Penang Hill

Penang Hill is the tallest accessible hill in Penang, a few kilometres higher than Cherok Tok Kun that I've frequented.

I'd never climbed Penang Hill, therefore after requesting my father to bring me there, he agreed, weirdly, and took me to the hill today.

Two weeks ago, a mountain climbing competition was organised by Kwong Wah. Most of my friends participated in the competition, and later on described the horrible encounters they had while walking out the treks. The more taxing it sounded, the more anticipated I am.

I missed the competition due to some regrettable incidents, but I still wanna climb it.

Today, I've got the chance. The beginning of the hill is indeed steep, climbing out was quite hard. Apparently, it wouldn't want you to have a great start - for a few hundred metres, that gradient remained large. Some turnings are also constructed in a way that climbing out requires some body bending to counterbalance the force or else you might just topple over.

After that it was okay. Starting from 1.5m to about 2.2m was quite flat that I wouldn't even say it's climbing. After that then the challenge continued. Again, till some point around 3.8m the road evened out, until about 4.6m then the horrible nightmare continued. Luckily, for only a short distance.

Of course they are short steep roads among 2m to 4.6m, but one nightmare ranges for about only hundred metre, so overcoming that devil is quite okay and is bearable.

The greatest thing about hiking the hill is that after 4m, the weather becomes very cool as the temperatures plummets significantly.

I reached the top (5m) and did some observing, and realised that there weren't many things to see there. Since I was there early, most cafes and the Owl Museum were not open. The food court was open, but not all stalls in it were ready. Cable car station was loaded with people.

Frankly, it isn't really a nice tourist destination to go.

Well, it's the first time, and I've loved it. Climbing this hill is much more interesting and enjoying than climbing Cherok Tok Kun. It took me approximately 80 minutes to reach the top from the entrance of Botanical Garden. If I were to participate in the competition next year, I would have an additional 3km run to complete, so hopefully, I would be able to finish the race within 2 hours next year.