The bus back to Delhi took us 3 days: overnight in Keylong (16h of very hard and bumpy ride) and Manali the next day. 

Mentality differes by region. Ladakh area is quite safe and people polite, but people in more touristy areas can get quite creative in getting money from tourists. 

Be prepared for tricks like false tourist office (just next to the real one) that lies to you there are land-slides on the way and the only way to get to your destination is a flight. When you ask a taxi driver, expect he'll just drive you to the false ones, because get a fee (baksheesh) from them. 

Or ticket office that hides cheeper transport options from you or taxi drivers asking couple of times more than usual. 

But there's a simple way to adapt: just ask to pay less. Where you get too low, they'll just decline it and you'll find out the standard prices by that. 

Any water should be considered as not clean/safe. Including a water used to wash fresh froots or the one in lassi drinks or the one served with a meal. 

Bottled water is considered safe, but check its cap that the bottel is not already open and refilled with unknown water.