The International Steam Pages


Penang Hills and Trails - National Park Circuit
Teluk Bahang to Bukit Batu Itam and back.

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 3 walk There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed. Click here for a list of the known PBA rain gauges.

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


This account is linked from my Penang Peaks page which lists peaks over 400 metres as well as other places of interest and viewpoints. To find other hikes which visit this peak please check the maps of this are using this link.


Necessarily we do most of our walks in the south of the island where there is an abundance of paths, plenty of views and some welcoming local coffee shops and similar for afters. The forested north of the island by way of contrast has fewer paths and as most are under the canopy there are few if any views on offer and I'm none too keen on Batu Ferringhi and Teluk Bahang afterwards. However, the walks here are challenging and the rain forest is a calm, peaceful place to walk, today was one such occasion.

Recently, we had walked from the National Park entrance up to Bukit Batu Itam and on to near the Tropical Fruit Farm. It was a long walk but immensely satisfying, especially for Yuehong. During this we had hiked through the heart of the park, but now the time had come to do a circuit within the park which would use only a very small part of our previous walk and that in the opposite direction. The first part up from the Hokkien Cemetery in Teluk Bahang I had done before coming down in 2016 but it was Yuehong's first time there..

The closest access off a 101 bus is from the last stop before the National Park where the cemetery is signposted. The conditions were gloomy and a little breezy but cool and ideal for hiking. There is a huge number of graves here, in this case guarded by apparent escapees from the nearby 4Paws home for unwanted dogs.

Right at the top there is a gap in the graves, presumably as the Feng Shui associated with having a flight of steps behind would not be good. At the top of the steps there is a scramble up the rocks and the forest path starts.

The first part is what Forest Ang would call 'degraded', both the path and the vegetation are less than attractive.

However, the path soon flattens off and we even had a very short downhill section, by now the basic path was covered in leaf litter and a pleasure to walk on.

Somebody had moved the National Park sign from the right side of the path to the left since I was here nearly a year ago, I knew it meant we would soon be entering the forested area.

As the gradient eased again, there on the left was today's rain gauge - RG 27. Yuehong's not counting but I am on her behalf and this made 20 (out of 35). My own tally is 32 and at some stage this trip I may have a chance to add to that. Afterwards, it got quite steep but it was never difficult.

Onward and upward we went and in a shade under two hours we were at the T junction just before the campsite and RG 26. There was no point to go there again as it was too early for a lunch stop.

We paused briefly before continuing along the undulating ridge towards the other campsite. First there was a short 'down'.

This was followed by a short 'up' and at the top there was a barely discernible path to the left which I checked out. Once it may have gone somewhere, but now it ended in a giant fern patch. However, there was an interesting view of Penang's west coast. Yuehong didn't even realise I had left the main trail.

On down we went, at the bottom we were still only 500 metres from where we had turned right and of course we then had to go up again.

At the top of the hill there is first a path on the left, it looked promising but after this open patch, it looked rather overgrown.

Next there was a path to the right, this too looked promising but there was no time to check beyond the first 50 metres.

It was now time for the first serious 'down'. I was sent first to clear the spiders, but I was told in no uncertain terms that I was holding Yuehong up with my slow progress.

She was probably hungry. There was another 'up' with a traditional 'tree down', then a short 'down' and after an even shorter 'up' we were at the campsite and it was lunchtime.

It had taken us just 3 hours which I considered very good. Yuehong sensibly shared my sandwiches as we were probably only half way. Afterwards, we followed the path signposted to Teluk Kampi. It was as unremittingly down as the early part of the walk had been up.

It's very attractive, it runs along some kind of ridge which is wider than most and this means there are plenty of larger than average trees. Inevitably there are blockages which no-one has bothered to clear but there's nothing challenging about getting through them.

Finally the path levelled out and we came to a junction. Pantai Kerachut was straight ahead which we took, there was no time to go left to Teluk Kampi and we ignored the small path to the right just before.

Straight up we went, it wasn't particularly welcome and the path turned right at the top.

It seems we could have avoided the climb by taking the small path but the going now was very good because the path between Pantai Kerachut and Teluk Kampi has been popular for a long time.

Finally we came out on the edge of the lake behind Pantai Kerachut. The signs explain that the area beside where we had come down has been declared 'virgin jungle reserve'.

Lying apparently discarded on the ground was a small plastic notice in Bahasa Malaysia and English explaining that 'the trail and facilities in Teluk Kampi were closed until further notice due to maintenance work'. I doubt many stop to read it and even fewer take any notice. Now we could have turned right here and gone straight to the park entrance, but we hadn't been to the beach here for at least 5 years.

It scored very well, it was well signposted and was clean and tidy as was the campsite behind. In fact things would have been near perfect were it not for the presence of an extended family of tourists from the People's Republic of China who were making more noise than the average mosque going full blast as they made what for them was a normal conversation sound like they were declaring World War 3. Sadly it's a national trait. I complained quietly and was greeted by what may have been the only English word they knew which was 'Sorry', but I don't they had any idea what the problem was.

The bridge over the lake outlet hasn't fallen down, yet, and the initial path is in good condition. The only people we saw hiking this way were European tourists, uniformly sweating profusely. I think most of the few Asian tourists we saw here had come here by boat, on other occasions the exceptions would be the students who flock here in great numbers at weekends and holidays.

After we joined what would have been our short cut, we got a further demonstration of how not to maintain a popular path in a National Park. Like the first half we had seen previously, it's in appalling condition. I guess the maintenance budget is being spent on vehicles and air conditioners for the staff. We were glad to get to the top of the climb and even gladder to get off the path later.

Despite, the last section, this is a lovely walk and we were lucky that the weather favoured us. It was overcast and cool throughout, save when the sun came out for our beach stop. The forecast had been for afternoon showers but they never materialised.


Teluk Bahang Area

Key:

 ____ = Concrete Road

 ____ = Path

 ____ = Easy 'Off piste'

 ____ = Seriously 'Off piste'

(Not all paths are shown, there are many more.)

Click here for information on the maps.


Rob and Yuehong Dickinson

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk