Penang Hills and Trails - The Wrong View
Bukit Papan (Behind Bayan Lepas)

This is part 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.

There is an alternative route to the Teluk Kumbar viewpoint described below, please read 'Two Roads to Nowhere'.

The following map shows a trail through Bukit Papan up to a view point (north-west corner) on http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1226414.(Link broken by 1st November 2018)

Apart from large areas of the National Park and the Forest Reserve areas around and below Western Hill and Bukit Laksamana, the last of the upland areas for us to explore turned out to be Bukit Papan, the area behind Bayan Lepas (and Sungai Ara) in the south of the island. Everytrail included a route which was of special interest as we had spotted a hut on the hilltop ridge from the Bukit Genting side and were told that to get to it, we would have to approach from the airport side. With the obvious caveats that we prefer not to use GPS and that such maps do not show other paths, it seemed not too difficult a trail to follow and maybe if there was time after we could use other linked trails on the site to explore northwards into the areas we had already been in. Not for the first time, things did not turn out quite as hoped for.

In theory, we could have gone either way around the island to get to Bayan Lepas, but we were too late getting up for the 09.45 501 bus (note since then the bus has been retimed, see above) so had to take a 101 bus to George Town and a 401/401E onwards. As it happened, being a Sunday the traffic was thin and the more direct 401 was a blessing, the whole trip took no more than two hours from the flat. We knew we had to get off at the junction with Jalan Permatang Damar Laut just after the police station. For anyone coming this way, the distinctive musholla on the corner is a good landmark. Today's trail started about 50 metres towards Teluk Kumbar just after the Hasienda House Homestay.

One of the initial attractions was the traditional Malay kampung atmosphere, but it won't last with the monster being erected just on the other side of the main road...

It was a great trail, one of the 'too good to be true variety', I said to Yuehong with a flat start followed by gentle curving rises into the hills.

Somebody was building a new house in an area which had been partly cleared. When we came to the first major junction, the map and our instincts suggested keeping right.

Eventually as expected the road started to curve right, but instead of the expected horseshoe being on offer we had barely turned 90 degrees when we came to an abandoned house guarded by 4 dogs. The path continued on and just behind the house was a multiple junction. Not quite what we expected! We elected to go straight on, if only because it looked the best used trail.

This was a pleasant enough path but in just 5 minutes it terminated in a small Chinese community who were very friendly and invited us in for tea but the message was clear, we had to go back. They did, however, tell us that if we took the left fork (right going back) we would soon get to a point where we could see the sea...

Almost immediately that path itself divided and we were debating which to use when one of the farmers turned up and gave us the correct directions - never mind it was in completely the opposite direction to that suggested by the map. (Later I checked the path Yuehong is standing on and it goes nowhere except some rubber on the west side.) Up on the ridge we found the inevitable guest workers, with a set of particularly obnoxious dogs.

From the top of the hill behind we did indeed have a view, of course it was not the one we had been looking for but it was pretty good. Teluk Kumbar is half hidden in the foreground and behind in the haze are Pulau Kendi and the headland by Gertak Sanggul:

A Malaysian Chinese on a motorbike suggested we could carry on down one of the paths beyond to what presumably would have been Teluk Kumbar but that was not part of the day's plan. So back we went to the final path on offer which at least had the virtue of being more in the planned direction than any of the others. By now Yuehong was treading very wearily. Despite having had a day off, her body was not obeying instructions after a poor night's sleep disturbed by her elbow redislocating itself in mid dream. It had gone back in again quickly enough but it's not the kind of event to encourage a good night's rest. The stops for adjustments to her footwear were getting more frequent.

The track was also getting less distinct. When I watched her face as she clambered over the fallen log, I knew it was time to throw in the towel.

(In fact this was almost the right trail, between the bridge and this point we had passed what appeared to be an overgrown track on the left which was where we should have gone, this we discovered later by approaching from the opposite direction - see the Cross Country report.)

So back we went to Bayan Lepas, perhaps it was just as well as it started to rain when we reached the village. We caught the 401 bus back to town, grabbed a swift Nasi Kandar and took the 101 to the Jetty so we could guarantee ourselves a seat on the way home. I have looked at the map above again and again but with no comprehension at all. Yuehong needs a good rest and it will be my job to go and look at the problem area again from the other end... Nevertheless it was a pleasant enough stroll in an area new to us.

A few days later we were back and found our way to the right hill top although we have yet to work out what went wrong with this hike.