Penang Hills and Trails - Sungai Ara Explorer 9
A Blue House Lollipop

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a shortish Grade 3 walk with a less straightforward section or two. 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.

For earlier pictures of the temple's celebration day in March 2018, see the pictures at the end of this hiking report. This was today's highlight, more on it below:

This was our tenth hike in as many days since arriving in Penang and with Yuehong off to visit a friend in Singapore next day, I had to keep it shorter than average. So it was a good time to revisit the Chinese temple high above Persiaran Kelicap between Bayan Lepas and Sungai Ara (see map at the bottom). I wasn't going with her, I'm a great fan of Singapore Airlines but Singapore as a country is probably the least interesting in Asia, it's got no soul and it's people I tend to find rather boring. Having said that, it wouldn't do any harm to the rest of the world if the citizens of the People's Republic of China, especially their tourists, got some lifestyle lessons here. 

As before, I parked Mavis just inside the turning and we set off up the road. As I said before, DO NOT attempt to bring a car beyond this 'No Entry' sign or you will, like me, regret it.

This is my nemesis, a protruding boulder at a point where there is a steep drop to the left and there's an even narrower gap further up. Yuehong pointed out that the hash paper which had not been new when we first hiked here two years ago was still present. When laid this hash called itself the PH4 (Hash House Harriers and Harriets). In a fit of 'Greenwash; to cover its habit of using non-biodegradable trail markers, it has since renamed itself the 'Rain Forest Hash' and has confirmed its hypocritical status by adding red paint to its armoury which it splashes all along its biennial challenge route between Balik Pulau and Teluk Bahang. Today there was little business being done at the temple ahead.   

The temple name in (Malaysian Pinyin) is Tang Heng Than, http://www.angkongkeng.com/malaysia/20-penang/723-tang-heng-than. On reason for coming here today was to check when we could expect a special day here. Yuehong found a notice which gave the answer, such an event happens four times a year, in the middle of  January, April, August and December - in the Chinese calendar which means, like Chinese New Year, they move backwards and forwards. This time we left the temple, up this concrete path to the right as we had approached it.  

It was an alternative to the wide track we had used before, it was only a short distance through the old rubber to the wide track above.

We turned left and almost immediately spotted another lightly used track on the right. This was of interest as I knew that the path up from the other end of Persiaran Kelicap was not far away. It was one of those occasions where I didn't want to risk Yuehong's ire, so I asked here to stay while I checked it out. the path more or less followed a contour and then opened out slightly after this abandoned mattress. I turned left, climbed up a short way next to a green wire fence and soon found myself exactly where I wanted, the sharp bend which was the nearest point of the other path. Back I went to collect Yuehong and found her half way, she had got bored being bitten by mosquitoes! However, I had to go back to photograph the route and promptly missed my turning.   

By the time I returned, I found Yuehong not much further up, she was admiring the view. In a tree was an Oriental Whip Snake with its intended dinner. These are mildly venomous and this one must have been almost as long as they get (about 1.8 metres or 6 foot). There are quite common and only two days earlier Yuehong had given herself a shock when she stood on one as it was crossing the path by the Chinese temples at the back of Pulau Betong village.

We kept our distance so as to leave it undisturbed and completed the section., 

 It was a 'warm' day and the humidity was very high, we weren't going anywhere quickly, it was time for a water stop.

Compared to earlier in the year, the path had been repaired and cleared. Along the way was a pen with a small 'gate'. We surmised that it was a holding pen used by local wild boar hunters. Sadly, we later discovered that the temple's pet boar had been killed by some ignorant local who considered it 'dangerous'.

The area around the Blue House had been cut back and we had a better view of it than before. Neither of us was feeling very energetic and after a drinks stop, we decided to keep the walk short and continue along the ridge and turn left at the first opportunity to go back down again.

On our previous visits, the trail  had been clear enough for the mountain bikers to use, now for a couple of hundred metres it was covered in ginger, both short and tall varieties. Finally, it cleared and a 'new' path from the right was apparent but we kept on the ridge path which meant going left.  

Yes, the ancient hash paper was still present although it was coming to the end of its life with the plastic sleeve cracking. It was time to turn off left, there's no one particular point, it was just a question of finding somewhere a little bit clear.

A short descent brought us to the top of an almost  imperceptible small valley which we had to cross and then follow, Since I had come this way 9 months earlier, some trees had come down. Some were nicely low, some were nicely high. 

This one was just the wrong height, awkward to go both under or over as Yuehong proceeded to demonstrate.

We were soon into the orchard which was covered in long grass as it was 'between seasons. Yuehong had every confidence in me and we immediately found the desired trail. 

As we wound down the hill it gor more and more distinct and turned to concrete. We picked our way across the defensive fence against the wild boar.

There's just on house here and its not easy to avoid going straight past it. However, Rover is what Yuehong calls a 'real dog;, he's more than happy to flash his fangs and he wasn't going to be cowed by a stick like others. The old lady who lives here couldn't call him off so we had to take a few steps back and go through the undergrowth beneath the house.

Fortunately, Rover showed no signs of wanting to follow into the long grass and for some time after we could hear him complaining that he had been deprived of some potential raw meat. It wasn't difficult to cross the other end of the fence to an area where the grass was a lot shorter. That's the house behind. 

We joined the access road but as the son wasn't paying his daily visit, the gate was securely padlocked. As I checked the possibility of climbing over, Yuehong just slithered underneath like her favourite snakes.

It was my turn and she demanded the camera, I held in my beer belly and went under.

After which, we walked down the track and then the wide trail back to the temple and so down to the car.

We were more than pleased to have made a new connection and to have seen the snake at work, but it was time to relax over a late lunch at the Yo Yo in Sungai Ara and head home for an early finish.