The Best Hikes in Asia

Night climbs

Most of the Asian hikes are timed for sunrise at the top, so the walking happens in the dark. Climbers leave the temple basecamps of Mount Agung on Bali around midnight to 2 AM for an ascent of about four hours that ends in hand-over-hand scrambling. Mount Batur, also on Bali, takes about 1.5 to 2 hours. On Mount Pulag in the Philippines the trail rises through pine and mossy forest to dwarf bamboo grassland, where cloud often fills the valleys below at dawn and the summit is cold, windy and often rainy.

Pilgrim paths

Two of the mountains are pilgrimage routes. Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka is climbed by more than 5,200 stone steps on a lit path lined with tea stalls, up to a summit temple with a footprint shrine; between June and November the lights are off and few stalls open. The trail to Chandrashila in Uttarakhand passes Tungnath Temple and ends at a small summit temple facing Nanda Devi, Trishul and Chaukhamba, with snow and black ice on the upper part in winter.

Day walks

The remaining routes are walked by day. Dragon's Back on Hong Kong Island is reached by city bus from Shau Kei Wan MTR and ends at the surf beach of Big Wave Bay. World's End in Sri Lanka's Horton Plains is a loop of about 9 km to a cliff-edge viewpoint, and mist often covers the drop by mid-morning, so walkers start early. Triund above McLeod Ganj in India climbs through oak and rhododendron forest to a grassy ridge where people camp overnight in tents.