Staring distantly towards Mandalay Palace, temple-topped Yankin Hill is worth climbing for views of greater Mandalay's rice-field setting and of the Shan foothills behind. After a 10-minute climb along the obvious covered stairway, you're likely to encounter a couple of domesticated stags 鈥 feeding them supposedly brings Buddhist merit. Pagoda walkways turn south along the ridgetop, eventually ducking into a rocky cleft where devotees splash water on tacky golden fish statues that lie at the feet of a Buddha image.
Cars and motorbikes can drive almost to the top of the hill from the southeast. Some pick-up 5 (醽) services terminate near the 19th St stairway.
Around 300yd back towards Mandalay, then 300yd north, Mya Kyauk monastery has a dazzlingly distinctive brassy stupa and is famed for its water. A taxi out this way will cost around K5000 return (or around K3000 for a motorcycle taxi).
