Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left our hotel yesterday with the intention of hiking up Penang Hill, a vertical climb of 712 meters. We bused to the base of the hill and futilely looked around for the hiking trail. When we asked where we could start our hike, we were told the trail was on the other side of the mountain and we'd have to take 2 more buses to get there. Well, we'd had just about enough of Penang's buses by that point, so we elected to take the tram up to the peak and hike back down.
The tram ride to the peak was very fast and had our ears popping a couple of times. Sadly, when we got to the top, the visibility was very limited and we could barely see the city below. There was a Hindu temple and a small mosque at the top, but really not all that much to see up there.
Once again we started looking for the hiking trail and again people looked at us like we were quite insane. Why on earth would we want to walk 5 kms when there's a perfectly good tram to take us back down? In the end, we learned that before reaching the hiking trail, we had to walk halfway down the hill on a paved road.
You have to appreciate how steep this hill is. The long, easy route is 5 kms long and rises 712 meters in elevation through a tropical rain forest. That's an average grade of 14.25% folks. The hiking trail is 3 kms long which means the grade is 23.73%. Yikes!
We started out down the hill and found ourselves constantly fighting gravity and the urge to just let go and run, which we eventually ended up doing on the steepest pitches. About half way down, I spotted the access road to the hiking trail and we headed off to find it. After nearly one kilometer on the access road we found the trail. Our initial reaction was to simply turn around and head back to the paved road. Added to the steep pitch were exposed tree roots, loose rocks and soft dirt with little foothold. Suddenly we saw two middle-aged women climbing up the last few meters of the trail. We asked if the trail was friendly enough to hike down and they assured us it was. Troopers we are, we started out down the trail and traveled no more than 100 meters when we came to a vertical drop of about 6 feet with virtually no visible footing available.
At that point we decided we didn't want to risk our old bones and we turned around, retraced the kilometer to the paved road and continued our controlled free-fall to the base of the mountain.
The further we went, the more frequently we broke into a run. We probably ran 800 meters of the last kilometer.
On the plus side, it was a lot easier on the cardio system going down than it would have been going up. On the other hand, the constant effort to counter the pull of gravity and inertia was working muscles I don't think I've ever used in my life. By the time we got to the bottom, my legs were like jelly. And it's not like I'm out of shape. In fact, Brenda and I were running at least 10 kms every second day when we were in Chiang Mai, but not on hills like this.
I'm typing this two days after our hike and my legs are so sore I can barely walk. We went out for dinner tonight and had to walk down a ramp leaving the restaurant. I thought I was going to cry.
Anyway, it was good exercise and the trek through the rain forest was quite beautiful. We were treated to a show put on by a troop of wild monkeys as we walked to our bus stop and saw a huge lizard crawl out of the forest in search of food.
And frankly, after having come down that hill, I am now very happy I didn't have to climb it.
- comments
Nicole Sounds like quite the adventure. I've been up that hill several times and I think every time it was misty.
Betty Jay a good story and "jelly legs" descriptor lets me feel the torture. but hey, you completed yet another adventure! you guys rock!!