Penang Hills and Trails - A Substitute for a Ridge Walk 2015
Bukit Genting (Malihom) to Anjung Indah

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 although quite long. 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.

IMPORTANT

As of January 2024, the route south from Anjung Indah has been blocked by a new owner with a security fence backed up by razor wire.

This walk was undertaken in March 2015. We repeated the walk in January 2017, it was essentially unchanged save for a cut-off path - read the account here.

We were back from a side trip to Taiwan which had done nothing for our figures, despite a common Hokkien and Hakka heritage, dining out had been a big disappointment and we had both eaten too many noodles. We had just three walks left, there was no time left for exploring and we needed to burn calories big time! In a perfect world, this route would follow the ridge between Bukit Genting (Balik Pulau to Teluk Kumbar Road) and Anjung Indah (the summit of Jalan Tun Sardon), but these days that is just a dream. So here's how to do the next best thing. We've done all of this before, so there are no new view pictures, the main reason to wield the camera was to have a near consistent record for a parallel account which is part of a new series for this site presenting 'Selected Walks' as an addition to the existing 'Top Ten Walks'.

We travelled to Balik Pulau as normal and jumped on a 401 which dropped us at the Malihom signs on the road up to Bukit Genting. I knew I wanted to take pictures but was half asleep following the previous day's overnight flight so here are a couple of pictures I took earlier (a lot earlier to be fair to Yuehong):

The rest were all taken on this walk, anyway, you'd have to be drunk to get lost on this section. Follow the signs for Malihom and as always you can safely ignore any mention of 'trespass' on the notices:

Resist the temptation to call up mission control and continue up the hill. Just when you are beginning to get bored with zig-zags, turn right behind this land mark. 

It's more or less a contour path and soon you will emerge at the top of the Sungai Ara valley, if you're puffing a bit why not have a break here? On this occasion we had just seen a metre plus brown snake slither across our path, two years ago Yuehong would have screamed, these days it's all part of the fun, later in the day we were within a couple of metres of a monitor lizard which was almost as long and much wider...

Going down, you'll face no problems, but if you're doing this in reverse, be sure to take the trail Yuehong is standing on, if in doubt simply follow the electricity poles which go almost to the summit. Going on down, take the left fork to avoid the house ahead. Once occupied by Chinese, it now has a group of Burmese whose rubbish almost blocks the trail.

Very soon, the concrete path becomes a concrete road below the birds nest factory. There's just one junction, turn right (there's a Chinese temple a short way to the left). Soon you'll see the Sungai Ara valley road below you and you will come to the Thai style Buddhist temple, Samnaksong. It's another good place to take a break.

Turn left at the bottom of the hill, the first picture is for the benefit of those coming in the opposite direction who will need to go up the road behind Yuehong. Soon you will come to the Fig Tree Hill Resort which is not a place I would fancy staying in, no doubt they would feel much the same way about entertaining me.

The next junction is absolutely critical, turn left past the official bikers' resting point passing the electricity substation. I was standing on the road down to Sungai Ara village when I took the picture, suffice to say we've not been down that way even once this year. Some rich Malaysians are making a bit of a mess here at the moment, when you come to a Y junction, be sure to take the small trail on the right where Yuehong is standing.

This is the kind of climb where you hardly notice you are going up, it's old rubber which eventually turns to durian.

You'll not get lost here, even if you are coming in the opposite direction, the concrete road to the left has a chain across it most of the time.

Cue another junction, not really critical as if you don't turn left you will soon regret it. Going the right way you'll have a mild climb to the next birds' nest factory.

Just around the corner is another junction, we entered from the right and went along behind where Yuehong is standing, suffice to say, we've been behind where I am standing and it's not a good idea on this walk. After the vegetables you come to the next critical junction where you turn left. If you have taken leave of your senses then you can take the road down to the right which will land you at the back end of the new Relau, not recommended!

You now face a climb up towards the first mast of the day. I'm not sure why but for some reason they are widening this road. I've included the first picture as I need to refer to this location later. Not far above the mast you will find this trifling concrete path on your right. Ignore it at your peril!

There is a minor junction almost immediately where you keep right and when you come to this junction in the bananas, go straight ahead, there is no need to climb into the rubber on the left. At the next junction, it may be counter-intuitive, do not go straight on but instead go right and back down, the path ahead soon finishes and you will be at the wrong level.

There are some nice views hereabouts, this is the airport and the second bridge.

As you go down, you will see the mast which you passed some time ago. the path does a sharp U turn so once again you are heading in the right direction.

At the next junction turn left, there is a concrete path down to the right which ought to represent a better approach, but we suspect at the moment it is not available as it comes up from the area where they are building the new house shown above, it's one for checking out next year. For now, you'll know you've got things right if you come to this hut across the path, just go straight through.

Shortly after, the path finishes. Don't panic, just go up the slight rise behind Yuehong and you'll enter the next estate. On this occasion there were some new terraces to negotiate but after less than 50 metres you'll be on another path. Yuehong was comfortable as this was where we had climbed up to through some overgrown rubber on another recent walk.

The view ahead is of Nanshan, that means that Anjung Indah is not too far away. I've included the second picture in case you are doing this walk in reverse. We came from where Yuehong is standing, to the right is the climb to the small mast and a less comfortable traverse than we did.

I've included the next four pictures for those doing the walk in reverse. The blue hut is unmistakable, it's to the left at the major junction. You'll have these gates to negotiate and, yes, that's a private house. The dog yapped at us but the owners were at home and didn't even bother to appear, I am sure they are used to people working in the estate coming past. Finally this is the view coming down the road from Anjung Indah.

Here's another nice view looking down to Pulau Jerejak, the area covered in concrete had paddy fields when I first ever came to Penang:

After which, it's a case of counting down the electricity poles and laughing at the signs threatening all sorts of problems for those who do not respect the permanent forest reserve. As we neared the main road, I asked Yuehong what she thought of the walk. It seemed she approved. If you are doing this walk in reverse then this road is just on the George Town side of the summit.

The only minor issue was that we had to wait half an hour for the 502 bus, it's meant to run at a 30 minute interval but our experience this year is that we have had to wait far longer than the 15 minutes average that this would imply. Never mind, it had been a great day out and we still had plenty of time for refreshments in Balik Pulau before catching the 17.30 501 bus over the hill.