The hillside pagoda overlooking Kalaw offers the best views over the town and the surrounding Shan plateau. The white stupa sits above a series of terraces approached by a covered stairway, and is busy with worshippers at dawn and dusk when the light on the hills is at its best. Several smaller shrines and meditation halls are scattered across the hilltop compound.
The walk up takes about fifteen minutes from the town centre. Monks from the nearby monastery often pass on their morning alms round in the streets below, and the pagoda is worth timing to coincide with this — the scene of saffron-robed figures moving through the colonial streets in the early morning mist is one of the most striking in Kalaw.