Over the last three days we:

1. Managed to set out on our only trail in Leh - an easy trek from Spituk to Stok whose only tricky point was the relatively high pass at Stok La - 4900 m.
2. On the first day we walked along the Indus river and then along the Jingchen stream for several hours. The stream has to be crossed from time to time as the trail snakes through the ravine. If you miss the crossing, you find yourself on the wrong side of the stream (a pretty rapid and deep one), just as we did following blindly one tough but silly Chinese trekker. And then the going gets tough. Traversing 10 m of a sheer, very steep rock face with not much to hold on to, heavy packs on our backs and icy cold water right under us set our hearts racing even more than the altitude did. Remind me not to go rock climbing for the next 40 years.
3. Passed the first campsite in the village we were going to stay the night in the hopes of finding the next one, described in the book as "having better facilities". Not finding it, we pushed on until we actually managed to reach the Rumbak village - the next night's sleeping place by nightfall. On the way there we:
a. had our first up-close encounter with a yak and came unscathed
b. found the locals reluctant to let us pitch our tent in the village and kicking us out to a campsite on the outskirts. It was dark so we decided instead to make camp on the nearest patch of level grassy ground we could find. It turned out to be a yak pen in the morning. No yaks were harmed in the process. Breathing at night surprisingly easy at 4050m.
4. Had our first breakfast at a local village. Despite villagers' limited command of English, the meaning of questions like "Jam do you?" was not hard to decipher.
5. Attacked the Stok La pass and found that some untreated indigestion was seriously impairing my performance, as a result of which going was excruciatingly slow and 200 m before the pass we even switched backpacks. The views more than made up for the hardships. But my back is still killing me.
6. Zigzagging down a steep descent route, reached a tea tent by the evening where we decided to camp and had a nice chat with the young ranger/tea tent operator. After two days on almost nothing but chocolate and cookies (playing it safe for fear of stomach troubles) his instant noodle soup earned him all Michelin stars in my book.
7. Woke up to a disappointing end of our affinity for the young chap, when he charged us hotel/restaurant rates for his modest dinner/breakfast combo, two cokes and the site to pitch our tent. Talk about profiteering.
8. After an annoying further two hours of mild descent and getting our feet wet a couple times, reached the village of Stok where we hitched a ride to Leh.
9. Decided to take it easy until leaving for Bombay, the reason being K's exhaustion and - surprisingly - indigestion after the trek and my recurring back pains. We might raft or rent a motorbike the next time around so stay tuned :)
10. Had my beloved tikka chicken and a garlic cheese naan. I never seem to get tired of those...
11. Survived several intermittent power and Internet outages. In Leh you can have as many in one hour as we had during three days in Delhi. And no one complains,