The arrogance of the owner and smugness of having good reviews on TA will do this place damage unless they smarten up their act. The only friendly staff member was the guy that drove us out there- even then although the pick up was on time, we drover 10 min and then had to wait over an hr before he came back to drive us out to Akha Hill - hence I didn't get my swim at the waterfall when we arrived as it was too late.

VIP room was dirty and on notifying the staff of the dirt that had fallen from the celing on the sheet and pillow, they simply brushed most of it onto the floor and left the rest for me to do. The towels and sheets were stained. It was dusty and insect excrement everywhere.

The place is getting run and not maintained and not clean!! Our deck had food on it and I was bitten by ants, the bathroom had toothpaste remenants on the wall and walls needed maintaining as bits of mud were coming away exposing concrete walls behind - not a good look.

The tables in the dining area were dirty but then one time I saw them cleaning them with a dirty rag - that was after I put in my breakfast order to see the cook playing with a dog in the kitchen.

Forget about having a sleep-in in the tranquil surrounds - there are no curtains on the window so the sun wakes you up early and then the kids on their way to school are noisy (that's not their fault however they could ask them to be quiet when going past the guesthouse). Tranquil nights sleep - the fan is too noisy to hear the sound of the forest : (

A nice touch would be some hammocks to have a lazy time in as once you have been to the waterfall and walked around a bit and walked back up a super steep hill, there is not much else to do unless you do a guided trek.

The owner showed up the second night, didnt say hello or even acknowledge any of the guests and on leaving the owner got into the front of the pick up with the driver and most of us had to sit or stand in the back - he didn't offer any of us a seat.

I rely a lot on trip adviser and havent had to post a bad review yet and I'm hoping this will help the owner and staff for future business. I'm sure there are a lot more places to stay in the area that's at least friendly and clean, so,for now, look around!!

We started traveling around SEA in December 2011 and we have made Chiang Rai, Thailand our last destination before heading to Cambodia where we fly from.

I found out about Akha Hill House through their website after showing up as one of the top search results in google for somehong close to 'Thailand hill tribe trekking'. We gave them a call and turns out Tao, the main trekking guide at that moment was in the city for the 11 AM pick-up so my travel companion met up with him and he agreed to come back for us at 4 that afternoon after a reservation for a basic bungalow for 300 Baht/night.

After a beauriful one-hour ride through the side of the mountain in a pick-up truck, we got to the place.

It's actually an Akha village and the locals live right past the bungalows.

It was beautiful. Lychee trees everywhere and we were more than welcome to pick some anytime we wanted!

We transferred to a VIP guest room, also with a private bath but with a fan and a mini fridge, clean and simple with a wonderful view and tons of privacy.

On our 2nd or 3rd night we were walking through and found the locals barbecuing. We hung out, had a chat and got invited for dinner! We bought rice whiskey from the neighboring village about 2 kms away.

The night after, we had dinner with them again, and yes, another rice whiskey session! Yay!

On our 6th night, Som Chay, the husband of the cook took us to his backyard, which is actually the whole mountainside and we spent just about 6 hours fishing and grilling the fish we caught on a fire we made by the side of the little breezy hut!

7 nights. We spent 7 nights when we were supposed to stay for 1 :) we had to adjust our time to spend in Cambodia because it was so cozy in Akha Hill House that it was very difficult to leave.

I highly recommend the place to stay at for more than 2 nights and please be sure to get to know the locals. In reality, there's just an awesome waterfalls to visit but not much to do unless you love hiking that you do it for days but the locals make it. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience. Definitely one of the 3 highlights of our whole trip!