GanLanBa is about 45 mins from JingHong by bus. It's three working Dai villages which you can wander around. You now have to pay an entry fee into the area, and there are evening dance shows at a central building (plus fake "water splashing" every day, a sad elephant/camel etc), but it's easy enough to avoid the tour-guided crowds, especially during the daytime. You can also sleep in some of the traditional Dai family houses which is fun, if basic. I haven't been for about 5 years, and it might have changed (for the worst), but I enjoyed it when I went and it's interesting enough to keep the children busy (temples, trees to climb, etc). There are also a lot of hotels with nice swimming pools in JingHong, if that's your thing.

Chess or cheese? This one's a mystery...?

It's a limited time (45 mins? I forget how long exactly), but plenty. You only get one question at a time, though there is the chance to go back to earlier questions at the end (if you can remember their number). No paper or pen allowed.

They eventually managed to get the computers to return to the question where they crashed with scores/answers intact when I was there. It happened 2-3 times though and was disconcerting at first! Maybe they'll have sorted this by now - I took the test 3-4 months ago.

In my experience...

...no questions about trucks, buses etc.
...about 60% of questions are "A, B, C, D", the others are "right or wrong"
...you don't see what questions you got wrong
...about 3-4 questions about mechanics
...about 50-60 people take the exam at the same time (on seperate computers, which regularly crash!)

I don't know how long you have to wait if you fail twice. Thankfully I passed second time!

Good luck!

I'd also be interested to know if such a travel agency can also arrange visas for other countries eg Mongolia, Bangladesh.

Also, does anyone know why all the rich Chinese folk in Kunming are suddenly holidaying in the Maldives these days? Is there a new direct flight? Some all-in deal? No need for a visa there??