Penang Hills and Trails - Two Roads to Nowhere
The Bayan Lepas Highlands

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.Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.

As stated above, in January 2014, there was a 501 bus scheduled to leave Teluk Bahang at 10.30. Normally we try to arrive in very good time as the service intervals on the connecting 101 are somewhat variable, we use the waiting time to charge up our caffeine levels. This time we were a little later arriving, so we skipped the coffee which was just as well as the bus left at 10.20!

We have a less than perfect history in this area as can be read in the other reports linked from the south of the island index page, in particular in that entitled 'The Wrong View'. On the main round-the-island main road between the immediate Bayan Lepas area and the summit on the Balik Pulau road, we knew of just one path up to the long ridge and that was in the category of something to be done once and not repeated ('Not Malihom'). We had, however, satisfactorily visited two estates on the ridge from the east with no obvious way down beyond ('Bayan Lepas Lollypop'). It was time to try again, one last time, if anyone reading this knows of a path, do please let us know, there is an email address at the bottom of the page.

One way and another, and fortified with some of Balik Pulau's finest rambutans, it was 12.30 before we set off along the valley behind Bayan Lepas's green musholla (details in 'The Wrong View'. As before, we soon left the built up area but the 'small clearance' had become a large one and something totally inappropriate will appear here in the next year or two. This time we turned left at the first major junction as there was no point to totally repeat the ascent.

Apart from some yapping dogs, it a nice shady climb with a convenient seat to rest on.

Soon we came onto to what I correctly assumed was another (EveryTrail reported) path up from Bayan Lepas - there is more information at the end of the report. I checked back along it and was rewarded by a nice view:

At this stage the path was more of a degenerated road but when we got to the inevitable highest durian estate it narrowed and went into some overgrown rubber from which there was a view back to the airport and the second bridge.

I guess this obstruction wasn't present when the mountain bikers last came this way, but soon we dropped back down and rejoined what was clearly our original route just above a small concrete bridge.

The world seemed very good as we climbed past this distinctive house. 

A reminder, if you have read the other reports, the path to the right leads out from our 'Cross Country', straight ahead behind Yuehong leads to several Chinese houses, left and immediately left again leads to the ridge and this hut occupied by guest workers. The more belligerent dogs seemed to have fought each other to death.

I checked out a small mast I could see on a nearby hilltop, it was abandoned and there was no other access to it but the path I used. The fruit trees allowed views out to Bukit Papan to the west and down to what is now the concrete jungle of Teluk Kumbar, the heat rising from it was overpowering. 

So it was time for a snack, some liquid refreshment and short snooze before easing our way down the track to Teluk Kumbar...

Nice idea, unfortunately the path came to an end where the durian estate met impenetrable vertical jungle. Never mind, back up we went and tried the other path, but this got to a small house and similarly expired.

Oh dear, there was nothing for it but to retreat (there was one more much smaller path downwards from part way down the first of these disasters but it also seemed likely to go nowhere and we were very hot and running out of energy). Yuehong went straight back to the bottom, while I retraced our earlier route and then took the previously unexplored path down to Bayan Lepas. I've appended a description at the end for using it to climb up.

We were overheated and the extra hiking meant that we would miss the last 501. We took a 401 to Balik Pulau (the direct route to George Town through Bayan Baru is one we avoid), Yuehong crashed out for 20 minutes and we took a 502 to the jetty. It was considerably longer than changing at Komtar but Saturday night 101 buses are notoriously infrequent and overcrowded. We got seats all the way home, but it was now well gone 20.00 and we didn't risk getting off for dinner, instead I had a couple of Tigers and both of us crashed out with a much needed recovery day to come.

If you are doing this walk in reverse, then you should get off at the bus stop just after Krystal Country Homes. There is currently metal sheeting along the side of the cattle grazing area but it is accessible from the south end by a small warung. Go in and bear left through the open area entering the 'jungle' on what may once have been a wide well made track. Turn right when you see a small hut in front of you. This seems to be an overgrown abandoned road, after some 2-3 minutes there is a readily missed Y junction where the necessary route is to the right - straight ahead is likely only to lead to overgrown rubber. As long as you make this turn, then you should have no problem as the road becomes a well defined and well graded track where you meet the hill. Just keep going and you will eventually join the route described above.