Penang Hill Heritage Trail

Since most of the forest reserve around Klang Valley is closed, a group of us decided to go up north for a few days of hiking and "santai".

To save some time, we used the North - South Highway....or so we thought!!!!. We decided to make our first stop for breakfast in Bidor Food Court for Herbal Duck Noodles. (Link: Please see Santai in Bidor & Kampar)

After breakfast, we continued our journey to Kampar for more breakfast. Along the way, we did a slight detour to the Tapah - Cameron's road for a unique horticulture experience, "The Kissing Trees".

A natural formed silhouette of trees resembling 2 person kissing

Once in Kampar, we made our way to check out the famous sitting down Chow Kueh Tiow chef's stall. The owner is a elderly man who still uses charcoal to fry his CKT sitting down!!! I suspect he's the only person in Malaysia that fries his CKT sitting down!!! The CKT stall is located inside the Kampar Market.

Unfortunately the wait was too long and we decided to opt for Ice kacang on a hot day

The Sitting Chef frying his CKT

After a quick stop, we continued our journey to Penang, stopping in Butterworth for lunch. Our original intention was to proceed to Shui Yuan Restaurant in Nibong Tebal for their famous Deep Fried Pork Knuckles, Boiled Baby Octopus, Lala and Fried Sotong. Unfortunately for us the restaurant was closed and we decided to try another restaurant, equally famous and crowded. (Link: Santai in Butterworth)

After lunch we headed off to Pulau Aman jetty for a look see. We also stopped by Batu Kawan to look for Malaysia's largest sundial, but it was removed from the site. Sighhhhh..... too many "unfortunately" on our first day !!! However we managed to locate our first Container Art location. There are 5 locations in total. (Link: Penang Container Art Festival)

After almost 10 hours....😲😲😳😳 on the road with all our stops, we finally arrived at our destination.

HIKE No. 1 - Penang Hill Heritage Trail

After a good's night rest, we started off early to catch some breakfast first and onward to our first hike of the year, Penang Hill.

There's so many changes since I last came to Penang, there's a brand new entrance to the Penang Hill Train station, a multi level car park next to the station and the roads are more organised. The entrance to the trailhead is located on the left of the train station

There are plenty of signages to guide you up the trail

The trailhead starts off with a series of staircases and goes on for about 2 hours of non stop climbing till you reach the lower station. The good part about the trail is there are several proper rest stops to catch your breath. In total, there are 7 rest stops along the way.

The steep steps all the way up and one of the many rest stops along the way

The view of Georgetown from the Lower Station

This hike requires a different type of climbing since it's a concrete steps climb and the height of the steps are quite irregular. It drains your stamina climbing these steps!!! After the lower station you continue walking up more steps till you come across a temple. Just after the temple there is a 'Y' path..... we took the right path leading us to the Buddhist Stupas, an interesting stopover for some instagramable...... shots

The temple and the " Y " path. The right side goes to the Buddhist Stupas

We made our way back to the trail and headed towards Penang Hill. Overall, with all our rest stops, photography and admiring the views, it too us about 4.5 hours to reach the peak. With so much history behind this hill. I would say it was worth the climb

The return was much faster !!!!! We took the train down !!!!😁😁😁😁