Crossing the border - Laos to Cambodia

Today I made a post on Facebook about the "weird" experience of crossing the border from Laos to Cambodia. There are many horror stories and posts in various travel books, blogs and sites about this crossing. I was apprehensive about it and remember sharing that I do not have a good feeling about this to Jorine a Belgian young lady whom I spoke with on our way to the border. To cut a long story short its notoriety amongs independent travelers came true for me and us on this trip. I had planned to make my solo way across and did my best to be as independent as possible. I tried to buy a single trip to the border with a scooter taxi, but failed. I wanted to cross alone and not with a group of people. In the end I did cross with them, and as we joked afterwards over dinner they came to know Derek very quickly. Bottom line - just be prepared. It is a surreal border crossing experience which normally is a hive of activity if not chaotic. Other than the trials of crossing the Lao side (which my traveling colleagues could probably better share) When we arrived on the Cambodia side we were all stuck there for more than an hour waiting for the bus to leave - fill up??. Strangely, during this time I did not see 1 commercial or normal car cross. It was just a place for backpackers. If you google Stung Treng Border Crossing you will see the 360 photosphere I took. There you can see quite a new brown building which we did not use and pretty much abandoned, and all official processing activities were at the huts near the border gate. So there must have been a plan for more traffic. All I can say to fellow travelers on facebook was to be prepared. And 3 things they should be prepared for 1) Paying a stamp fee leaving Lao 3) asked to be health checked for malaria and pay for the privilege, and 4) do check what the cost of a visa on arrival is for your country from an official source here is washington dc cambodia embassy website for example - http://www.embassyofcambodia.org/faq.html. Some folks paid different amounts and with this preparation you can address each situation in turn and reduce your crossing time and stress levels In the end it is only a few dollars off the top and is it worth the stress? The basic fact is there is little competition for travel services crossing the border here, and I can't see it change soon as it is a "controlled ecosystem". I have had similar experiences in Africa, but not as strange as this one. So options are limited if you do not have your own transportation.