Penang Hills and Trails - The Valley
A short Balik Pulau Horseshoe

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. 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.

See also Temple with the View 2015 Part 1 and Temple with the View 2015 Part 2 which covers the background to this walk.

We had been up to the 'Bao Tian Gong' temple on the ridge between the valleys between the Air Itam to Balik Pulau Road and that leading to Bukit Elvira twice recently and there was a loose end to sort out as we had briefly used a previously unknown concrete path. For family reasons we could have only a short walk so this was the perfect opportunity.

As we walked up from Balik Pulau on the Bukit Elvira Road (turn left off the Air Itam Road for the cemeteries) we met this motorcyclist who had a broad smile on his face. He lived up the hill and had often seen us but had never plucked up the courage to say 'hello'. With Chinese New Year coming he had some prize luggage on board. It was a 'Babi Hutan' or 'Wild Boar' for which no doubt he would have got a good price in the local market. We'd seen one kept as a pet at a temple near Sungai Ara and two days before we had met someone on the look out for one (20kg or more) reported above Sungai Rusa. By all accounts they are quite common albeit largely nocturnal and no doubt in the dry season they will tend to come out of the jungle to seek water. We have frequently seen pellets of droppings from a large mammal on our paths and I suspect these are responsible. They are probably the largest mammal native to Penang and like their counterparts back home in the Forest of Dean, UK, they are probably widely seen as a pest rather than a sign of a healthy environment. I am sure someone from the Malaysian Nature Society could give a more informed view.

We turned right just before the road gets steep, crossed the bridge and headed up past the only house on the path.

It was only a few days since we had come down here, so it was familiar territory. There is just one junction, just keep going up, passing a small shelter before reaching the rubber.

The path does a U bend before levelling out. Be sure to turn right here - you'll find the left path soon dies anyway. We had actually reached as high as we were going today although you wouldn't recognise that from Yuehong's face. Her visiting elderly uncle was a little poorly and we had reluctantly brought along a means of communication should it be necessary to report problems. About now we discovered that her aunt had been calling which was disconcerting as she wasn't answering our returning calls. Yuehong naturally felt the need to get back to base soon so instead of enjoying the rest of the hike at leisure we now had to be back in Balik Pulau for the early 14.30 bus. Anyway, for the record, the route up to the 'Temple with the View' is behind her in the right hand picture below, we'd never intended to go up it today anyway.

I wasn't too bothered, we had an hour and a half and I guessed (correctly) that we could do it in an hour even allowing for a lunch stop. After passing the boundary marker, we followed the rubber terrace left and entered a familiar open area with an old set of steps which led down to the top of a concrete trail.

I would have gone down to the hut more slowly if I had remembered that Yuehong was carrying the beer! On resumption we set off down a trail which even an elderly alcoholic could not possibly have got lost on (the path on the right goes only a few metres to a rock shrine).

Below us we could eventually see a substantial building, all the signs proclaim it to be called 'The Valley', I don't think it has any connection with Charlton Athletic in the UK. Unlike most houses here it has some 'style' and soon we were down on the Air Itam to Balik Pulau Road.

I agree the turning has a degree of 'sameness', so you may like to note that the nearest electricity pole reads HT NH 4 80. It will make a very nice climb when we come this way again. As it was we got home in good time to find that the calls were intended only as re-assurance. Alas that's not the way we work and if I have anything to do with it then the 'toy' will be firmly kicked into touch for the rest of the relatives' stay.