Curtis Crest Treetop Walk

This guide to Curtis Crest on Penang Hill follows Charles Curtis, a Devon nursery worker who spent his twenties climbing volcanoes and forests across Sumatra and Borneo hunting rare orchids and carnivorous pitcher plants, losing whole shipments to fire and storms along the way. In 1884 he settled on Penang Hill as the first superintendent of what became the Penang Botanic Gardens, turning a bare hillside into what officials of the day called the pride of the colony. Best heard while walking slowly along the metal rails, where the conifers he once cataloged still grow up through the walkway itself.