It was an angular Frenchman who sold English and German books from a small cottage in Chiang Rai, who told us about the Akha Hill House.

?I?ve heard nothing but good reports and that?s unusual these days,? he said as his Thai wife spooned Larb Gai (spicy minced chicken) on to our plates. My wife, son and I had just spent half of the previous day visiting an ?authentic? Long Necked Womens village, so I knew what he meant. The girls, (and they were just girls, with only one women over eighteen), were trucked in to the Hill Tribe Village in the morning and left at 4pm. They were basically cash cows for Thai tourist operators who then paid the girls a miniscule wage. The only real money they made came from the mass produced souvenirs they sold. After studying the brochure produced by the Frenchman we immediately decided to prolong our stay in the area and give authenticity a go.

The late afternoon found us bouncing our way on the back of a jeep, through rice and tea plantations and up into the mountains originally inhabited by the Akha, Mong and Lahu tribes. The scenery is spectacular and the road horrendous, often thinning to little more than a bicycle track with potholes. The higher you get, the cooler the temperatures and the more flamboyant the views, with shrouds of mist enveloping the valleys and the fast approaching sunset turning the entire landscape a deep and vibrant orange.

We finally arrived at the Hill House well over an hour later. The sun had well and truly set and an impressive fire lit the bamboo common room- restaurant that looms above the valleys below. From the moment you dismount from the jeep, (and yes I use the word dismount deliberately because your rear end feels as though you?ve just participated in a trail ride marathon), you immediately feel welcome. Several other guests are sitting at the communal table and without exception all are enthusiastic about the guest house, the facilities and the staff. In fact an English couple originally came for two days and ended up staying three weeks!

Akha Hill House is actually part of a small village. Many of the villagers work on the tea plantation in the nearest valley and the children attend school there, hiking the four kilometers to and fro on a daily basis. Conceived and built by village Chief Apae Amor, the Hill House is the only locally owned and managed Hill Tribe Retreat in Chiang Rai Province. The rooms are very basic, but all come equipped with mosquito nets and there are a number of options available. My wife and I had a double room with a toilet and shower and our son a single with the use of a communal toilet and shower. There were also two de-lux rooms available that had glass windows and air-conditioning. The prices are very reasonable. Ours was 300 baht and our son?s 120 baht. The de-lux rooms would set you back 1000 baht. (The current exchange rate is currently about 28 baht to the dollar.)

The food is also basic- but excellent. The menu features predominately Thai dishes with a couple of traditional Akha surprises. In the ten years or so I?ve spent living in and visiting Thailand I don?t think I?ve ever had what could be classed as a bad meal. Here was to be no exception.

Right from the start Apae Amor was committed to helping the local community. The majority of profits from the Akha Guest House are funneled back into the village with the Education Project being the key recipient.

?Education is the key to our children?s future,? he says. ?Until recently the only way our children could go to High School was to travel into Chiang Rai. But the cost of accommodation, food, travel and text books was too much for families striving to exist on the sale of handicrafts. Now we have not only been able to improve the local facilities for primary students, but we are starting on a separate building for secondary students.?

Apae is also well aware of the benefits of learning English. He offers free accommodation and food to qualified volunteers to teach English at the school. While several have taken up the offer, most don?t stay that long because of the lack of a substantial salary. Without committed donors this situation is unlikely to change.

The good news for Apae is that word of mouth recommendations have meant that the Hill House itself can afford to expand. Several new rooms are now under construction and more staff can be employed. The villagers themselves will benefit, unlike the poor Long Necked Women who now find themselves manipulated by greedy tour operators and destined to continue deforming themselves in the hunt for the tourist dollar.

The Akha Hill House villagers occasionally don ceremonial costumes but for the most part, apart from the older women, they wear predominately western garb. Handicrafts are on sale in the village but they are not thrust in your face and they are actually made on the premises.

The scenery surrounding the Hill House is magnificent, with lush jungle enveloping the mountains and a number of hiking ?tracks? that cater to all levels of fitness. Just fifteen minutes away is a spectacular waterfall with a rock pool, perfect for swimming, about half way up. As expected the water is crystal clear and icy cold, the perfect antidote after a steamy walk though the bush.

For the more adventurous, an hour and a half trek takes you up over the nearest peak and then down into the next valley, the site of a Lahu village. Getting there is reasonably easy and the first sighting of the village below from the mountain peak, is truly beautiful. But the downward trek is very steep indeed and what goes down must come back up. The ?what? of course being yours truly (wife and son declined) and the return journey made me vow to give up smoking, drinking, fatty foods and hire a fitness coach. An hour after my return the first two resolutions had gone by the wayside and since my return to Australia I?ve found that fitness coaches charge more than lawyers.

For the really enthusiastic (and really fit) you can hike for three hours to a Hot Springs resort several valleys away. The springs are relaxing and the ambience even more so. But of course you then have to walk back- and most of that is uphill. Some guests prefer to pay a villager 1000 baht to take them there and back in a jeep or on the back of a motorbike.

Whatever you do with your day, the evenings spent in the restaurant are always enjoyable. The clientele during our stay were varied and interesting; two Frenchmen from Paris who had just been diving in the Similans and two Australian ladies from Byron Bay who were heading off on an intensive course to learn to be mahouts at Lampang Elephant Hospital.

The Akha Hill House offers a refreshing change to the increasing (and sadly inevitable), commercialization of the Hilltribes by the tourism industry. Here the locals do benefit and hopefully the tribal traditions can remain part of their overall education.

Along with most of the guests we spoke to, we will return. Despite the fact that my son received a spider bite on a part of his anatomy that made the trip back to Chaing Rai even more arduous than the trip up!

http://travel.independent.co.uk/asia/article1603836.ece