Penang National Park - Part 1

Here are some photos taken from our hike to Muka Head from Teluk Bahang Village. We didn't achieve our target as it started raining quite heavily about 30 minutes from reaching our destination. But as the hike was over slippery rocks and uneven ground, we decided to turn back after reaching USM Marine Centre.

Visiting the Penang National Park is absolutely FREE! Take Bus 105 towards Teluk Bahang and alight at the very end of the journey. The first thing that you will see are the jetties that goes all the way out to the sea.


Next, register yourself at the guard house before entering the park. This is to ensure that at least if you get lost inside, people can verified that yes, indeed you enter the park and got lost :) After that, just follow the path into the park. But although the start of the journey looks easy enough, with clear pathway and signs and seats for you to sit down, don't be fooled! This is after all Malaysia! And about 15 minutes into the hike, the path get muddy, and you'll find your self climbing over rocks, and navigating yourself down rocks with a help of a rope tied to some trees! I don't recommend you hike here alone.


Getting lost should not be much of a problem here. For us, we only saw one clear sign along the way, as shown in the photo on the right. We turn left at the sign, hoping to reach the beautiful lake we read about. 20 minutes walk in, we hit a river, and stopped. We didn't know whether to cross the river, and there was no sign beyond the small river. Bummer 1. After reaching USM CEMAC beach, again, we couldn't find the path to continue on to Monkey Beach. Some of the hikers ask for direction from the USM guard. Bummer 2. So now you get the picture. But in case you didn't, the photo on the left should give you some idea. That's what most of the 'easier' path look like. We didn't manage to photograph the 'harder' path cause we were all trying very hard not to fall down!


But the sights are very much worth the hike. I'll share more on my next blog entry.

Ref:
Penang National Park Official Site