Hiking Mandalay Hill

This is a 30-45 min. gluts exercise as the “trail” is made up of staircase after staircase. But after hiking Wudang Mountains in China the same way, which took more than 2 hours, I must say this was nothing. What I would have wanted though was the stairways not to be covered by a roof, as it did make it a tad hotter than it needed to be. At least I imagine that fresh air and a slight breeze would have made it better. Could be the other way around as the sun was doing what it does best. On the way up there are several pagodas which you have to pass through, but also some which you have to do a small detour to get to. There are people selling food, flowers, and other trinkets, and even offering palm readings. Whatever you’d like 🙂 One thing that was very enchanting were the love themed stalls. Here girls come to pose and take photos. Don’t know if they have any other purposes, but it didn’t look like it. At one point you come across the pointing Buddha. Hadn’t I read in a guide book that this wasn’t the top, I would probably have turned around as many do. Where to continue from here can be a bit tricky to find, but I just followed some people that I figured knew where to go. There’s a lot of people going up, so you won’t be alone 🙂 At the top you have great views of Mandalay and surrounding area, and a beautiful pagoda. If you’re not in the mood for hiking, or not able to, there is a road going up. My driver was actually heading up the road, before I realized what was going on, and was able to have him understand I wanted to walk up. Had I thought about it I would have had him pick me up at the top, so I didn’t have to walk down.

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