Dharamsala and McLeodganj Part-2

It was a wonderful experience visiting the tea estate in Dharamsala. But we had to cover couple of more destinations before we could end our day and there was no way we could  walk to those places. Fortunately we found a cab on our way back and got a good bargain for war memorial and cricket stadium.

Both the destinations are only 2 Km apart. So we decided to visit the cricket stadium first.

This stadium is unique because of its altitude. The stadium is situated at 4,780 Ft above the sea level and second highest cricket stadium in the world. Established in 2003 by the Himachal Pradesh cricket association, the stadium had witnessed many international one days and test matches. From the 1^st ODI between India and England to the latest match between Australia vs New Zealand this stadium has covered many milestones. The location offers a very beautiful view of snow-capped Himalaya Mountains in the background.

The road to the stadium was very narrow and cars are allowed to a certain distance. But as it happens in India almost all the time our friends from Punjab will always try to take their SUV’s anywhere causing major traffic jam. Anyway, we asked our driver to wait and decided to cover the last 5 minute distance by foot. We were lucky because there was a match going on and the best part is that it was an all-girls match. The stadium is not as huge but still very spacious. The sitting area for public is painted in yellow, blue and green. The two buildings (may be observation area)  are in red colour, perhaps because one of the buildings serve as a dressing room and commentary station. The day was hot and we left after 15-20 minutes heading to the war memorial.

War memorial is situated around two KM from the cricket stadium. The memorial pays tribute to those fallen soldiers who laid down their lives in the service of our mother land. Dharamsala is also the land of the undefeated and brave Gorkha regiments. For the Gorkhas, loosing is not an option and the whole world praises their bravery in war. Adolf Hitler once said that if “I could have only one regiment of Gurkhas than no one can stop my army”. The war memorial pays tribute to all the wars India had fought starting from the 1947 J&K operation to 1999 operation Vijay.

The place is huge and well maintained with lots of trees and plants. In between the place there are two stones with the name of the fallen soldiers. There is a GNAT and a field artillery situated at the entry point. Also in a distance there is a captured Pakistani tank. The place is like a temple but again some very insensitive people from neighbouring states have no sense and even take selfies with the memorial stones. Well can’t do anything about it. It hurts!

The next day our target was Naddi, Dal Lake, and St. John in the wilderness, Dalai Lama Temple in Mc Laudganj and Khanyara.

Naddi is a village situated 2000 meters above sea level. This place is situated in Kangra valley and offers a very good view of nearby Dhauladhar Mountains. The landscape is very green but on the same time crawling with tourists. There is a spot where you can try to view the mountains using some pre-installed telescope. Personally I found the place no so great.

Dal lake was nothing special. I was very disappointed how some people and website over rated this place with Photoshop Pics.