Penang Hills and Trails - The Balik Pulau Sampler
Breaking In Another Old Hashman

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 owing to its length. 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.

As of January 2023. the key section below Nanshan which connects to the Balik Pulau valley appeared totally overgrown. Attempt to use it entirely at your own risk.

Just before we arrived in Penang, I was contacted by a near neighbour, Rajiv, a mature former hashman who was intrigued by our walks on the island. We arranged to go out together and I took him on a gentle excursion from Sungai Air Puteh to Balik Pulau. Afterwards he wrote to me "The length and timing of our last walk together was good although I could probably manage something more in the difficulty department." So, on the grounds that anything Yuehong and I could do at our comfortable pace, he should manage comfortably too, I set up today's horseshoe in the hills above Balik Pulau. As I put it in my reply "What we can promise you is a fair bit of climbing, lots of romping along gentle trails, some off path clambering and some stunning views if it’s not too hazy." You could say he had been warned...

He's still alive to tell the tale and it took rather longer than I promised him, but next time he'll know better what to expect!!! We started off up past 'The Valley' on the Air Itam Road out of Balik Pulau. As he sports a car, we arrived in total air-conditioned luxury and the camera had not demisted for the first shot. The initial climb is quite gentle, we were well up into the rubber when Yuehong decided she needed the first cool towel. 

This is not our favourite climb in these parts but I wanted to have the car parked, as requested, near the planned end of the walk. Very soon the path ended and we had a short climb on steep old steps, after which we followed the contours to the left to join the rubber.

Now the rubber starts gently but the terraces are deceptively difficult in the dry season as the sandy soil is covered in a layer of leaves. Yuehong's knee had complained bitterly during a descent here, but she was quite happy on the climb however Rajiv's Singapore 'sneakers' let him down. It was a classic case of two steps forward and one step back. It took a bit longer than expected and then Rajiv disturbed some hornets who decided to bite him... Ouch!!!

For us there were no nasty surprises, we sprinted up the burned patch and raced past the dahlias. No doubt Rajiv was quietly questioning his sanity, being too much of a gentleman to complain.

With a bit of cropping to eliminate the foreground, the view back was as glorious as ever.

The 'Temple with the View' owes its prosperity to a number of lottery wins based on numbers generated at it and in such circumstances it makes sense to pay one's respects. Afterwards we set off down to the 4 way junction and on towards Nanshan.

By now it was getting a little hazy so here's one I took 'a little bit earlier' on a previous hike here. The view is, quite simply, splendid, a variant on that seen earlier.

Time was running on, the pace was slowing in the heat and. not for the first time, like those runs when I was a hash hare, one of my walks seemed likely to overrun but no one was rude enough to complain. The scales say I have lost the best part of 4kg since arriving in Penang, but the beer belly begs the question, "From where?".

As a hash hare, I had learned first to put the runners in a comfort zone and then to spring an unexpected surprise, in this respect 'The Rocks' on the Forest Ang Trail score 10/10.

Unfortunately for them, they came out smiling so I threw in a small diversion to ensure we came out as close to the car as possible as requested. Equally unfortunately, that required a short sharp 'On Up!'.

From here on it was an initially gentle 'On Down!' but all of it had taken rather longer than I had anticipated. Yuehong's famous knee was complaining and Rajiv was looking more and more like Yuehong's 87 year old uncle who had been visiting us recently.

It was time to put the camera away, my knee too was suffering from one of Yuehong's famous curses. Indeed we came out near the car but it had taken almost six hours instead of the maximum of five I had promised. Thank goodness we didn't also have the walk out from and back to Balik Pulau. I think I know something a little safer should Rajiv dare to come out with us again...