Penang Hills and Trails - Bayan Lepas Explorer Part 1
Bukit Papan

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 4 walk, unsuitable for those without experience of walking in overgrown areas without formal paths! 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.

There are two areas above Bayan Lepas which are cultivated, one readily accessible from the 'Green Mosque' and the other from Lengkuk Kelicap. Connections between the two are almost non-existent as the map shows, the one path as seen below being in dubious condition. All this area seemed to have been rubber at one stage, unlike other similar areas only a small part has been converted to fruit, the rest simply abandoned. I am sure there are many wild boar living there.

Today we would try to find our way from the area next to the coconut farm on the ridge with the southern fruit orchards, somewhere we had not been for 4 years. Peter van der Lans had looked here relatively recently, he had found ways through but he would be the last to describe them as elegant.

The kicking off point was beside the 30+ storey new Orchard Ville condominium in Lengkuk Kelicap off Persiaran Kelicap between Sungai Ara and Bayan Lepas. Until they dig out the hillside, the residents have a great view behind no doubt the salesman called it 'jungle' but of course it's not. In front, sadly, they have a block of low cost flats whose residents delight in throwing their rubbish off their balconies... This is a part of the island that Yuehong compares unfavourably with Shenzhen, a place where I was once asked what I would do if I was forced to live in it and I replied "Jump out of the window." Despite appearances, it is definitely not 'Cleaner, Greener Penang' and the road is lined with what some might describe as 'Cottage Industries'. The land to the side was once full of durian trees, now they are dead or dying, apparent victims of water pollution. I wouldn't advise eating the vegetables grown there.

Thank goodness, we soon left all that behind and reached the small Chinese shrine where this time we would continue straight up.

The first turning on the right leads a short way just to a house (or two), the second one leads eventually to the coconut farm on the ridge.

I had followed this path on the left on a previous hike. It turned out to be a disastrous dead end about half way down the hill towards Bayan Lepas. Not wanting to go back up I had blundered on down... Around the corner was a newly cleared area which will become another fruit orchard, the path to the left at the end leads to an abandoned house. The junction on the right leads to a large vegetable patch. 

It's not unattractive but there's plenty of evidence of the area's former existence. When I last checked it this path on the right ran a short way up the hillside and finished.

We skirted this newly cleared area where a path once went off at the end of it. It is currently blocked by a fallen prickly palm, but I went round that and followed it for a couple of hundred yards. That was still viable but when I came to a tree across it, I said to myself 'enough we can do this another time'. (Yes, someone had put his dirty finger on the camera lens.)

We continued to the ridge where what passes for 'an adventure' would start. For Yuehong that means applying a layer of insect repellant as every mosquito in Penang - and there must be billions - finds her irresistible. From a previous recce, I knew we could avoid the fern patch. We never rush, the climb up had taken 1¼ hours.

Now Plan A was that we would try to follow the ridge along and down, plan B was to get to the small Chinese settlement which lay some way below it. However, it would have helped if I had looked closely at the contours on my maps before we set out. Anyway, this seems to be quite a dry area and underneath the trees was open and inviting. I did notice at first that we could see something of Teluk Kumbar on the right, but ahead was so enticing that I failed to notice it had soon disappeared. It seems that the ridge had taken a right turn.

In any case the area to our right looked a bit overgrown and then we came to what were distinct terraces which inevitably slowed progress. I realised that we were too far down and it was time to ask for a second opinion from Yuehong's toy. It politely suggested we needed a right turn of some kind otherwise the rest of the afternoon might be quite 'interesting'. By now the estate was more overgrown but by no means impenetrable.

 We knew we were making progress when we saw signs of tapping activity. However, below was a large area of dense ginger which we chose to skirt but very soon we could see it was quite clear below us with a small stream. It was a little muddy, no doubt from the wild boar's attention but east to cross.

There was a small ridge ahead and it made sense to climb up to it but the first terrace brought excellent news as we hit a currently used tappers' path. The trees were more than mature but the sticky white liquid was dripping well.

Without actually trying we had executed Plan B perfectly and emerged just behind a house. It may not look much from behind but round the front was a fair imitation of an English country garden. There are several houses here each with a dog or three but no one seemed to be at home in any of them.

Just beyond is a small Chinese temple with a well stocked fish pond, some of the carp were distinctly on the large side, I do hope our own goldfish back home never reach their size because we shall then need a new, larger pond. It was the perfect place for a refreshment break. Without any idea of how long it would take I had warned Yuehong to be prepared for a 2 hour stint, but it had taken just an hour to get through. Easy la! We still had some kind of Plan A to execute and tomorrow would be a good time to try that, it certainly helped that there was a good path leading from next to the temple in the right direction.

I, at least, knew exactly what we would find on the way down, but Yuehong too was relaxed as the people living here clearly didn't get in and out the way we had come. The first picture shows the view back as we left the settlement. The next three show some of the early landmarks with the path off to the right being the one which, at one time, had led to the route we had come up from Bayan Lepas. It's one we need to check as 4 years is a long time in the life of a path.

That's a new road going in but the valley out is extremely attractive, there a babbling brook in it with small waterfalls, some can just be heard, others glimpsed through the vegetation.

The concrete steps to a terrace were a familiar landmark and when we were offered a near horizontal path to the left, it was time to leave what was now a concrete road. It's actually quite attractive but it comes out by the 'green mosque' at the west end of Bayan Lepas which is now dwarfed by a flyover. From there it would be a most unattractive walk for around 1km back to where Mavis was parked.

There are several migrant worker families based along here, when I had investigated this route before they claimed it was a dead end, but they had never needed to look.

That was our destination, Orchard Ville across the trees. The good path ends at a rubber collection point.

Rather foolishly, I had previously maintained height by following the contour path behind the tank but that made for a very steep final descent. Instead, we now took the other path left just before it and this led gently into a shaded valley.

Soon we came to a water tank and followed the streambed. Unwisely I left it and went into the long grass and Yuehong, not being able to see where she was going managed to twist her knee. Never mind, there was a concrete road ahead and she could 'walk it off' gently.

In front yet more monsters were being thrown up, when we had first come up this path there were trees on both sides.

The hills here are not high, not even 300 metres so we had been out for just under 4 hours in all but it had been a satisfying outing. I had to pop up the hill to retrieve Mavis and we rounded off the trip with a visit to Yuehong's favourite Yo Yo Huat in Sungai Ara and drove home. Click here for the next day's walk which was our attempt at Plan A but in the opposite direction.