Penang Hills and Trails - Sungai Ara Reprise Part 1
541

This is one 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.

Sometimes it seems that Malaysians have never read the story about 'killing the goose that laid the golden eggs'. Hardly a week passes without some outrageous scheme surfacing, recently it was a proposal for a 300 bedroom hotel on the top of Penang Hill. For some years the dream has been to use the money thrown up by filling in the bays between Teluk Kumbar and Gertak Sanggul to finance a modern (public) transport system for the island and associated with this is a plan to drive a road up the Sungai Ara valley and across to Teluk Kumbar. Now it so happens that this valley is the longest undeveloped valley left on the island and with hills covered in fruit orchards and old rubber estates it is used for recreational purposes by many people who live on the south of the island. During our Sunday walk we must have met well over 100 people hiking and cycling here and more were swimming in the rock pools of the stream. As a foreigner I don't have a vote of course and since most likely I will no longer be walking by the time anything happens, I have every excuse not to care. But I do, I knew this area over 40 years ago when I worked here and while the developers have destroyed all the fruit orchards in Sungai Dua, Sungai Ara and Relau, this area is hardly changed and it's beautiful. A road through the middle would be like a stake through the heart to me.

We don't get here at all often because it's a long journey from home. It needs 4 buses if we come the pretty way via Teluk Bahang and Balik Pulau or two if we go the uncivilised way via George Ttown, but both can take well over two hours. Today we had the use of a car which we had hired for a trip to Lower Perak and it was an ideal opportunity to go back to an area we had not visited since March 2013. My plan was to explore to the left of the stream and to this end we took the car up the track to the mountain bikers' shelter and we chose to go up the old concrete trail opposite.

It was passable but obviously barely used and came to an end with this corrugated iron barrier.

Fortunately, it was easy to skip round the side and below was the end of a concrete trail which we joined, I was feeling quite pleased with myself.

Ahead we went past a friendly Chinese gentleman sorting his young trees and passed his house, joining a concrete road which he had told us would lead to a path up the hill.

I should have smelt a rat when I saw the electricity pole with OJK 81 12 on it because it would have come from further up the Sungai Ara Valley by the Fig Tree Hill Resort. Even after we talked with some hikers and mountain bikers the penny didn't drop. As advised we took the concrete path as opposed to the road and only when we came to the distinctive open gate did I realise that we were on the route which I had dubbed 'cross country'. almost exactly 100 walks ago when Yuehong was finding things much harder going.

Of course, it was like going on a brand new walk as far as she was concerned. We could have done without the mountain biker who decided to broadcast his favourite music, fortunately it was not of the kind that might have tempted Yuehong to sing along.

Last time we came, the required path to the left was so nondescript that we wasted some considerable time checking out the house at the end of the concrete path to the right. Today the tyre tracks made it clear which way we were to go. It's now almost as fashionable as 'The Carpet' on the other side of the valley to the extent that an entrepreneur has erected a refreshment shelter known as '541' where he prepares food and drink at the weekends. No wonder we didn't recognise it because it's only a year or so old.

It was proving an ideal walk for Yuehong, particularly when we got to the shady bit that more or less followed a contour.

Apparently we could ignore the 'trespassers' sign as it was directed only at those who might want to cut down trees.

Emerging into a durian estate we spotted a path going down to the left, with the concrete road known not to be too far ahead it offered a good alternative. Continuing after a quick bite, it went down a bit and then crossed a bridge into some old rubber. 

It was never less than excellent hiking, while there were small paths off at one point they were clearly just used by rubber tappers.

As we came to an abandoned house, the path turned to concrete, a sure sign that we would not have to turn back.

There were a few more durians and then, unfortunately, we came to a recognisable landmark which meant that we were fated to come down in Bayan Lepas.

The camera went away but as we came down, it re-emerged. There's a brand new condo going up here right on the edge of the greenery, judging from its approach road to be, they'll be asking near top dollar. Actually they'll probably find it difficult to achieve because right opposite is a block of flats obviously reserved for those 'on a low income'. The sort of people in other words who believe in disposing of their rubbish by throwing it out of their windows... I know which group of Malaysians they are from but it wouldn't be helpful to say..

We held our noses and walked past to the point where the 302 bus (Jetty to Batu Maung and vv) takes a diversion and eventually one turned up and deposited us back at the Jalan Kenari turning where I had my earliest dinner ever. Of course, the fact that we had gone too far up the valley before turning left condemned us to a long walk back to the car but it was hardly challenging.

The following day I had to return the car nearby, so we agreed to come back again and try to do our originally intended walk... You can now read how we got on.