Funicular Track with Georgetown BelowPenang Hill was the first Malaysian hill station, one of those places European settlers used as a retreat from the suffocating heat of the lowlands. It rises high above the west coast island of Penang, in the town of Air Hitam. On my visit I really enjoyed the fresh breezes, but I wonder about the benefits the earlier visitors received, as the usual way to get to the top of the hill was to walk.

A local man who had just finished the trip up Bukit Bandera, the hill's Malay name, told me the hike takes about two hours if you keep up a brisk pace through the jungle. At a more reasonable speed, the climb would take about four hours. Many people in the area make the hike every day. There is even a rest stop with juice and water part way up. It just doesn't sound like a refreshing excursion to me, even now. The funicular is a much better way to go.

I was hot and sweaty after walking from the bus stop in Air Hitam to the base of the hill. Even sitting in air-conditioned comfort while waiting to take the two-stage journey to the top wasn't enough to make me feel cool. An ice cream bar helped with that.

Views and Breezes

The views from Penang Hill are spectacular, and the breezes really are refreshing. I made something of a spectacle of myself the entire time I was there, suddenly flinging my arms wide to make the most of the constant breeze.

Below the main walkway, a path leads down to several picnic shelters, places for a family to dine with a view and lovers to cuddle, away from the tourists above.

When you are staying in crowded Chinatown in the flat lands of the main city, Georgetown, it is easy to forget that Penang is a hilly and heavily forested island. Many of the hiking trails around the hill are no longer maintained, so the jungle is actually wilder than it was many years ago. It used to be possible to hike part way down the mountain, and board the funicular at one of the intermediate stops. When I asked about doing that, having in mind a stop very close to the top, I was told I'd probably get lost as the trails aren't marked any more.

I splurged on a leisurely lunch with a view at the Bellevue Hotel, a place I remembered from a visit many years ago. After inspecting the birds in the Bellevue's aviary, and climbing up to look at the extremely dull mosque, I watched workers scrape and paint the Hindu temple. Like all the Hindu temples here, this one is done in pastels or dusty shades, not the bright garish colors I remember from India.

During yet another break that included my second ice-cream bar, I met that local hiker when he was asked to translate for me. I saw an woman eating an ear of corn, and I wanted to know if I could buy one. The answer was no, she had brought it from home. She gave me a slice of green mango to munch on, instead.

The hiker and I chatted for a while, about the history of the hill, green mangos, and the old trails that he used to walk. Then he left for his trek back down the hill, and I started out along a nice level road that goes around the hill. There are viewpoints with picnic tables here also, and very old signs pointing to deteriorated paths that are no longer usable. Eventually I passed a house set in fairly extensive gardens, sitting just down over the lip of the road. It's a beautiful setting for a home, but is probably used only as a weekend retreat.

Changing Plans

I was walking toward one of the Penang Hill attractions, the canopy walk. I'd done one in the nineties on Borneo, at Poring Hot Springs in the Malaysian state of Sabah. I remember peering down at the jungle while I edged my way forward, clinging to the slightly swaying rope bridge that connected the treetop platform. It was a fascinating journey. I was toying with the idea of trying this one, if it didn't involve too much climbing. Then I saw signs announcing the canopy walk was closed due to safety considerations. That ended that idea.

My plans to circle the hill were also thwarted, this time by the formation of some black-bottomed clouds. It never did rain. But I lived for over nine years in the lightning capital of America, and I'm a bit sensitive about being in the open during storms. In the Tampa/St. Pete area, clouds form in the distance, darken, move quickly over land, emit thunder and lightning, deposit drenching rain, and then disappear, all in less than an hour. It makes one cautious. I turned around and headed back, and down.

Standing in the front of the railway car, looking down the track as the return journey started, I realized just how steep an angle the funicular takes. I wondered how a woman I met on the way up had fared. An Australian with a fear of heights, she had gotten off at the middle station thinking the trip was over. So did I. When she realized we were transferring to another car, she was so horrified at the idea of continuing that she refused to get on. The conductors held up our departure, trying to convince her, but she was adamant. She'd wait for her grown son right there and join him on the way back down. How, I wondered, had she managed the trip back?

Unlike her, I like heights, and deliberately chose the first car so I could look straight down the hill at the track. It was crowded, and most of the space was taken up with six young Malay civil engineering students, all of them women. Each of their mothers, they confided, had urged them to choose non-traditional fields. They were all hoping to finish high enough in their class to get government scholarships for graduate school abroad.

Once down, I altered my plans again. My original intention had been to visit the nearby Kek Lok temple when I got back down to Air Hitam, but I had spent far too long wandering about up top. Instead I had a quick meal of clay pot chicken rice (pronounced as one word, 'chickenrice') at a hawker center, a sort of outdoor food court, and took the bus back to Georgetown.

Kek Lok would have to be seen on a separate trip. And, I reminded myself, I’d seen a sign for something called the bat cave temple. I could check that out, too. As I rode along in the bus, I realized that once again, the best part of the day had been the people I met. And the view. And the chicken rice.

Background

Penang and its main town, Georgetown, is inhabited by an eclectic mix of Chinese, Malay, and Indian Malaysians, with a substantial European population thrown in. Along with Singapore and Malacca, it formed the three ‘straights settlements’ that ruled trade in the area along the Straights of Sumatra.

Credits

Article contributed by Cindy

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