If you’re looking for a place to stay that’s easy to get to, offers a peaceful relaxing atmosphere, is clean and comfortable, with good service from friendly staff, and a tasty breakfast – do NOT go looking for it here. This is not a hotel, it is a filthy shack-on-a-hill owned by one of the rudest men we’ve ever met. This whole set-up is a complete misrepresentation of reality – do not believe what you see on any of the hotel booking websites. All of the features below are listed:
5 guestrooms – yes, but one is a wooden add-on with bunk beds, no bathroom or toilet
Breakfast available – yes, but not very good
24-hour room service – no – impossible, no staff in residence
Terrace – no
24-hour front desk – no, not even a desk, never mind 24 hour
Daily housekeeping – no – impossible, no staff.
Garden – no
Self-serve laundry – what a joke: see details below
Luggage storage – no
Tour/ticket assistance – no. Impossible when there are no staff.
Free WiFi and free parking – yes to WiFi, no to parking, free or otherwise.
We had to leave our driver and car about 250 yards from the hotel due to the road coming to an abrupt end; we then trudged along a very narrow dirt path and up steep steps. Absolutely impossible fro anyone with walking difficulties.There was no-one around when we arrived, nowhere to check in, nothing; it was like the Marie Celeste. Eventually a man appeared from the side of the building but seemed puzzled at our presence. He made a phone call and passed the phone to me; the man on the other end turned out to be the ever elusive Alex, the owner – as I said earlier, one of the rudest men I’ve met; he was totally unprofessional. He rolled up an hour later to speak to another couple who arrived after us, and who were obviously not happy with their room – the wooden “chalet”. They left after getting Mr Personality to agree not to charge them. During my conversation with Alex I told him our driver had to tried to contact him for directions – this place is very much off the beaten track – he denied having received any phone calls, but when I asked him what his number was – it was completely different from the one on hotels.com!
Okay – the rooms – damp, smelly and dirty with holes in the mosquito nets and great gaps around the windows, which were stuffed with toilet paper. The bedding was also damp and dirty. The bathroom though was absolutely filthy; the toilet had never made the acquaintance of any cleaning product, likewise the shower which was disgusting. The doors didn’t meet, leaving a 1” gap, presumably to allow the water to drain away, as the drain in the shower was to revolting for close inspection. We were advised to keep thr windows shuts because of monkeys, however this didn’t keep the mosquitoes out.
The self service “laundry” is a rickety old washing machine perched precariously on the ground in a space at the side of the building, surrounded by various buckets and bowls. Three lines of laundry festooned the “terrace”.
The “kitchen” is a tiny windowless rat-hole at the back of the building, just big enough to hold a small sink and what looked like a single-ring cooker. I think there may have been a kettle and toaster, but it was so dark I couldn’t see properly. We all felt sorry for the one man who spent hours in there cooking and washing up.
This place is so awful we left after one night, even forfeiting £125.20, the cost of a further 2 nights for 2 rooms. How this man has the cheek to charge what he does (£31.30 a night in our case), is beyond me, but he does, and he gets away with it! He wasn’t the slightest bit surprised when we told him we were leaving, and within minutes, literally, of our departure two more lambs were led in, and given the rooms we had just vacated.
Oh – and don’t think you’ll enjoy peace and quiet here – the uninterrupted sound of dogs barking through the night will guarantee you a poor night’s sleep.
We stayed here in January 2018, having been completely taken in by the photographs and description on various websites – do not be similarly fooled.
A few weeks after we came home I had a phone call from one of the owners of this place! Yes – he phoned from Sri Lanka to object to my review, and to accuse me of lying; according to him, we just walked out taking the keys with us, sending them back the following day with “our driver”. The fact that this man wasn’t there seemed not to matter to him. Alex was there, so we told him we were leaving and handed the keys to him which he immediately passed to the two young German girls who had just arrived.
We’ve all found it hard to understand how other reviews rate this place so highly – how can our experience differ so much? I honestly don’t know. My review is truthful and based on our experience – me, my husband and our adult daughter. We have travelled extensively through several SE Asian countries and can honestly say this is the worst place we have ever stayed.
