Monday, December 16, 2019

Vance and Bobbi walk from Air Itam Dam to Balik Pulau in 4 hours

I was surprised that that's all the time it takes to walk from Air Itam Dam just up from Kek Lok Si temple in the bustling market town of Ayer Itam all the way over the mountain to the costal plains where lies Balik Pulau on the other side -- just 4 hours.

I finally worked out that the two were that close when the Thursday Ramblers staged a 3-hour out and back hike from the dam parking lot to the hillside temple of Ngor Hean recently, and that my contacts in the Sunday hiking group based in Balik Pulau were offering walks to the same destination in a similar time frame from the other side of the island. We haven't been able to make either walk, but when I looked it up on Google maps, I found that the dam-to-temple route should take 1 hour and 9 minutes, and the the temple to Balik Pulau was pegged at an hour and a half down the rough road which emerges onto 4 lanes just short of the small town of Balik Pulau itself.

The Thursday Ramblers created an event here, https://www.facebook.com/events/459534198030291/
The proposal read
  • Surface: Concrete and sealed paths almost entirely.
  • Topography: Mostly flattish, with a gradual rise to temple, with gradients no more than 20ยบ.
  • Elevation Gain: 320m
  • Distance: approximately 8km round trip.
  • Meet at 9:00am at Carpark. https://goo.gl/maps/5E53dZy8rCkBmtLw9
That seemed pretty straightforward. I also found a bicyclists' blog post that gave pictures of the junctions encountered on the walk
https://www.penangcycling.com/2017/07/24/ayer-itam-dam-hill-turnhilton-ngor-hean-%e4%ba%94%e6%98%be-temple-mountain-cycling/

I made a pdf of this and parked it on my cell phone so we could refer to it as we trekked, even if we didn't have a data signal en route. As it turned out, the signal was pretty steady the whole way, at least whenever we checked Google maps on the way down to Balik Pulau.

That post gave a pretty clear picture of every turn except for where exactly to begin the hike. Here's what it looked like from the blog post:



I followed the instructions as best as I could work out. The Grab taxi let us off at the car park. Walking ahead with the lake on our right, this is indeed what we saw, but the gate and signage had been altered so I wasn't sure I was going the right way when we walked through the gate on the right. But the motorbikes were there and up ahead I asked someone if this was the right way, and despite pronunciation problems -- the temple name is sometimes written Ngor and Ngoh, and Hean and Han, so I tried various combinations, and at last my interlocutor understood, ah, Noh Han, he repeated back to me, or something like that, and pointed the way forward.

But by then I was already past the gate so I missed getting a picture of its new appearance. I finally pulled out my phone to film these entertaining monkeys just a few minutes further up the road.


In the video you can see (on a fine day) the pleasant surroundings and glimses of the Air Itam reservoir in the background. Here is another shot from just a little further up the pleasant jogging, hiking, motorcycle, bicycle, and occasional car-traveled tarmac.


By now I was determined to update the pics on that fairly accurate blog post we were following. The first junction was pretty obviously marked. In this one the new paved road goes off to the right to continue around the lake, and the concrete road you want is uphill and signposted Ngoh Hean. Here are the road view and signage views.




When you keep on keeping on up the hill you eventually come to a little temple on your right with a makeshift exercise gym on your left, in case you're in the mood after the hike so far. In any event, it's worth a few photos.





Not too far uphill past that you come to the "Hill Turn" shed. There are benches and shade here. The road to Ngor Hean goes off about half an hour to the right, and if you carry on straight you eventually arrive in Balik Pulau. Incidentally, the shaded walk uphill with trees on both sides ends here and at mid day and this high up on the mountain, or more correctly bukit, the path ahead is mostly in sunshine.


Just uphill at the next juncture, it looks like the road to the left leads to a B&B of some kind. To reach the temple just keep following the red on yellow signs, here pointing right.



Lots of langur monkeys live up here. At this next juncture, it's an obvious right hand way








Bobbi thought this one would look better with me in the picture :-)
























At this one the sign points to the left, taking you into a steep downhill hairpin.






If there is any ambiguity, it will be resolved by the presence of flags on lampposts in the correct trail ahead.



























At this last juncture, you can see the temple at the end of the path off to the left



This last hundred meters is lined with buckets collecting something from the trees.
Does anyone know what? If so, leave us a comment.



















Here are some views from around the temple.



You can see Balik Pulau and the other side of the island from here.














Worshippers at this temple carry handfuls of prayer papers and burn them in these ritual stoves.




























There is evidence of even more serious burning here.


From here we headed back down to the Hill Turn and instead of turning left and back to Ayer Itam, a predictable hour back to the lake, we turned right and descended toward Balik Pulau.



It's a steep descent, knee jarring and foot burning, infrequently dotted with homesteads, not any of them welcoming to strangers.

The signs on this open gate
say "No admittance"
and "Beware of dog"

Given the patina of neglect here I doubt that anyone is feeding the dog.

But we didn't test that theory.















We continued an hour down the hill with the sounds of a rippling brook to our left which we eventually crossed when we reached the valley floor where the Annamadavihari Meditation Center's strikingly modern but rustic buildings nestle into the hillside. After another half hour on we came to the Suriana Botanic Conservation Gardens. The gardens at least appeared to welcome visitors ...



 well, uh, I guess you're welcome there as long as you don't actually try to enter ...



At least they don't threaten to sic dogs on you. What caught my eye about the Suriana Botanic Conservation Gardens was this hand wrought tree sculpture across the street from it.

People were growing pineapples in roadside gardens here.


It was another half hour hike into Balik Pulau from here. We soon passed a large catholic cemetery. The last fifteen minutes opens into a 4-lane street which has catholic schools and churches either side of the road. We soon emerged on the market where we paused to establish physical presence by having our likenesses taken.


We have just walked down from the mountain in the background. Turning up the street to our left, your right as you look toward the market, we come out on the KFC, another landmark in Balik Pulau. Just beyond the KFC is the bus terminal. Within a quarter hour of arrival there, we were on a 502 bus back to Komtar, in Goergetown, where we easily got a bus back out to Tanjung Bungah, where we live.


We had left our home in a grab at around 10 am and started our walk at about 11 am at Air Itam Dam and by 3 pm we were on a bus back home. It was a nice day, a day where once again we learned something more about the scale of the small island on which we live.











Thursday, December 5, 2019

Thursday Ramblers lead a walk along the Aquaducts to Batu Ferringhi Reservoir



This hike in the north part of Penang was announced on the Penang Thursday Ramblers Facebook page




Meet at 9am at: https://goo.gl/maps/EztSTz3pp7BEUyMh7
All tarmac surface. Easy walk, suitable for all.
Will get hot on return leg so please bring your hat and plenty of water.
Details of walk are at: https://www.komoot.com/tour/71040462?ref=wtd

So a bunch of us rolled up at Pasar Batu Ferringhi at the appointed hour











Down at the end of the road here there's a little blue and white guardhouse next to a gate. The letters PBAPP are painted on the glass of the guardhouse, but there's no sign on or near the gate.






Inside the gate you find a log book for you to sign in, and out again when you leave.




















Head uphill on the gently sloping path for the start of a pleasant stroll.

This leads to the aquaducts, and the walk continues between the water channels.




















Just ahead, one of the pipes sports a small shrine




















Monkeys like to come out and frolic on the pipes.



The pumping stations are picturesque. That looks like a cannon on the hill to its left.




















Mounted on a real cannon caisson, the "cannon" part turns out to be a fanciful bit of artwork, wouldn't even hurl a circus performer













There are nice views out over the jungle from here.



This pumping station has a clever contraption. powered by water current, that filters detritus out of the water as it flows through the filter.























Eventually, the walkers arrive at the 3 3/4 kilometer mark.




This in the center of a little roundabout for walkers. If you do the roundabout so you come out facing the opposite direction you can see the end of the road up the right fork. In this picture the walkers are heading home back the way they came.



At the end of that road that forks right, there is a station that collects the water from its source, rushing in from just past the signs to the right of the station.








The signs are at the entrance to a jungle path that beckons beyond an open gate.
















Luca has been here before. He leads the way for those who are curious to follow.


The stream here has fast flowing water



Just beyond the boulders in this bend in the river, there is a path to the left which goes all the way to Penang Hill.



Luca tells us that if we wanted to go there, we would have to cross the river at this point and pick up the trail on the opposite bank.




The trail on the bank we are standing on continues another hour and a half where it drops steeply to Taman Rimba National Forest park in Teluk Bahang. The park is at the base of the dam retaining the water in the Teluk Bahang reservoir. The park has numerous natural swimming pools and is quite popular with the locals. It is just a short walk from the Entopia Butterfly Farm, where there is a bus stop for the 101 and 102 buses that go on to the Penang National Park office from there.



In the park there are signs pointing out the trailheads for the rough tracks leading up to Penang Hill, and, as I found out today, leading down through that open gate to the footpath marked Jalan Sungai 1, and on down to the exit from the area at Pasar Batu Ferringhi.


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