Penang Hills and Trails - Forest Ang's Trail
Air Itam Dam to Nanshan to Balik Pulau 

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 2 walk, with elements which are distinctly Grade 3. 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.

As of January 2023. the key section below Nanshan which connects to the Balik Pulau valley appeared totally overgrown. Attempt to use it entirely at your own risk.

Sometime back Forest Ang had suggested a direct route down from the Nanshan Highlands to Balik Pulau but we had been scared off it by the farmers in the area. Now, with the benefit of a lot more experience, was the time to check it out properly especially as Yuehong was still away with her relatives in Langkawi and I only had myself to worry about.

On this occasion I was offered a lift to the dam by our friends Nathan and Tom who enjoy their serious exercise on the hill and join us occasionally for a more relaxing day out as long as I promise 'no jungle bashing'. When we got to the col I suggested they might enjoy a small diversion from their intended route down to Balik Pulau and we cut off left - this is a route I will describe later when Yuehong and I do it at a slower pace than when we discovered it. So for the time being just enjoy the view which was better than average as it had rained the previous day:

This was an excellent route and new country for them and they were most appreciative. However, as we approached the six way junction at the top of the climb from Paya Terubong, I warned them that I did not know a quality route down to Balik Pulau and they sensibly went back. I had determined to turn right and blast my way through whatever undergrowth might be in my way. The wide trail ended at this hut, it took me a while to work out that the path onwards lay between the green plastic 'walls' and that caused me to waste a few minutes trying to get round them.

I ignored a turning up the hill and this became a seriously nice path and I started to feel guilty about sending my friends back. However, things soon started to unravel and the path finished in an open area with durians as Forest Ang's account had described. This was not the time to do anything hasty, so I looked for an obvious route down the stream without success. Instead, I scrambled up to the left as he had suggested and after several minutes I could see some rubber ahead - there was no clear route and I had all my work cut out to keep my footing in the scrub, the picture below is most misleading as I was standing knee deep in the kind of plant no one in Penang would want in their garden. Worse still, this was the off season for tapping and the path I could see below was many levels down and the rubber leaves made it advisable in places to slide down on my posterior.

This simply wasn't good enough for my darling wife to repeat and I had to find something better. It sounds totally mad to voluntarily go back into such an area, but forever the optimistic good husband, I fancied I could see some kind of footpath going up. I followed it and the pipe to where the streambed became rocky and then using a mixture of the large rocks and the area to the left which was not too overgrown, I found my way back to the upper durian orchard. It was a lot quicker than going through the rubber.

The first picture shows the key big rock in the streambed, it's not very far below the hut, there is no need to go to the bottom of the orchard, you just need to cross it and find your way through the bananas on the right and then down the smaller rocks until you come out back where I had come from. Of course, it helped that I hadn't taken my back pack with life's essentials on this recce, but the trip down was barely 5 minutes. It was surely 'Time for a Tiger'.

The path down was so appealing that I didn't even wait till the bottle was empty as there was a possibility of catching the 14.30 501 bus to Teluk Bahang. I knew I would have no problem coming down but there was always the possibility I (or others) might want to come up this way but it's much easier than most. That's a hut looking down and there's another path up to the left and another to the right going over a bridge. Of course, the way down is behind the hut. Not much further down was the further hut ahead and just beyond it a substantial house.

In the interests of science, these are the views looking back, first past the hut on the right above and second at the junction just below it - I had come down the path to the left.

In retrospect, I should have checked the path right as it went downwards and I could see a concrete road on the other side of the valley, but I opted for certainty in the form of the electricity poles. (Indeed it gets down to the valley much quicker as I later discovered.) There was rather more climbing than I would have liked but eventually the road did go down and met the Air Itam to Balik Pulau road some way above the zig-zag section as shown below.

I must have done something right because not very far down after the egregious soon-to-be Appamadavihari Meditation Centre I was offered (and accepted) a lift to Balik Pulau. I rate the people who skin gullible punters with promises of Nirvana while wreaking havoc on Penang's green hills along with those who promise endless virgins in return for murderous atrocities. And to keep the balance right, let me add that the Christian church has been doing much the same for the last millenium which is why it has been super rich for most of it. Religion is best kept personal and disorganised in my book.

In the end I declined the opportunity of the 14.30 501 in favour of a late lunch / early dinner and further liquid refreshment. The 502 / 101 option got me home well before 18.00, it had been another good day, so far I had rather more new discoveries than I expected for this visit to Penang.