Hiking Bukit Sri Bintang, Kepong

Here's a relatively short (20-40 minutes to the peak, depending on your speed) hike that is not tooooo tough (there are stretches of uphill inclination but nothing overly tough!) to a 270° view of KL city - Bukit Sri Bintang in Kepong! KLCC and KL Tower are in the backdrop but it was a rather misty/foggy/low saturation (whatever you call it) day so you might have to squint your eyes a little to see them in this photo!  

Bukit Sri Bintang is a small hill located just right at the corner of Desa Park City. The trailhead is located around a housing area, at Jalan Seri Bintang 8, otherwise known as Jalan 11/36 on Google maps. (See below for exact location!)

Parking is rather limited - You may park along the roadside of Jalan 11/36, or at the shop lots nearby (less than 5 minutes walk to the trailhead!).

At the trailhead, you'll see a fork. The trail to the right is the supposedly "main" trail (supposed because I have no proof that it is the main trail, but it seems like the main trail with the throngs of people using it!). We ascended on the trail to the left and descended from the "main" trail/trail on the right.

Because it was our first time here, we decided to just main hentam (ie take a guess on which trail to take) and took the trail to the left. I've read that all trails eventually reach the peak, and the trails are of similar difficulty so I wasn't really worried about getting lost. 

Before I go on to write about my experience hiking the trail on the left, let me ramble on a little about the "main" trail/trail to the right, since that is seemingly the trail most people would take. If you take the main trail/trail to your right, you'll reach another fork, as shown in the picture above. Again, it really doesn't matter which trail you take at this fork because it'll all take you to the same peak :) There are markers and signage put up by hiker to guide hikers all the way up to the peak along the way on this "main" trail, so perhaps it is more reassuring for first-timer to take this "main" trail rather than the trail we took :p

I, however, preferred the trail to the left though, as the trail led us to an opening with a nice view of KL city just after 10 minutes of ascending. So read on if you'd like to learn more about this trail.

 At the trailhead, you might see a family of monkeys that are seemingly used to human presence.

The trail on the left started off with lots of stairs...But after about 10 minutes of uphill inclination, we reached an opening with a view of the houses and building around Desa Park City

You can see KL tower in the backdrop here :) Would be lovely to come on a clear day for sunrise!

We continue along the path which was somewhat flat and we found ourselves at another trailhead, right outside an apartment. (Villa Orkid Condominium, according to Google Maps). View from the other trailhead below. Can you spot KLCC?

We made a U-Turn and spotted a small trail on our leaf leading up. A kind uncle told us that this is the way up to the peak.

And up, up, up, we go. From that point onwards, it was a 10-15 minutes uphill inclination...

To the first peak :) The view is similar to what you could see at the trailhead near the condo, but less obstructed :)

You can see the second peak from this first peak right behind you...up where the transmission tower is.

There is some self-made gym equipment at this peak and plenty of space for one to rest (& carry out physical distancing :p). I've read somewhere that this "peak" was created as a result of the construction of transmission tower here - which leaves a flat land and opening to this 270° view to the vicinity around it.

After taking a short break, we continue our ascend to the second peak. From the first peak to second peak, the path is exposed so be prepared to get baked should you decide to hike late!  

It may seem a little daunting from the bottom, but the inclination wasn't' too steep - it took us about 15-20 minutes to get from the first to the second peak!

 Saw a little gecko along the way!

Second peak! Similar to the first peak, there was plenty of room for one to rest and physically distance yourself from others. Here are some snapshots on the second peak!

There was another trail leading towards somewhere (apologies for being vague - can't say much as we didn't go on it!) but as the dark clouds were looming, we decided to backtrack and head back to the trailhead. We used the "main" trail to descend, which is easy to recognise by following the signs, or by following the crowd :p

We covered a total of 4.5km in this hike in 1.5 hours (including rest time at the peak!). It was overall quite a lovely hike - short and sweet, with enough uphill inclination to make me feel as though I am working out :p View was a great bonus too! I'd definitely like to return, perhaps to catch the sunrise/sunset :)

Bukit Sri Bintang
Difficulty: Somewhere in between "easy" and "moderate" (it's a short hike with bursts of uphill inclination, but nothing too steep. Saw lots of children hiking this hill!)
Duration of hike: 1.5 hours (including rest stops)