Penang Hill sits a mere half hour west of George Town. At over 800 meters, it’s the tallest peak on Penang. The British first started using the hill as a resort in 1788, not unlike the Hill Stations in India, as relief from the lowlands heat. At 130 million years old, the Penang Hill rainforest is older than the Amazon, which is why UNESCO has designated it an official Biosphere Reserve.

Primary access is via funicular, the current version of which came online in 2010. It is not the steepest or longest funicular or fastest funicular in the world, but it doesn’t miss by much. At 2 km there are only a few longer. At 28° slope there are only a few steeper. And at 10 meters/second there are only a handful faster. It’s quite an experience.

It go fast.

Once up top, the vistas are impressive. There’s definitely nothing higher anywhere visible. And the relief from the heat at that altitude is delicious. The Brits were obviously weenies, but the lowland heat is real, and escaping it, even for just a few hours, was marvelous.

There are restaurants and attractions and historic buildings at the summit, but the real action is in The Habitat, billed as an eco-tourism discovery center. More to the point, it’s the entry point to the UNESCO rainforest biosphere. It has a separate entrance fee (a hefty 60rm, about $15 USD), and for a few dollars more you can go on a docented nature tour. I joined a group with just an Australian couple, so it was practically a solo tour. Our guide was super knowledgeable.

The nature walk included the Langur Way Canopy Walk, a 750 foot long suspension bridge 130 feet above the forest floor. It was vertiginous. I wasn’t sad when I reached the other side.

The rest of the nature walk was more beautiful than terrifying. Unless you’re afraid of spiders. Assuming this is even a spider, and not a Guillermo del Toro nightmare. I was pleased to learn later that while the Golden Silk Orb-Weaver spider is venomous, it’s not fatal to humans. Only annoying. Hooray!

The spider wasn’t our only wildlife encounter. There was this adorable creature, about thumbnail-sized.

The nature path offered many roadside attractions.

But the stars of the show were flora, not fauna. A tropical rainforest is a beautiful thing.

After the docented tour, there was one more trick up The Habitat”s sleeve: The Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk. That scary looking thing is forty feet above the forest floor.

Penang Botanic Garden

On my last full day in George Town I went to the Botanic Garden, nestled at the foot of Penang Hill. I’d packed, unpacked, and repacked multiple times, and I was bored. I’m glad I went, although midday wasn’t ideal. I’d have gone in the morning but no way was I missing Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. An epic run to the finals for a very young Spurs team. A delight to watch.

The gardens weren’t cool like the top of Penang Hill, but there’s definitely something cooling about all of that oxygen being respirated by all those trees. It was a lovely, serene setting, and a perfect way to say farewell to Penang.

I’m sure you’ll agree that this has been a refreshingly lightweight post, an amuse-bouche compared to my usual Ploughman’s lunch of verbiage. This will be my last post from George Town, my last post from Malaysia, and my last post from my Solo World Tour. It seems somehow appropriate that I not leave you with a metaphorical heavy meal weighing you down. That should leave us all ready to go when the road calls again, in just four more months (October 2026).