Padang Tembak Dou Mu Gong Jiu Wang Da Di Temple up to Rest Station 39 and down to the Youth Park via Rest Station 5

I have had my eye on this way up the mountain for some time. Bobbi and I found our way up to Rest Station 5 from Moongate and Youth Park some time ago. We saw that the trail continued from there out the back of the rest station, and we were told when we asked that that way went to the jeep road back to Botanical Gardens in Penang.

I started looking closely at maps and came to the conclusion that this way must take us to Rest Station 39 which is marked on Google Maps. I had further seen from satellite views that there appeared to be a trail from the Air Itam side up the mountain to Rest Station 39. I had in fact worked out that this trail started from Padang Tembak Dou Mu Gong Jiu Wang Da Di Temple, at the end of Jalan Padang Tembak, off Boundary Road just south of Batu Gantung Cemetary, a big green patch on the map of Penang just south of the Turf Club and equestrian center, and I found out today that I had in fact been right about this. And I had figured that if that was true then it should be possible to get a Grab to the temple (or a bus from Komtar; the temple is on the 201 and 204 bus line down Boundary Road) and walk up to Rest Station 39, then traverse to Rest Station 5 and go back down to the Youth Park or Botanical Gardens Moongate in just a few hours.

But finding the way UP from the temple (what this blog post is intended to help you do) was the main problem. It seemed more reasonable to try and find Rest Station 39 itself in walks on the mountain and then find the way DOWN from there. Then I'd know where the trailhead was in town.



In walks since then I'd been trying to find my way to Rest Station 39. So far I've missed my mark, but when out on a jaunt with the Thursday Ramblers today I did at last find my way to my goal, and I hope this post will thus explain why I left the group to set out on my own in search of this (well known to them but to me) elusive Rest Station 39, and its even more elusive trail down, which I have now found, just today.

From Youth Park yet another way to Rest Station 5

So let's start with the Ramblers and their trail uphill from the Youth Park. I was following the leader through the Youth Park and thinking I might have trouble finding that way again, but at the point we were leaving the park we passed this "Laman Flora" marker, which is where we left what looked like "park" and started up the surfaced mountain path.

We continued up this path for 5 or ten minutes and then turned abruptly up a dirt path going uphill to our right. I didn't take a picture here, but the path had tree roots forming steps which helped us navigate it smoothly (maybe tricky when wet though). That way was marked with red paint, sprayed strategically on some of the trees en route. We climbed up-slope but didn't encounter problems till we reached this place where the rocks were a little slippery. Someone had helpfully installed a rope that helped us get over the rocks.

There the trail had turned sharply uphill to the left, and we continued that way, tediously uphill, but more comfortably I thought than any of the other ways I'd tried in the past, until we came out at the top of the jungle trail onto this fairly level trail perpendicular to the one we had just been on.

Dave Peel, our leader said that the way the camera is pointed would take us downhill to Rest Station 5, and from there, there are a couple of obvious ways down the steps to Moongate or if you take a set of steps off to the right, as I recall, down a more gradual descent to Youth Park. Now, note the tree with the red arrow at the right of the picture above. That's the same arrow in the picture below which points back down the trail we just came up.

So from the view of the trail below the arrow, if I look left I'm looking down the trail to the Youth Park and Botanical Gardens. That's the way the Ramblers took. But Dave had told me, when I asked, that the trail to the right led to Rest Station 39. Oddly the place he described that I would arrive at was recognizable to me. It sounded like the newly built structure right on the Jeep Road. He said from there I could go to Middle Station, and this must have been the trail marked Moniot Road. I've been that way before and I recognized the various options, but I was surprised that that new structure would be Rest Station 39. I allowed that there should be a way down from Rest Station  39 to Ayer Itam. Dave said there was, "if you know what you're looking for."






I decided as long as I'd come this far, I couldn't resist completing my missing puzzle piece, so I headed slightly up the trail in the opposite direction, and soon came onto this bridge, with its new guardrails blocking falls into the chasm on either side.

Not long after that, I came to this juncture, with a high road and a low road.

An energetic young couple happened a long at just that moment and I asked them if they knew the trail. By chance they knew that the high road led to the Jeep Road, the place that I thought Dave had been pointing me to, because he had described a track that went back to the Botanical Garden from there, a track I'd like to take if I'm ever back there again, because it parallels the Jeep Road. This young couple didn't know where the low road went. When I looked more closely, it seemed to go where I actually wanted to go.

So I took it and sure enough, came out within a few minutes on this

It seemed to be a pleasant place, with inviting facilities

Lovely views looking out to Butterworth

And only two people there. One was a young woman holding a yoga position on a pedestal overlooking the valley, and the other apparently a caretaker, taking care of something

So I asked the caretaker if there was a way down to the big mosque in the middle of this picture

And he pointed the direction I should go, which was thankfully, and obviously, all downhill from there. The only problem with that is that the opposite direction is all uphill.

























From Padang Tembak Dou Mu Gong Jiu Wang Da Di Temple up to Rest Station 39

But suppose you were down in the valley and wanted to get all that uphill out of the way in one go and then coast all the way from there to the Youth Park (where on a hot day you can have a swim in one of the several free pools there).

To start with, you'd go here on Google Maps, and look for this sign

      

If you came by bus you'd get off at the bus stop below the Intuk Negeri Kita apartment complex.

You're on Boundary Road, and the sign you are looking for is to the left of the entrance to this street.

Walk to the end of this road until you have to turn right.

You'll find a school on your left,

and the Padang Tembak Dou Mu Gong Jiu Wang Da Di Temple is on your right.

See the roof of the yellow building behind the first two? Take the road to your right to pass it.

Turn to the left to pass the fence on your right, and take the only way possible to the left

On your way up the road, you come to two small alters

At the second one, start up the road to the right

On on up the road. The first house is number 4. You're going to 39.

There's an open gate here

Don't enter unless you just want to look around. Take the road uphill to the right.

Post number 7 is just up the hill

Here's 18, almost halfway

Just past the sign for the Hokkein Cemetery, you come to the end of the road.

There are colorful flags here

and a small shrine. The dogs here will be wary of you, but they didn't threaten me.

Beyond this rock there is a trail marker:

Now the steps begin ...

Welcome to Rest Stop 39, but don't get excited yet.

Twenty six, only 13 to go!

Twenty-seven!

These are some heavy duty steps. They look almost rain-proof.

At the top of these stairs you come out on a relatively flat surface.

This gentleman has just come up the steps. He pointed back over his head to indicate the way for me, the way he had come, but he seemed too tired to spend much energy on conversation.

This is why I had asked him. If you're coming downhill make sure you take the stairs to the left. I don't know where you'd end up if you missed it and carried on straight.

The concrete path breaks up but is replaced by stairs.

The above photo is taken looking downhill. Just beyond here the more reliable steps verge to the right. Take your pick of pathways.

One more long stairway, but at 37, you're almost there.

At the top, follow the stairs to the right.

You've arrived!

And that's the last of the  pics I need to upload to this blog post :-)

Time and distance

On the maps, the distance of that walk is only about 3 miles or 5 km, but the gain in alitude is 400 meters, and the trails aren't US national park standard (before Trump). It took me from 9 am to around noon to do the whole thing.

Where can we go from here?