Penang Hills and Trails - Titi Kerawang Falls
The Full Monty

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, it's not long but it has a sections that require experience. 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.

By late 2022. the access path from the round-the-island road had become a concrete road. This means that the initial description will no longer be valid but I doubt that ultimately access will still be similar.

WARNING - The heart of this hike is on PBA land which is subject to restricted access. There are innumerable signs along the way which indicate this even if they are almost illegible owing to their age. The final access to the falls is behind a security fence and requires suitable experience to traverse wet rocks. Follow this route entirely at your own risk!

We had looked at the upper Titi Kerawang Falls from a distance from paths on the north side and the south side. Now it was time to go for the jugular and follow the PBA pipeline to the water abstraction point at the heart of the falls. I don't have much respect for authority anywhere in the world but it struck me that this was a time for a little bit of subtlety rather than a full frontal attack over the fence at the top of the accessible lower Titi Kerawang Falls. Hence we started on our standard departure point some way beyond the bridge at the tourist entrance. If you don't recognise the path, may I humbly suggest that this route is not for you. After the initial climb we carried straight on rather than follow the path to the Da Ba Gong temple and found the gate round the corner open as usual. After the house on the right, we took the turn left down towards the stream and the pipeline.

We'd hardly looked at it before, but basically the plan was to follow it down as far as it went and then live on our wits. Concrete it may have been but it's well shaded and parts were extremely slippery. OK to be honest, the bottom bit was a little overgrown but given we could see exactly where we were heading for, this was hardly a cause for concern.

Onward, I would unhesitatingly call it a 'heritage trail' because, since it was laid down, not a cent has been spent to maintain it and what I would assume are the warning signs if I could have read them. At times like this, I just love Malaysia. 

We came to a small dam and falls, there was a sign forbidding us to bathe but it was too early to be tempted to cool down.

Ahead the pipeline crossed the stream, my concerns were temporarily reduced when I saw there was a  bridge but close up it required considerable care.

We had reached the point where the stream divides. To the left it heads towards Bukit Laksamana, to the right the Tiger Hill valley.

As far as we were concerned, our mission was simple, we would follow the pipeline to its end. At the top we found the metal water tank which we had spotted from above together with a brand new sign which informed those with limited intelligence that this was the intake point for the Sungai Pinang catchment area.

The least said about the rest the better. Above the tank is access to the falls but it is extremely dangerous, afterwards the spray made it very difficult to record the scene.

It was worth the effort.

Down we went, back to the junction of the two streams. Now what I had not counted on was for the PBA to have provided a route to the north side. It took just a one minute recce to revise my plans and we headed upwards.

Yes, it was a path but you wouldn't have guessed it unless you had seen others like it before.

Happiness is standing on a concrete path, especially when your guide tells you he has been here before and that just 4 weeks ago. It still requires an act of faith even if you are being told it's easier than going back the way you had come in the first place. 

Yuehong had been here before, for the others it was less easy. As someone who is a Zodiac Leo, I had to approve of the swimming pool decoration 'LIONSPOT'. While Penang resident Mike Gibby had got what he came for, Yuehong's old friend Du Jian Bin was still smiling as we left the estate. It seems we need something a little bit more 'interesting' for him.

Unfortunately, the sun did not play ball as we came down, the falls were anything but well lit so here's one I took earlier...

To show her appreciation Yuehong organised a banquet in Sungai Pinang which exactly filled the gap before the 14.30 501 bus from Balik Pulau to Teluk Bahang. Although it had been barely a three hour hike, I would guess all concerned will have slept well afterwards.

I would like to think that, despite the official restrictions, this was a hike that met all the requirements of the classic 'take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints'. It answered all my questions about the falls and if it were not for this report, then no-one could possibly have known about our visit. If you too come this way, please be as careful as we were.