Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Batu Itam
Tropical Fruit Farm to Teluk Bahang

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.

The 501 bus service needed to get to Sungai Pinang from the north of the island had been withdrawn by September 2022. This makes this hike impractical for anyone without the use of a car.

Anyone who has taken a 501 bus out of Teluk Bahang towards Balik Pulau cannot fail to have noticed the large dark bare rock above the dam  I'd never really thought to visit Bukit Batu Itam until I took a fancy to 'collecting' the PBA rain gauges (RG) which are scattered around the hills above the water catchment areas. However, I had found RG 24 high above Pantai Acheh and I knew that RG 26 was on the top of BBI and  RG 27 half way down towards Teluk Bahang. It didn't need a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge (but it obviously helped) to work out where RG 25 was likely to be found.

We were meant to have spent the day looking for RG 33 and 34 elsewhere, but Yuehong had a surfeit of fruit for breakfast which laid her out and I needed to revise my plans rapidly. So I took the 10.30 501 and got off above the Tropical Fruit Farm and headed down the Secret Garden route (more information is available here, it's not a difficult route to follow). It took me about an hour to get to the summit which would have taken me down to Pantai Acheh. I also knew that turning left here and following the ridge path would lead me to RG 24. Instead, I turned right into the unknown, although truth to tell, I had checked that there was a possible ridge path last time I was here. Now let's be honest about this, you shouldn't be looking at going along paths like these unless you have a modicum of experience. I could happily go along them in the dark with a torch but I would be the first to admit that I would have been reluctant to try them a couple of years ago. 

The first minute was secondary jungle and then the path vanished into the canopy that is primary jungle, excellent news! 

Almost immediately I came out to a junction which offered me an even wider trail, I turned left which was uphill. If I could get a 4 x 4 here I could have driven it at least 200 metres but the jungle soon closed in.

I went round a corner and there in front of me exactly where I expected to find it was RG 25. Of course, I wasn't the first hiker to clap eyes on it but no one previously had been a sufficient nerd to report it on the web. The temptation to open a can of Tiger and then turn round and saunter down for more refreshment in Pantai Acheh was extremely strong.

Hang on... If there was a path onwards, maybe I could crack RG 26 and 27 today and avoid having to walk up to the top of Bukit Batu Itam from Teluk Bahang another time, especially as it would save me enough money in bus fares to reward myself appropriately. Would you call the view on the left below an opportunity? I would and look what it led to.

I knew what to expect, there would be sections where I would have sprinted were I half my current age and others where more care would be needed.

Normally I curse the people who apply this red and white tape but in this case it only appeared when a tree was down ahead to show which way to make the diversion. And when only an idiot could go wrong, it was nowhere to be seen.

Blockages are a natural hazard here but they do produce opportunities. The zoologists will tell me about this friendly squirrel. Onwards and upwards, this was rare hiking heaven.

Tree down? Just look which side the roots are, skirt it and rejoin the path.

Onwards and upwards, somewhere along the way there had been a false summit, but this was the real thing. If RG 26 was in those ferns I wasn't going to find it.

Then suddenly civilisation, even I could have got the spelling right. If I had known there were toilets here then I would have avoided watering the jungle a few yards back.

That's a serious amount of local tax payers money invested here and I fear that in a year or two it will all fall down like the viewing platform at Bukit Laksamana. Exhibit A is a retired rain gauge (RG 26) which is too remote for today's physically challenged PBA employees. If they could be bothered to maintain it, they would only have to come here once a month instead of every other day as formerly.

It was time for the first part of lunch, jam sandwich and amber nectar. I knew from here onwards, the trail would be kept clear, it was subject to regular mass hikes unlike the first part of journey. Before I left, I attempted a view of Bukit Laksamana (right) and Western Hill (left). It won't be appearing in any guide book.

Back into the jungle I went and almost immediately I came to a junction. Left would lead me to Teluk Kampi on the coast which was something I was happy to leave for another day - see https://rexymizrah.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/teluk-bahang-to-bukit-batu-itam/ for a description. Ahead was Teluk Bahang, not to mention RG 27.

I was not terribly impressed with the next section, the gods had not smiled kindly here and it was just a little bit steep as far as my knees were concerned. Given another 5 years, there will be erosion problems if the trail becomes popular.

Never mind, it wasn't all that long and eventually it levelled out. What a good place for a rain gauge I said to myself and increased my awareness level. Another can of Tiger and I might have missed it.

This one is more or less anonymous, if the paint on RG 26 was almost gone, the paint on RG 27 was non-existent. RG 26 was stripped bare, RG 27 had a funnel but I doubt it had been examined in the last decade. It's difficult for my opinion of Penang's institutions to sink much lower but these last two rain gauges told me all I need to know about the management of the PBA, no wonder they aren't at all keen to let people know where their rain gauges are. Yes, we do boil our water at home before we drink it, it's main virtue is that it is cheap, indeed almost free.

Onwards and downwards, I came to a sign which had me puzzled at the time. Was I entering or leaving the National Park? Either way, it would have been very difficult to gain the necessary permission as I had seen no previous indication that I was in the park. To the right was a minor trail, presumably leading towards the dam, maybe it was used by the Rainforest Hash Children whose remains from more than a year ago were here too.

I took the charitable view that I was leaving the park as the rest of the trail was, to be honest, crap. Much of it was near covered in ferns as I passed above the dam.

To all intents and purposes it's a junior version of the Moon Gate path, there's actually a nice view of Teluk Bahang.

I'll spare you more of that experience, instead look at the glorious sight before me, the United Hokkien Cemeteries, it seems you have to be seriously rich to be buried here. The Feng Shui is excellent, the top graves are on a hillside facing down to the sea and in the (very) far distance is the motherland.

Sadly the light was all wrong for the VIP plots at the top.

As I left the cemetery I turned right as I wanted to head for the roundabout in the middle of the village. It was quite a way, I ended up outside the Desa Mutiara which was some 300 metres from the Teluk Bahang to Balik Pulau Road coming out between the fire station and secondary school. No wonder I was thirsty, it was the best part of an hour before I could face a bus.

This is a great walk, totally unexpected  and would be equally good in the opposite direction if you can face the climb. When you reach the Secret Garden path you would have the alternative option to descend to Pantai Acheh. The path down to Teluk Kampi and back to Teluk Bahang  would require a lot more time than I had available today.