Phnom Penh to Stung Treng takes roughly 10 hours, the stretch is serviced by Hua Lian, Sorya and Rith Mony, possibly others that I don't know off. I used Hua Lian, they stopped in Kampong Cham, Snuol (for lunch) and Kratie. Arrived in Stung Treng at 17:00h after starting off in Phnom Penh at 07:30. Ticket cost 7.50USD. Stung Treng has lots of accomodation on offer, directly opposite the ferry dock on the riverfront are a couple of guest houses with not- so- nice tiny rooms at low prices (3- 5USD). Around the market and the 'plaza' are several new GHes, e.g. Ly Ly, Stung Treng, Sok San, all built within the past year with clean, decently sized rooms with fan, TV, air- con and hot water (except Ly Ly, but coming soon), 8- 15USD. The LP guidebook is woefully outdated BTW, the hotels mentioned that are a bit further out don't have cavernous, atmospheric rooms, they're actually grotty, dirty holes. Don't even bother going there.
Restaurants attached to the GHes on the riverfront are geared towards the budget tourists staying there, all the old favourites available, e.g. spaghetti, pancakes, fried rice, cheap beer. There's one restaurant in town, the Sorya Restaurant, which I wouldn't recommend. It offers lousy, overpriced food. We ordered tom yam, fried veggies and river fish, the tom yam was insipid, the veggies were sweet & sour bell peppers & onions and only half a fish arrived at the table. A much better local restaurant is located on the opposite side of the 'plaza' a bit further down. It's got a menu in English, Khmer and Chinese and prices are posted on the walls. Alternatively you can buy your meals at the market stalls.
From Stung Treng to the border you'll have to get the ferry crossing over to 'Cowtail Island' (don't know why the locals call it island, it isn't). Lots of ferries do the trip in about 10 minutes, don't make the mistake of getting onto the only ferry that carries vehicles. It'll wait until enough cars have got on in spite of what the captain might say about leaving in three minutes. We waited for an hour going, and half an hour coming back. Transport between the ferry dock and Dong Kralor is irregular. The distance is about 56km. Exiting Cambodia and entering Laos seem to be straightforward. The distance between the border posts is around 2km, lots of people were walking it as it's in the shade and not too muddy.
No visa- on- arrival available for Laos!
At the Voen Kham/ Khao river crossing no visas are available at all. So if you're coming by boat you will have to get off it and find transport to Dong Kralor to get your Cambodian VOA then return to it to carry on southward. The whole setup is a bit confusing, so here are more details:
If arriving by boat you can get stamped out of Laos at Voen Kham but you won't get your VOA at the Cambodian post at Voen Khao (both basically the same settlement, just the Lao and Khmer names). To get the Cambo VOA you have to get to Dong Kralor and back again if you want to carry on the trip by boat. It is possible to overnight at a GH at Voen Khao, 7USD, very basic but also very quiet with a beautiful view across the Mekong. In the rainy season the track between Voen Khao and Dong Kralor is unusable so you'll have to cross over to Voen Kham after getting your 'proof of entry' at Voen Khao to get the VOA at Dong Kralor. Some restaurants on the Lao side, I had khao niao, beef laab, chicken tom yam and fried morning glory. The first Lao food I've had since 2005! No need to mention it was excellent! After checking out some boat prices returned to Stung Treng.
Boat prices:
As there's no regular river transport between the Lao border and PP the only way to do it by boat is to charter one. The guy at Voen Khao (Mr. Kha) charges 440 USD for the whole trip. He says it takes just six hours on one of his speed boats, which look exactly like the ones that run between Huay Xai and Luang Pabang (he buys them in Vientiane, so no surprise). He supplies a life jacket but no helmet. Bring ear plugs. Mr. T from the Riverside GH in Stung Treng also offers a boat to PP. It's a bigger, slower boat with a roof, 550 USD, 10 hours.
Return to Stung Treng takes about 1 1/2 hours.
Some pics in my profile.
BTW, the road to Stung Treng and up to the border is excellent!
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