Penang Hills and Trails - The Road to Nowhere
Bukit Elvira

This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a Grade 3 walk, based mainly on length although there is a short awkward section. It's another cracking walk and if you follow the instructions carefully you'll find it less tiring than we did. Bukit Elvira was named after the wife of Reverend Robert Hutchings, best known as the founder of the Penang Free School and who apparently had a house there at one time. 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.

Some two weeks earlier we had taken the concrete road from the west side of Air Itam Dam up to the five way junction and continued on to Titi Kerawang. A week later we had come through the same junction as part of a walk from Tiger Hill through the valley below it and back to Air Itam. There remained just the fifth path to check out, a concrete road which Forest Ang's book states leads to Titi Kerawang but gives no details. As we found out on this walk, this is incorrect.

We skipped our home breakfast as we knew we would be starting at Yuehong's favourite cake shop in Air Itam. That's a box full of goodies in the bag and on the other side of the road we collected a couple of giant steam buns which disappeared very early on; just after we saw evidence, albeit hardly needed, that 'customers' of Sitavana Vihara were not only 'well heeled' but did not normally need to earn merit by walking up to it as we had done.

We're both pretty fit these days and even with stops for snacks we were up at the five way junction the best part of an hour quicker than our first visit. I was a little surprised when the concrete road continued to climb, effectively it was following the course of the old ridge path which branched off left at one stage - it would have led to the top of Bukit Elvira if it was still useable, but it was not on today's agenda, instead we skirted the summit. (The assumption was indeed correct, some three years later I went up to Elvira in February 2016.) 

There were no paths on offer at all on the right hand side and eventually the road started to go down. As we came out of the forest, there was a small shrine on the right under a large tree:

Out in the open, there was a great view. That's the airport and Batu Maung on the left and Balik Pulau below on the right. In the left centre is the 'temple with the view' Bao Tian Gong.

Going down the view changed slightly, immediately in front of us we could see a rather overgrown fruit orchard and far beyond the hills above Pulau Betong, later we would reach the small hut in the right centre:

On one of the hairpin bends we found someone mending the road. "Yes", he told Yuehong, "I have been told there is a small path down to Balik Pulau although I have never used it." So we happily continued down through the small shed after which the trail got appreciably narrower.

Much worse was to come, the trail finished completely with just concrete steps ahead of us, but there was obviously a hut above us (see panorama above) so we climbed the concrete stairs. When we got to the top there was no way onwards at all, ahead was secondary jungle. Now you have to remember that the average peasant in these parts is not very fluent in Mandarin Chinese and understandably Yuehong doesn't always get their exact meaning. But she said it was funny because although he had mentioned steps, he had said they went downwards... So back we went until we found some steps down and sure enough this led to another house. Sadly although I spent 10 minutes checking, there was also no apparent path out of here either. It seemed we had finally found Penang's 'Road to Nowhere', frustrating as we were obviously not that far from more cultivated land.

Given that we were some way down from the summit, this was very unwelcome news, we don't 'do' undefined jungle bashes (Yuehong is inflexible on that one, she doesn't normally do even overgrown paths) and would have to retrace our steps and find our way back out along known trails. So we trudged back up the hill until we got back to the road works.

At which point, as so often seems to happen to us, a miracle occurred. A white knight in the form of the owner of the plantation appeared on his motor bike on one of his very occasional visits to the property - normally he would have been playing the stock exchange at home to pay for the education of his seven children and his other indulgencies. Being educated at Jelutong Secondary School in the good old days he spoke perfect Penang English. "You're lost lah? I can show you the right way lah." He explained he had bought the area as an investment some time back and had hoped to develop it as a not-for-profit Buddhist meditation centre which explained the various empty houses. Back we went until we came to the steps down again, they are easy to miss but are just by the best view of Bao Tian Gong. At the bottom, it was necessary to follow the flat area to the right of the house for about 50 metres until it became totally overgrown with weeds - something I had also done more than half an hour earlier. Now, he ploughed across a small dip to the left and came out under a tree past which ran a small water pipe. He explained that it was for the houses below and all we had to do was follow it down... We thanked him profusely and somewhat gingerly followed his instructions, certainly Yuehong would never have followed me if I had suggested using the route!

But given the alternative of a retreat up the hill, it wasn't really that bad, but you would be hard pressed to tell we were following a half decent path from the pictures... I don't have to do the 'gentleman' thing any more, for the most part Yuehong is well able to look after herself and frankly, when she can't it's just as well to keep some kind of distance away.

After a short while, we were into somewhat overgrown rubber and could see a house below us. We came out just beyond it as the path did a 180 degree turn to drop down.

I immediately recognised the spot, it was at the end of the concrete road which we had followed during our 'Challenging Times' disaster. So all uncertainty was removed at a stroke and all we had to do was follow the concrete road down to Balik Pulau, this time we had enough energy left to appreciate the view towards Pulau Betong at the junction (with the electricity sub-station) from where we headed left down into the valley towards the cemeteries.

We had obviously lost some time in the toing and froing, but still got into Balik Pulau in good time for the 17.30 501 bus to Teluk Bahang, so we restocked on rambutans, Yuehong got herself an ice cream and I raided the fridge of one of the sundry stores. The rest of the day was a repeat of our normal procedure with a Nasi Kandar in Teluk Bahang between buses. And now Yuehong has a good stick to beat any dogs that cross her path.

If you want to approach the Bukit Elvira area from Balik Pulau, it's not difficult. Take the Air Itam road out of town past the Sacred Heart and St. George's schools and turn left for the signposted catholic cemetery. Follow the main concrete road up the hill through the eventual zig-zags. There are several turn offs, but if in doubt just follow the route of the main electricity line. After the substation at the small col, follow the concrete road eastwards and upwards into the rubber, eventually it levels out and finishes at the house shown above. Just before the house, turn left and loop around above it. In the rubber the path joins a small water pipe which you will need to follow for some 500 metres. When you can see the small house on your right about 50 metres away, head across to it and behind it you will find the steps which lead up to the main concrete trail. Turn right and follow it up the hill into the jungle  past the shrine. When you get down to the five way junction you have a choice of four onward routes. Going clockwise, left is for Titi Kerawang, next is the Tiger Hill Valley, then there is the road down to the Air Itam Dam and finally there is the forest trail down to the col on the direct road between Balik Pulau and Air Itam Dam.