Penang Hill Via Heritage Trail

Penang Hill with the highest peak of 833meters(2733ft), is the most visited hill in Penang. You can see a number of cyclists and hikers on the peak during the weekend. There're several routes that you can take to reach the peak. Via Jeep Tracks next to Botanical Garden, Moongate, Tiger Hill, Bukit Laksamana, Hye Keat and Heritage Trail to name some.

My favourite among all is via Heritage Trail.

To get there to the entrance of the trail, you will need to follow the uphill cemented/tarred road from the Penang Hill Train Station Carpark, the one in front of the Thni Kong Thnua Temple, not the multistorey.

Penang version Sakura 

Not too far after passing the temple, you will see the entrance of the trail on your right. There's a signage on a big rock just before the entrance.

Entrance To The Trail

The first half of the trail are all stairs. This section will lead to the middle station, with the altitude of around 350m . A non-stop hike will take about 15 to 30 minutes depending on your fitness level. The middle station was an interchange for the old funicular system. Passengers need to change to another train to either bring them up to the peak or to the foot of the hill. A new funicular system with a single direct train was installed in 2010.

 

Old Funicular Train On Display

Continue the hike by following the stairs(yes stairs again) next to the toilet. The stairs are connecting to a single cemented trail. Follow the trail and you will see a farm in front. There are few dogs here which are kept by the farmers. The dogs will bark, it's their job to bark at strangers, but don't worry they will not bite as long as you keep walking and don't try to do something stupid. You might encounter farmers on motorbike too. Be polite and always give way to the motorbike. Afterall, you are passing by their land.

Follow the stairs on the left

  

 

Walk straight until you see a small hut, this is actually a station for the train. It is the Claremont Station. By now, you are no longer on the cemented trail. Take a right turn when you see the station on your left. Few meters after you turn right, you will see few direction sign. Follow the direction of Top Station which is turning to the left.

Claremont Station

Follow right

Follow the TOP STATION direction

Walk straight again until you see a rope tying to a tree, you will need to do a little bit of climbing here. Follow the trail, this section is quite steep with a lot of roots. You will see some stairs again after the rooty section. Turn right at the end of the stairs.

 

 

 

Go straight till you see a funicular railway. Follow the trail beside it. Be extra alert now as you will need to turn left into one of the arches below the railway. But don's worry because you will see an arrow sign there. Follow the sign and you will get to some well-paved trail again.

 

 

 

 

Follow the stair with red railing.

Walk till you see a stream/drain/sewer whatever you want to call it. You will need to follow the stream because the old trail was blocked by fallen trees. But don't worry, you won't need to wet your feet. You can walk on the cemented stream barrier. Be careful as it is quite narrow.

This section had been blocked by fallen trees

Follow the path and you will reach here:

This section doesn't look like this anymore. It's covered with concrete and have a few steps for you to climp up.

There's some upgrade work done here, so it doesn't look like this anymore.Will upload the updated photo once I took it. There are more concretes here now. Don't know why the authority likes concrete that much. Nevermind, back to our trail.

Follow the cemented path.

 

 

Until you see this junction. Go straight up.

 

Go straight up

You can choose to go straight or turn right.

If you go straight, you will be greet by a steel staircase. It will bring you up to the Penang Hill food court. If you choose to turn right, which is my usual route, you will see some stairs, follow the stairs and it will lead you to the Top Station.

Tadaaaa.... Here we are Penang Hill....

You may follow the same route to get back to the foothill. There's some other trails that will can bring you back to where we start which I will share in the coming post. Or there's another option which is by using the funicular train. What you need to do is join the queue, get aboard and enjoy the journey. No ticket needed(as for now). You will only need to pay for the fare at the counter on the foothill. The one way ticket for MyKad(Malaysian ID) holder is RM5, for non MyKad holder is RM15.

Click to enlarge

You can download the GPX file here. 

PS: Please do let me know if I missed out any important anything important about this trail.