Penang Hills and Trails - Bayan Lepas Explorer Part 3
Almost 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 being in dubious condition and not checked for a long time - it's on my 'list'. 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 here.

This report is a combination of three walks, the first was never intended to explore today's new territory, the second was not entirely successful which led to me returning to base to analyse topographical data. In the event, the third hike was successful but perhaps not in the way I had intended.

This was our kicking off point point for all three hikes, behind the Orchard Ville condo off Lengkuk Kelicap. The first 15 pictures (and the text) are from the first hike. If you want to skip that, click here.

At the bottom we turned right and if you were more than a little deaf you wouldn't know what was going on just behind. This time we turned left and did go up the streambed.

We climbed up past the water tank and on up again through the orchard.

We turned right and we were back where we belong. The migrant workers have little or nothing to their name but a smile is free and they always oblige.

This track is being widened and the hillside opposite is awaiting a rich man's pleasure.

We were soon past it, into the trees and out into what, for me, represents just about the most under-reported quality hiking in Penang.

The stream passes under the road and there's one of several small waterfalls here. Hopefully the new road going up left will soon blend in.

On both second and third hikes, we paused for rehydration between the sheds and turned right immediately after (by arrangement, Yuehong wore the same uniform again).

We went down to a hut and bridge across the stream beyond which point nothing looked familiar from our earlier visits nearly 5 years ago. Never mind, the path turned right and we followed it.

The path was clear and soon we came to a second hut.

The main path looped back right on the other side of the stream. This was the opposite direction to what was needed and I wasn't too unhappy when it finished at the edge of some old rubber terraces.

Back at the bridge, there was an indistinct path across the open orchard which we followed. If I had read our original report properly, I would have recognised the bridge and realised that we were again close to the path to Bukit Papan ('one minute'), but the area was even less clear now than it was 5 years ago. I am reluctant to admit that my memory is not what it was, it's not easy to keep fresh some 200+ walks. In this case, it's debatable whether doing 'due diligence' would actually have helped.

At the corner of the orchard it led into the 'forest' and we found another concrete path, this was 'too good to be true' stuff.

The path didn't see a lot of use, but even in the small gingers it was easy to follow as it climbed slightly.

Eventually as it rose to a col we could see rubber which had been tapped not so very long ago on our left, but there were some small trees down and it seemed the path died. Ahead was a slope down; from the noise it was towards the airport. Right was out of the question and it in going left it wasn't clear whether we would need to climb or just follow a contour / terraces left or even a combination of the two. Madam wasn't chuffed but it was time to retreat and we went up Bukit Papan on a similar route to the one we had taken before.

Back home, out came the maps and it was not difficult to identify the col. Simply, it should be a question of just following the contour and we ought to emerge in the large cleared area near where the concrete road came up from where we had parked Mavis and, as this was old rubber, we would have a terrace or two to keep us from gaining or losing too much height. That was the theory, in practice it wasn't quite as simple as there were various obstructions, which could be 'snipped' through or worked around above or below.

To preserve marital harmony, I was taking things very slowly and carefully and consulting on alternatives. After about half an hour, by which time I would say we had overall gained a little height, we could see a bright patch slightly below us which looked like a cultivated area.

It needed to be checked and indeed it was a durian orchard, as often is the case, we just needed to negotiate its overgrown boundary.

It wasn't one I recognised immediately and while I scratched my head, Yuehong took the opportunity to attack her water melon. Simply, where there is a durian orchard there has to be a path, but where was it?

Looking ahead at the same height, there was no obvious exit, and the orchard ran down the hill to our right towards our starting point. There was just one orchard that fitted the bill and that was one I had visited on my own during a previous walk with Mike Gibby.  I had learned the hard way that there was no exit at the bottom, but it did mean that we would have to go some way down to where I had come through.

Soon there was a distinct path under our feet and eventually we could see the desired proper path below us. That meant it was my lunchtime as we were no longer in unknown territory or, in other words, lost.

We could see Bayan Lepas and the second bridge as we followed the contour path.

I knew we would meet a concrete path and then have a bit of a climb. However, someone had put a black plastic fence in our way and it was weighed down at the bottom, probably to keep the wild boar out. Fortunately we noticed that there was a piece of string holding a 'gate' closed, so we did the necessary, climbed through and retied the string. 

The mess meant only one thing, the workers here were from Myanmar. I'm not sure if wild boar are partial to pineapples but there were quite a lot of them here.

Of course, we now had to get out again, but that just meant repeating the trick.

Afterwards, we completed the climb.

As we came over the ridge, we could see the familiar newly developed area and the recently cleared area above, at the top of which is one of the paths up Bukit Papan. I had originally hoped to come out on the other side of the bananas but this would do.

We walked down to the concrete road and Yuehong must have been happy as she suggested a break at the little Da Ba Gong temple. This would allow us to slightly delay our arrival at the YoYo in Sungai Ara until the optimum time when the evening's food would be ready. On the second occasion, when Yuehong's good humour had tested by what she considered an unnecessary repetition of a scrubby ascent, much of it had been restored at the farm on the top of the hill, where we had been offered what they call 'two good coconuts'. 

We'd had a late start as Yuehong needed an expensive new screen for her 'toy' which had lost out in a collision with our stone floor so a shorter than average walk was no bad thing. After the second hike, we had gone home along the east coast, but we had encountered traffic jams and heavy rain and it had taken forever. So this time, we went the pretty way, it's further via Balik Pulau and Teluk Bahang but it's a lot easier on the nerves. However, first we had to deliver a book from the UK for the son of the lady at the YoYo who needs help improving his English, she was of course delighted.