Penang Hills and Trails - Jalan Bukit Elvira to Jalan Chai
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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 albeit with a minimal 'off piste' section.

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point. Basically it would be easy enough to walk out to the starting point (and back) from Balik Pulau town.

A few days earlier, we had hiked from the Chinese temple in Jalan Chai (west of Balik Pulau) up into the hills which separate it from Jalan Bukit Elvira. This is the one running north from Balik Pulau past the Roman Catholic Cemetery which was the starting point of today's hike, designed to investigate the paths in between.

Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture and click on that to return here.

There's plenty of parking available including this shady spot. Just below (to the left as viewed here) is a motorable track heading towards the hills. It's a well maintained mature durian orchard.

In due course it becomes a classic concrete path and reaches a well maintained Chinese house. The occupiers have an attractive set of orchids outside.

We carried on up to the ridge to the shrine to Tua Pek Kong. Compared to our first visit here ten years ago it was looking in much better shape, just like Yuehong as it happens.

There's a classic south of Penang view looking out, 'Nan Shan' or 'South Hill' according to the characters behind the Grand Old Man.

Compared to 10 years the higher orchards are better maintained and much of the rubber has disappeared which is just as well as our trail evaporated as we transited to a further orchard which occupies a small bowl. We would be back here later today to finally sort out official access to it which we had failed to find now and on a previous visit.

However, we did know where we wanted to get out and this involved keeping as close to the ridge on its north side as possible. We kept to the concrete path and this put the slope down to Jalan Chai on our left, basically at this point it consists of what appears to be impenetrable very old rubber. Eventually as the path ran out we could see the circular path that runs around the bowl below us.

Last time we were here it was rather drier and you'll have to take my word for it that clambering up was straightforward and rewarding - those are durian trees behind me. With her current knee situation, Yuehong needed to be a bit more careful.

Rather than go straight down into the orchard, we followed the ridge for a short way left and, as we expected found an easy way down to the top terrace. Once again there was a pleasant view onwards.

The terrace became a path which very soon came to a junction. As we had been here just a few days before, I'm pleased to say I recognised the spot. Sadly, Yuehong didn't believe me, so I told her to go up the path on the left and what she should expect...  We didn't really want to go down to Jalan Chain from here as it would be a fair way back up on the other path, instead we wanted to find another way across to it as it climbed up. So we went down a short way and followed a terrace around the side of the hill from where we could see the path we had just left on its way down.

The two 'up and down' paths serve separate orchards and by and large in such a situation the owners make a point of leaving the boundary 'unmaintained' which makes such a transit less than straightforward. Sure enough we could see a brand new concrete path across the divide but to get there required my getting the secateurs out for the first time this visit and great care by Yuehong when she followed. I was in such a rush to record the scene that I put the secateurs down on a rock and forgot to pick them up (an increasingly frequent occurrence).

We had 'chosen' our spot well, it was a 'reverse', right near the end of the path - I had actually left the secateurs behind where Yuehong is standing. Above it was still being cleared and as we followed it down below it soon turned right away from the boundary.

There was now a magnificent view of my 'favourite' Botanica development. The brick red roof of the international school ('POWIIS') is no longer the dominant feature, instead it is the buildings of the commercial area which include American multinational 'food outlets' of the kind whose threshold I would never cross. Anyway this recently extended path was one which we had not previously felt the need to research.

I confess that this time I didn't recognise the junction but there could be no doubt that this was the path that curled up from Jalan Chai. Very soon this was confirmed when we passed the old gentleman whose house we had visited last time. He was busy picking nutmegs with the aid of a long pole device.

We got to the point where the path used to end and we had originally gone straight up. This time we continued on the curves and finished in the middle top of picture to the left. 

Three of the next four pictures have been recycled from our recent walk that went in the opposite direction. The odd one out is the one below right which shows how boundaries were traditionally marked with a rectangular block of granite. Many, like this, survive today and larger versions are often seen along the ridge paths which separate catchment areas in the higher parts of the island. 

Down we went turning left and returning to the durian orchard in the bowl below the ridge, but only after Yuehong had a break while I went to recover the secateurs which, by now, I had realised I had left behind. 

How to get out? My supposed exit route was now known not to be that and we carried on in an anticlockwise direction until we solved the riddle. I am standing on the circular path, Yuehong has followed me up and the exit is straight ahead. We climbed a little and then came to another junction. That's yet another concrete path heading upwards towards the overgrown rubber covering the ridge hereabouts and logic says that it must be a dead end... There was no time to check this out today as the seasonal afternoon rain was clearly not far away.

This was actually a significant 'new' path for us, such things don't happen too frequently for us. We took a long zigzag down past a small house which had seen much better days and was now home to a single migrant worker who, not surprisingly, was astonished to see first me and then Yuehong appear apparently out of nowhere. One more zig zag and we passed the inevitable 'trespass' sign which was so faded that it was a miracle that it was still attached.

There was a further junction, the left fork ought to be a dead end based on what we had seen earlier (i.e. 'nothing') and the picture is included to remind me to check should we return. Finally, we came to a wider trail and I wasn't really surprised to find out very soon after that this was the one we had come up earlier, in fact we could see the house with the orchids just a little further up.

Being a selfish bastard, I walked ahead to miss as much of the rain as I could. My remit had been to organise a walk of about 3 hours and about 6km, which I had achieved even though certain elements were previously unknown. Job done and I had earned my dinner time Tiger, which accompanied some traditional Hakka pork with yams.