Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Cendana Revisited
Botanical Gardens to the Rifle Range Flats

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.  There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed. Click here for a list of the known PBA rain gauges.

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.

This account is linked from my Penang Peaks page which lists peaks over 400 metres as well as other places of interest and viewpoints. To find other hikes which visit this peak please check the north east area index.

Long ago, in the 1970s, I lived in Ayer Rajah Close near the Botanical Gardens and from our home we could look up at Bukit Cendana. Indeed as you will see, I visited it from time to time as arguably it had a better view of George Town than the main hill. So when Mike Gibby offered to take us up a path which didn't involve the Moon Gate Path, the Jeep Road or the notorious steps, I jumped at the chance. In the event that day we had to come back down one of the dreaded trio as we had a car parked up, but I have now altered the final section in view of our checking out the path to '39' from the Rifle Range Flats.

The start of the walk is this modest entrance in the bushes between the Moon Gate and the Botanical Gardens. You'll know you've got the right trail if you see this water pipe, hence the local hikers call it the 'black pipeline trail'.

It's a far more enjoyable climb than its better know counterparts but there are a few obstructions along the way.

After about 10 minutes, the pipeline went left and we went right and we found ourselves on a clear route going up through the jungle.

I've long got used to the biologically educated suddenly stopping and photographing strange specimens, this was some kind of fungus. I'm pleased to say that Yuehong found the trail more than acceptable too.

We came to a junction with a plethora of signs, we ignored the 'Peace Trail' and basically kept on climbing.

We trailed in at a junction, where someone had decided to number a tree '12'. If we had turned sharp right here we would have come out at '48' on the Jeep Road which is near the top of the steps from the Botanical Gardens. Instead, we carried on up the ridge past tree '13'.

Parts of this section were not in the best of shape, it didn't help that there had been a big fire here within the last couple of years. However, I suspect far more damage was being inflicted by inappropriate users, these mountain bikers had come through from the connection with '84', simply they should not be allowed here but no one is ever going to stop them. We ignored that path and kept on going up the ridge.

In the burnt area, the larger trees had survived but trees up to about 5 or 10 metres high had been killed off. In the long term there will be some kind of recovery but for a while there be a lot of ferns here. Mike explained that these iron gate posts by 'W. MacFarlane & Co of Glasgow' would have been brought up for the property Highlands whose ruins we had seen on our first visit.

More recent vintage metalwork is represented by rain gauge 10, it may look pretty but it's actually well out of use. We continued to climb through the burned area as we neared the summit.

Now it so happens that I have a set of pictures taken up here by me about 40 years ago. Mike suggested they might be of interest, sorry about the dirt, I don't have time to clean the images at the moment.... The house was apparently later burned down.

Today, you can see some of the pillars and the steps, everything else is gone and the view is obstructed by trees and bushes.

There are other routes out of here but we went down the steps and followed the path through an area which seems to be regenerating very slowly. I know which view I prefer.

It wasn't long before we were poised above the Moon Gate Path, the descent needed some care.

Now at this point, we leave that particular walk and tell you how to get down to the Rifle Range Flats by an excellent trail. Turn left here and go a short way until you see this tree and a track leading down to the right and take this. (Alternatively you could turn right and go a slightly longer distance and turn left as shown in the second picture.) Both have a small sign '39' on trees, unfortunately in each case the sign is on the wrong side.

Very soon you'll come to an open area known as '39' where regular hikers from the Rifle Range Flats gather. From the far end, a flight of steps starts to descend beyond the marker stone. Basically there are good steps as far as '29' and a concrete road thereafter. You can see what the route is like by reading the account of the climb in our report entitled 'The 39 Steps'. 

This is the bottom of the descent, it comes out right next to the left hand side of the temple complex.

From here, it's a short walk down to Boundary Road where you can catch frequent 201, 202 and 204 buses to George Town. The nearest stop is just to the right between the two pedestrian traffic lights, you need to be on the right hand side of the road as you approach.