Dumbo up the Hills - #7: The One Thousand Two Hundred Steps

Many hill paths in Penang leads to temples and such... the famous "One Thousand Two Hundred Steps" (千贰层) is also one such path.

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The OTTHS comprises stone steps that purportedly justify the name, i.e., there are around one thousand and two hundred of them. But the path we took that day was not exactly the stone-step path, but rather, an alternative route up to the same point (a temple, that is).

The path we took was actually a Telekom Malaysia service road, I think. It branches off the road up the Air Itam Dam, at the point where the new columbarium of the Kek Lok Si Temple is being built at the moment.

It was a moderately difficult climb, considerably steep, with few level stretches to ease my tiredness... :-p

Oh, and, it was during that climb that I wore for the first time the high-ankle hiking shoes that I would be wearing to climb Mt. Kinabalu.

But what about the other pair of shoes I bought for the climb? Well, the story is: my sixth aunt saw that other pair of shoes I was wearing for my practice climbs, and she declared that those are not fit for a serious climb like Mt. K. So she and my third aunt and fourth aunt and my uncle Daddy (also my hiking coach) pitched in to buy for me this pair of rather expensive hiking shoes. A very gracious gift, and a crucial one. Later during my descend down Mt. K, these tough little fellas played a big part (besides God's grace) in sparing me a sprained ankle - on more than one occasion!

The views at a point near our destination...

Finally, we reached our destination point. Looking down, you could see the stone steps that are part of the one thousand and two hundred. The sizes of the steps are not uniform, varying according to the terrain and gradient.

It was still early morning, and the scenery there had this misty dreamy kind of effect...

On our way down, we followed a small stretch of the stone steps...

We stopped following the stone steps at the point shown in the picture below, and got back onto the tarred TM service road. You can see from the picture that the stone steps were very slick from the rain the previous night, making the path very perilous to travel on. That was why we used the TM service road instead. So, here's a warning to all hikers who intend to attempt the "One Thousand Two Hundred Steps": don't take the path if it had been raining.