Roads, Lakes and Delhi Belly??

When I returned to Leh (the town I have been using as my base in Ladakh) after the six-day trek I was exhausted but I wanted to arrange a trip to Pangong Tso (Tibetan for long, narrow enchanted lake - around two thirds of it is in China). Whilst reading guidebooks for India over the past year I stumbled upon photos of this lake and this is one of the main reasons I came to this part of India. Myself and the two ladies I had been on the trek with left on Sunday morning for the two day trip. We drove in a jeep with a Spaniard, a German and an American (sounds like the beginning of a joke...) for seven hours along the sides of mountains on spine-jangling roads. The roads only have one lane and many twists and turns meaning the driver had to honk his horn five times every time we went round a bend (after seven hours of this it got extremely annoying! Indians are crazy about their horn honking, mainly because of the lack of pavements and road markings).

Roads carved into the mountains.

The road signs on the mountain roads are really weird. They are trying to encourage drivers to be slow and careful: 'Rather be Mr Late than the late Mr', 'Don't nag him, let him drive!' and 'I am curvaceous, be gentle with me'. These are all written in English (in fact, many locals here speaks English; there are so many languages in India that English tends to be the common language).

Pangong Lake.

We stayed in permanent canvas tents at the side of this massive lake and spent the afternoon making soul towers; these are found everywhere in northern India and the Buddhists believe that if you build one then your soul has a place to rest within its shadow once you are dead.

Buddhist soul tower.

We ate in the dining room at the camp site and spent hours chatting and playing cards after dinner. Another group on the table next to us were having really depressing conversations so I was asked to tell a funny story - I chose the one about the torch and the toilet as that had only happened on day one of the trek and I hadn't known them well enough to tell them until now! This started a long exchange of all of our most disgusting stories but little did we know there was a backpacker behind us listening to all of it.

The moon above the snow topped mountains.

We woke up at 5am with all the other people from the camp to watch the sunrise over the lake. 

Markhas the Monkey; I named because he was made in Markha Valley (Himalayas) and given to me on the trek as a present.

We drove back again to Leh and had a big meal, because we hadn't been eating much due to the heat, as well as sharing a beer (my first drink in India) and after that I became really ill; I'd been dreading this 'Delhi Belly' phenomenon and was praying it was just down to a lot of heat, exhaustion and exertion. I was up all night being sick and haven't been feeling right all day however it isn't too bad and if this is my one time getting ill in India then I can't complain (touch wood)! On the plus side I have changed my guest house to one run by a lovely family so I have had a nice place to lie down whilst I'm feeling a bit rough (I had to change because one of the staff at the last place was taking photos of me when he thought I wasn't looking. This is pretty standard for India unfortunately however it is harmless and wasn't threatening).