Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Kecil
Downhill to Sungai Pinang

This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a Grade 1 walk. The first half is also the first half of the walk from the same starting point to Pantai Acheh, the second half is on another page.  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.

Since this was written, the track we used has been widened and as of March 2014 it has acquired a lifting barrier and standard stupid, meaningless 'Trespassers will be Prosecuted' sign. The open area above the track however has been 'blitzed'. We have only seen this from a distance and have no plans to revisit and check it out close up. By December 2016, the area was again a green colour and fruit tress have been planted although some kind of tourist development (small chalets?) was in progress. The narrow path described at the end is no more, there is a wide trail although it is no longer blocked by a large metal fence at it southern end.

We went down the new wide track in January 2017, access is possible with suitable care, although we cannot guarantee you will not be ejected.

The 501 bus service referred to in this report had been withdrawn by September 2022. This makes this hike impractical for anyone without the use of a car.

On our first full day in Penang in February 2013, I tried to skip through the traffic in Pulau Tikus and pulled up short when something went 'pop' in my leg. I had pulled a (Plantaris) muscle, the web doctor unkindly described it as 'tennis leg' and being especially common in 'middle aged athletes'. If you are morbidly curious you can read about it here and the one that didn't go is here. It was painful for a day and less and less uncomfortable for three more until I could no longer stand being stuck in the flat even if it has the most beautiful view in the world. What was needed was a Grade 1 walk with the option of an easy turn around if things started to go pear-shaped. As it so happened, I had the perfect such walk in mind to kick off our third month in Penang this UK winter.

As it was to be shorter than average, there was no need for an early start, the 11.30 501 would get us to the summit of the round-the-island road between Teluk Bahang and Balik Pulau. Well it would have done except it was the second day of Chinese New Year, a Sunday, and the 101 buses were heaving. By the time we squeezed on to the third one, we got to Teluk Bahang at 11.45. Nothing to do but order a Roti Chanai and have a coffee and wait 2 hours for the next 501... Then a 501 came around the roundabout from Balik Pulau and the breakfast order was cancelled. Initial thought was that it was late but in fact it had been retimed to 12.00. The Gods were indeed smiling on us again.

I had read on the web of a cycle route from Pantai Acheh and I had met a mature European who claimed to have done the route - uphill and coming out near the Tropical Fruit Farm. Now that didn't sound a great idea to me as it would probably have involved all sorts of decision making where concrete paths split in fruit orchards. (I was wrong, no one's perfect! The path runs well to the north over a lower col which was not visible from our summit - it's a delightful route - click here for my report.) The summit offered four routes, three of them with gates firmly shut, so the choice was easy even if it was on the north side. It was wide and had seen better days, but it was pleasantly shaded. The next set of gates was exactly where I wanted to go and were wide open, we needed no further invitation. 

The path was slightly downhill and passed close to a new house from which paths extended upwards to the crest but we followed the easy route and found ourselves blessed with a magnificent view down to the Teluk Bahang Dam and the sea beyond.

I could tell from the use that she was making of her camera that Yuehong approved. I had very mixed feelings as this now flooded valley had hosted the classic Penang Hash House Harriers run 666 set by John 'Animal' Worrell and on other occasions I had let the water rush past me lying in rock pools.

The path wound on eventually ending (and not for the first time) at an abandoned house. The remains of a 'last supper' were on the table and even the household gods had been left behind.

In this case, again there was a path leading up behind the house and we could see the ridge not far away. There was a set of large rocks which someone had thought auspicious, we paid our respects and carried on up:

Over the top we went past a small shrine and beyond was a very familiar view towards Pulau Betong. Just below us was a wide new concrete road which looked as if it came up from near Sungai Pinang (it did - see below).

However, time was on our side and it seemed sensible to find where the road led to. It was a sunny day and it was very open, the limited water we had brought (just 2.5L instead of the usual 5L) was going fast even though we had done no real climbing. However, the panorama was well worth the effort:

Up at the top there was a brand new house under construction, no-one was present so it seemed a good idea to climb up to the top to check out the view west to Pantai Acheh:

This was the house, it will be wonderful when finished and a close up of the Pantai Acheh mangroves.

We walked up to the water tank at the top with disused rain gauge 24 (RG 24), next to it and also along the ridge to the south. We could see several potential forest trails leading down to what appeared to be fruit orchards below but with drinking water low and a question mark over my leg, we took the safe way out back down the concrete road.

If you want to know how we eventually mad it down to Pantai Acheh you can read about that on a separate page.

It was nothing special, we saw more materials going up to the house and what looked to me like a Swift's Nest House which can be harvested for the soup makers:

It would be an easy route to follow coming up as all trails off it at the junctions are clearly minor and electricity poles follow it most of the way up. The area at the bottom is mainly occupied by Malays which probably explains why the monitor lizard seemed less concerned about human presence than most... This area is known as Kampung Bukit Kecil (Bukit Kecil = small hill) and the turn off for the road up is readily spotted, it's less than 1km from Sungai Pinang on the road to Pantai Acheh.

Sungai Pinang itself is solidly traditional Chinese, there is a large primary school with a stage next door and a small Chinese temple opposite. On any other day it might have been 'Time for a Tiger' but the second day of Chinese New Year tends to be reserved for temple visits and all the shops were shut. We had heard the celebrations from the hill but only the firecracker remains were on show when we arrived. Shortly after a young couple pitched up and 'did the business' maybe they came from different parts of the island and had had to double up.

We were the only passengers on the bus (15.15 501 from Balik Pulau) for most of the journey. At Tekok Bahang, we demolished a couple of young coconuts, collected a Nasi Kandar takeaway for dinner and went off to wait for the 101 bus. We had 20 minutes to wait and it turned up already half full with visitors to the National Park. This was not good news, there were bound to be many people waiting to board at Batu Ferringhi given our experience in the morning. And so it proved, although we lost some passengers by the Bayview, the bus was now standing room only. At some stops there must have been enough people to fill an empty bus and there were at least four such places. We squeezed out at Mount Pleasure and walked up the hill, it was a good job we were not going out to dinner as usual, I guess it will have taken several hours to clear the backlog, some undoubtedly would have provided a 'killing' for local taxi drivers. Interestingly, it seemed the drivers had been told to give priority to foreign tourists but the Malaysians didn't openly complain about this. Anyway, it was great to be back in action and the good news was that my leg had held up throughout, which represented an amazing five day recovery even if it is still a bit tender if I prod it. I have read that the Plantaris muscle is vestigial and on the evidence from this 64 year old, it's probably true.