who were not exactly pleased to see us and were no doubt thinking very un-Buddhist thoughts. I explained what we were doing and how we would keep out of the developed areas and I think they worked out that we were harmless. Besides there was not a great deal they could have done about it, so we got some kind of friendly wave as we disappeared into the old rubber.

Now ideally we would have stayed on the road a little longer but we soon found the concrete path down to their far boundary fence. Madam slipped on a terrace and wasn't greatly impressed by having to cross the fence, the fact it was not much more than half the normal height here was clearly evidence of the trickle of walkers who had come along here.

To me there was nothing wrong with the trail at all, it was old rubber which had been tapped in the not too distant past and someone reluctantly agreed. Very soon we could see secondary jungle ahead, an indicator that we were approaching a cultivated area which would be the top of the FCS Fruit Farm based on the road way below us. The best way out seemed to be go down a few terraces and about now Yuehong was struck by the Buddha's revenge, namely swarms of large biting ants, as usual they seemed to find my smell too offensive to invade.

'Look at the view' I said as I swigged my celebratory Tiger but it was no good, they had even occupied her walking stick which I had to brush clear before we could restart after our snack.

I got a respite for 5 minutes as the area ahead was clear. Her boots were full of all sorts of undesirable material but it gave me a chance to record the view looking back. It looks most unpromising, but if you come this way, follow the edge of the orchard to the right until you can see a way into the rubber, scramble up to the ridge and then it's quite clear. Today, ahead of  us was a tiny remnant of the forest that once covered this part of the the hills.

We had been here before, the path to the right of the hut leads down to a house occupied by a family with some lovely children and a couple of totally obnoxious dogs. It didn't really matter as I wanted to follow the ridge up the climb ahead. There's a path of sorts under that long grass, but what we didn't know was that there was a second and much better organised army of ants lying in wait to ambush Yuehong.

They got just about anywhere an ant could get including her ears and hair and since they don't understand Chinese or English, I got the full benefit of her displeasure instead. Me? I blame the weather this year for bringing out the insects in force. There was just one last section of untapped rubber before we crossed to the next estate which I knew would be a lot clearer.

It was, but I kept my distance and waited for the storm to blow over as it always does, eventually. About now, I had managed to put a large thumb print on my lens which wiped out part of the photographic record. Anyway we came to the col above 'The Carpet' and I knew that the third new section of ridge path ahead was going to have to wait for another day in the indefinite future. It's by far the toughest of the three and besides it was 14.30 and too late to start on it. So the choice was the short straight 'on down' to Jalan Tun Sardon above Balik Pulau or the rather longer and flatter route to Anjung Indah and I was very pleased when Yuehong chose the latter. Down we went to the first birds nest factory and along the road.

It's one of our favourites and there wasn't an ant in sight. We just had to remember to take the first path left.

Now the path up from the new big house below is reopened, the required straight ahead path is getting overgrown, but after the next T junction it is clear.

There is a discontinuity between estates ahead. We could either carry on and then scramble down or turn right and left and scramble up. The former appeared preferable especially as the durians had just been cleared of overgrowth. We quickly joined our exit path.

In no time we had joined the path down from the small mast and ahead was the road out. One of the dogs here has the nastiest looking set of teeth on the island, but the heat must have affected him because we were allowed to pass without hindrance which was a blessed relief in the light of what had gone on before.

We had just 15 minutes to wait for a bus and, as I always try to do, I kept my distance from the other passengers. I ate my dinner and kept quiet and fortunately we had an immediate connection at Teluk Bahang. Our next two walks are scheduled with Mike Gibby. The first is of his choice and I just pray there aren't too many insects, the second is our choice and I have already lined up a totally safe, bland route between Sungai Rusa and Balik Pulau which is so well reported already that I expect to keep the camera in the bag throughout.