So a mini-bus arrived and to start our experience, they crammed so many of us into this mini-bus, I was half sitting on Ali and half balancing my bum on the window sill...It was quite painful!!! I can't remember how long the drive took but it was quite long as I remember, since they were re-doing the road the whole way there. When we got to the border crossing, it was the usual tense moment, filling in departure and arrival cards and dealing with grumpy officials. But for girls a big smile and acting all innocent usually makes them treat you pretty well, as for the guys it not so easy! Hehehe, unfair I know but I'm not complaining ^_^ We had already gotten our visas for Cambodia from Vientiane, the capitol of Laos. We were told that it would be better to do it from there, since they can sometimes refuse to let you in, if u meet a particularly grumpy official! So they let us through after we had to pay an extra 2$ (never figured out why!) and then had to find the bus that was gonna take us to Strung Treng, in the Rattanakiri Province, like we had booked. After being put into a jumbo tuk tuk, they removed us and put us into a minivan which was a good thing, but then they we're gonna put us pack onto a tuk tuk. Thankfully they changed their minds! And we were off, we had to cross a river and then after about 4 hours the bus stopped at a guesthouse in Strung Treng. Since we didn't actually want to stay there and wanted to go somewhere else in the  Rattanakiri Province, we decided to get another bus straight away, to a town called Ban Lung in that same province. We found one at the guest house and decided to leave there straight away, so as not to waste time as it was still early in the day. When we arrived in Ban Lung the minivan driver tried to stop us at a guest house that only had dorm beds available and everyone in the van started to complain. So he took us somewhere else and that place was much better. It was this amazing looking hotel and me and Ali where sure the rooms would be way over our budget but they weren't. So we got settled into our room and had something to eat. The hotel was truly beautiful but as for the food, well I had never tasted a bad fried rice... until then! We were a bit low on cash but where told we could cash travellers cheques at the bank. So the next day we rented a bike from the hotel and decided to go and check out a few waterfalls around the area. Well, first of all the bike was not a bike - it was half a bike! And before I go on, let me explain something... Rattanakiri Roughly translated means "beautiful red land" or something like that, more clearly explained- the whole of the land is covered in a fine red dust, the roads, the woodlands, everything!!! So our half a bike didn't look very promising! Against our better judgement we still took the bike and told ourselves it would be fine. After a while of driving we were on our way to where we wanted to go and we were already turning orange from the dust flying around us. When suddenly, the bike spluttered and stopped........great! It started again, but only to stop again a little while later. It stopped a few times, it always kept starting again, thank goodness but it started to get on our nerves a little, to say the least. Well we eventually got to the waterfall and were looking forward to seeing it but when we got there we were a little disappointed. From what we read it was a beautiful waterfall but what we saw was a set of ugly concrete stairs leading to a ledge, with a largish trickle of water 'cascading' over the edges. We sat there for a while and although you cant really complain ( it was a waterfall after all- even though a small one) but after all we went through to get there we where expecting something a bit bigger better. We stayed there for a little while and feeling a little disappointed, left to find something else around the town. However, a few minuets after we drove off the bike started to splutter and stop again after it started and stopped a few more times, we realised that eventually it is gonna stopand wasn't gonna start again and we would be in a little trouble! So, we kept our fingers crossed and drove as far as we could each time it started up. We got onto the main road (dirt track) and then to make matters worse, the gears started to get stuck and wouldn't shift properly. We drove a little further and stopped again. This was the last time we would stop since the bike had, had enough and wouldn't start, no way! Seriously pissed of now, we swore and cursed and tried to work out how far away from the hotel we were. We weren't close but not too far! We had to walk. But Ali, pissed of as he was, gave the bike a bit of a punch before we headed off, and just to make things better the glass covering the dash went crack and popped right out of place. Great! Me pissed of at the situation and Ali, and Ali pissed of at the situation and himself. We started to walk .... Trucks passed us one after the other, turning us more and more orange each time they passed and passing motorists just found us funny- these two orange farangs walking down the road, soaked with sweat! About 2 horrible hours later we arrived back at the hotel. We walked in completely orange from head to toe, our clothes, our faces, hair everything was covered in orange dust. The owners took one look at us, with no bike and it wasn't hard to tell things hadn't worked out as planned. We explained what happened (leaving out the part where Ali smashed the dash board cover) and I went with the owner on her bike,  with another girl and guy that worked at the hotel on another bike, to where our bike had finally stopped. They immediately noticed the broken glass and I had to act as if I had no idea how it happened. They said that probably some youths did it as they where passing on their bike, since its out of town and nobody would see them. I acted surprised that someone would do that and they said that's what it must have been, so I had to agree...phew! Then as if nothing was wrong with the bike at all, the guy jumped on and it started instantly! She told me that there seems to be nothing wrong with it and even the gears where changing fine...I couldn't believe it, it just made me even more angry, actually. We got back on the bikes and drove off back to the hotel, while the guy took it to a garage to make sure it was ok. We waited back at the hotel reception and when he came back with the bike he said it was ok. The owner then said that we had to give her 20$ to fix the gears and the starter. I told her "you just said to each other that it was all ok!" and she said "ok,ok just give me 15$ then" we asked her for what exactly should we pay her for, since it's ok and she said it was for the glass, cause we left the bike there, someone passed and broke it. We said ok but that we're not gonna give her 15$. After an argument that was going nowhere, we we're fed up and just gave her 10$. Still too much but all we wanted was a shower. In the shower it took a good hour each, to get the red dust off us and out of our hair, till the water finally ran clear again. After our showers we had to go cash travellers cheques, since that 10$ make a bit of a dent in our wallets, so we headed off to the bank. Of course we couldn't find it but after walking around the town for a while we found it tucked away behind a local market place. When we got there it was closed, so we peered through the gates and saw a man (watchman or something I suppose). He said that they will be open tomorrow between 3pm and 5pm (strange opening hours but anyways). He also said that they don't change travellers cheques........ so we were... kinda screwed!!! A little confused and worried, we wondered if we had enough money to get out of there and weren't in the mood for the stares and comments from the locals in the market, so we walked quickly out through the market and started looking out for places where to book a bus out of there!!! We passed a few places and asked about prices for minivans or buses and they where all too high, until we came across an outdoor booth selling tickets to Pnom Penh that we could afford!!! We booked them for the next day, payed and went back to the hotel. After calmly mentioning at reception, that I was told that I could change travellers cheques and that it was a piece of wrong information.  We went up to our rooms showered again packed and slept. We had no money left to eat or anything, just enough for the 2 tickets. We had an early night and an early rise, checked out and headed off walking down the road to the booth where we had to get our bus. We sat on the pavement, while buses leaving to different places filled up with locals and left, until a minivan pulled up and we were told that that was our ride. Ok so its not a bus like we were told, ...hmm ...12 hrs on a minivan...ok we can deal with that. Then, as we got in they put me on the back seat between 3 young local men, who seemed quite happy with the arrangement and put Ali on one of those fold out seats, the the row in front of mine. But as soon as he leaned back, the back of the seat gave way and he fell backwards with it. The bloody seat was broken...so 12 hrs not leaning back ... this might be a problem and apart from that, I caught the men on either side of me both looking at my chest and down into my top best they could, not even noticing that I had realised they where doing it ..........this is gonna be good -i thought to myself.....