Penang Hills and Trails
Pondok Upeh Loop

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a long Grade 2 walk with short 'off piste' sections. 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.

There are any number of walks involving crossing the ridge between Pondok Upeh and the Sungai Ara valley on this website, if this isn't what you want, please check the south index for the others. Given the fact that we did nothing new, it is necessarily only a summary, the various sections are shown in more detail elsewhere.

Every year we lay on a walk or two for our friends Nathan and Tom from the UK who are unable to stay on the island for as long as we do. Our starting point, as is usual for the north side was on the Pondok Upeh Cycleway at pole JTS 133 41, 150m asl and at 09.30 refreshingly cool. We followed the lower road and soon caught up with the Malay family taking their Sunday morning exercise who had come past while we were getting sorted.

At the bottom of the hill we turned left and when the road became a concrete path continued round the valley and up the other side. These are fine examples of 'Hakka walls' just below a hut which is home to migrant workers - with all mod cons including electricity and running water.

This short section is currently a little overgrown but it's not even 200 metres long and at the end, Yuehong demonstrated how to slip through the gap into the next orchard.  

Easy-la and we ambled up the grassy track and over the top to where the owner has a lovely house. Being the weekend he was present but these days we just wave and carry on.

After which we expected to find the gates open, but it seems he must have spent the night here and they were both locked. Never mind, it's easy enough to squeeze round the first one but although it's just as easy to rip your trousers on the barbed wire. No such problem with the second gate as Yuehong was quick to demonstrate, after that the lads had no option but to follow!

Once upon a time, these zig-zags would have been considered 'steep', but not any more, Yuehong strolled up engaging Tom in conversation. I followed behind with Nathan and directed him to turn right at the 'corkscrew'.

We went round the side of the hill below Malihom and down to the Burmese hut below. They have maybe twenty fighting cocks leading a pampered life, just when and where they are called into action is a mystery, we have no common language to ask. Such things are, of course, illegal in Malaysia.

Yuehong is laughing because when we came this way in the opposite direction, I mistakenly chose the left path at the junction. Of course, there's no such problem coming down, we just had to remember to take the lower path round the side of the house as there are numerous dogs here, but we seem to have been too early for them as they only started to bark when we were some way down the road.

We were making excellent progress and there was time for a short diversion to the left to visit the newly renovated Chinese temple. We had attempted to attend a feast here a week earlier but unfortunately it had started at 14.00 instead of our familiar 15.00 and we were fed the left over scraps. At least no-one had felt brave enough to ask for a donation! 

One temple was enough and we skipped the Thai temple which would have been shut as no-one was present. Down in the valley, we scored a first, the Fig Tree Hill Resort actually had some guests in residence and there were two cars outside.

Like all our guests, Nathan did wonder how we remembered our routes, but it's really very simple. I have an on board database and know the appropriate landmarks for each walk. In this case, the bikers shelter is impossible to miss and we turned left and started to climb again. There are plenty of junctions but the simple rule is to stick with the principal road that offers the steepest climb. 

Yuehong was purring, she could feel the extra pounds from the 21 durians in Sumatra just melting away. Our guests not surprisingly were apprehensive when confronted with the 'keep out' sign. However, not only was it mainly directed at mountain bikers but the people here could not hope to be taken seriously as they had left the gates wide open.

Not that we were going much further up the road as we immediately turned left onto the original route up the hill. When we had been here just over a month ago the path was more than a little overgrown and we had applied the secateurs to effect a minor clearance. In fact our efforts had been unnecessary, someone had been here since and done the job properly.

We left the durian orchard and climbed towards the rubber which covers the hill top. Only where we had to cross the boundary between two properties was it at all overgrown now, less than 100 metres in all. I just had to remember the sharp left turn, it would have been easy to miss it.

Just a short distance ahead were the abandoned motorbikes which provide the next landmark. At this point I knew to turn left but not by too much so we would get the right ridge onwards; at this point we nearly lost Yuehong...

We were now at the top of our favourite FCS durian orchard. Before I rewarded Nathan and Tom with a can of cold Tiger each, I took them to visit two significant trees, a reminder of why maps of this part of the island are labelled 'nutmeg and clove'. Although it was a month after the generally accepted date, this tree had buds galore which should have been harvested and some indeed were flowering. There is no market for cloves and they only find use within a group of family and friends - we have a heap from here which we were given a few years ago, they are an essential addition to a traditional apple pie. 

"Look, there's a path over there!" said Nathan who had maybe forgotten who was organising the hike.  It's quite a way down but as such things go it's knee friendly.

People who come with us have to accept that they are dealing with two ex-teachers who consider that hikes should be educational and so Nathan was directed up to the left to this pair of rubber rollers (presses) which are 'preserved' here. Yuehong has told me that one of them was made by the 'Ling Nan' factory in Kallang, Singapore. the site of which will have long since been redeveloped as it's right in the middle of town.

There are splendid views and as we had started rather earlier than usual we were spared the wailing (sorry, melodic encouragement to prayer) that normally wafts up from below around 13.30.

It always comes as a surprise to our guests when we leave the path and shoot left into the rubber. Just below is a concrete road...

Once reached, it's just a short way down and round the corner back to the starting point. Yuehong's app had recorded our hike at just over 9km and it had taken almost exactly my estimated 4 hours, although this included half an hour of 'break time'.

Yuehong's verdict was 'near perfect' but maybe not quite long enough. There's no satisfying everyone all the time in this game, but my bad knee told me it was time to apply some suitable liquid anaesthetic in Sungai Pinang.