Crossing the border - Laos to Cambodia

After enquiring at 3 different travel agencies about different prices for the trip from Don Det to Phnom Penh, we decided to pay $20 for the agency that promised a minibus to Stung Treng (about 40 mins fromt the border in Cambodia) and then a VIP bus all the way to PP. (ha!) Travel agencies across the island were all charging different rates, from $16 to $24 some saying that you can't even go all the way to PP in one day, that you have to stay overnight in Kompong Cham, about 2 hrs from PP. We've read loads of horror stories on traveller's blogs about this trip, all saying that it was the worst day of travel in their whole trip. We considered flying but it costs too much.

So here's our journey in a nutshell. It actually panned out a whole lot smoother than we anticipated and took roughly 12 hours from start to finish so we were happy enough!

6.30am - Wake up and pack
7.30am - Breakfast
8.00am - Boat to Ban Nakasang on the mainland Laos... wait around for... not sure what?
9.00am - Minivan to the border - first stop Laos immigration to stamp out ($1)
9.20am - Told by the driver that we have to walk to the border to the Cambodian immigration and he'll pick us up there. So off we go... about 5 mins walk to the Cambodian immmigration to get our visas on arrival ($20 + $1 for the officer) and stamps (another $1). Here we are told we have change minivans, so we all pile into the minivan and wait.... we weren't sure what we were waiting for, as the van seemed to be full already, but it turned out that we were waiting for more people! 5 more people turned up and looked in disbelief at the van that they were told they have to fit into! We all kicked up a bit of a fuss to no avail, so in the end 19 of us squeezed into a minivan with 14 seats! And a couple of the seats were broken too. It was a bit of a laugh though - well Gav and I thought so, not everyone did though :-P
10.45am - We finally take off in our crammed minivan into Cambodia - heading to Stung Treng where we crossed on a ferry (seriously, a dodgy bridge goes about 75% across the river and a ferry connects the rest of the way - why not just extend the bridge?! Sometimes I just don't understand these people!
12.00pm - We stopped in Stung Treng for lunch (worst lunch) and waited around until 1.30 - again not sure why!
1.30pm - Leave Stung Treng and head for Kratie
3.00pm - Arrive in Kratie, and change minivan again! This time its even smaller.
3.30pm - Leave Kratie and drive over some pretty bad dirt roads. It's a solid 5 hour drive.
8.30pm - Arrive in Phnom Penh!! Shattered.