Today was my first day of riding a scooter and what better roads to start on than the mountainous areas of Pai. A friend and I headed out to find a cave that was a 'must see' in Pai but on route saw a sign for hot springs so, of course, took a bit of a detour to have a quick dip. This experience was slightly unnerving as the water resembled that of the uncomfortably warm patches in the Cornish sea where someone had clearly released their bladder. Maybe I have made this sound like a bad experience...it was far from that in reality!!

By this point of the trip, my scooter was already low on petrol so I filled up from a rum bottle of fuel sold by a woman at the side of the road and we were back on the track (literally). The feeling of driving a scooter through Thai countryside in the sweltering heat with the wind blowing in your face is a feeling that I won't ever be able to properly explain but one that made me extend my scooter hire for a further 3 days.

After over 2 hours of exploring, we arrived at the caves and had the most incredible trip through them on a bamboo raft where the only light source was that from the gas lantern being carried by a small Thai lady. The tour through the 'land caves' was an experience in itself as the only speech the guide did was pointing to rocks which partly resembled animals and stating what they were. It was a bit like cloud watching, where one person was adamant they could see something that no one else could. This included "baby monkey, see", "fat Buddha, see" and the best one of all (and the only one which slightly resembled what she was saying); "boob, see"... The guides were also keen to show us bats flying so would shine the torch up to the sleeping animal and simultaneously blow at it for 10 minutes in hope that it would awaken...I'm sure you can imagine that the result was not entirely successful.

Having purposefully eaten little for dinner, I went back to the bakery stall and tried my second delicacy; I have decided to make it my aim to try one of everything by the time I leave Pai. The rest of the evening was spent in a bar listening to a jazz band before getting some well-needed kip.

Update: I have now completed my third trip to the bakery...