I am still in Vang Vieng. I have been here for the past week. Most people only seem to stay a night or two and move on pretty quickly. Aside from about 10 restaurants in the center of town playing episodes of Friends non-stop, I really like the place. There’s almost no traffic, it’s on a beautiful river sandwiched between mountains. There are plenty of caves and treks to explore. The people are very relaxed and there is even a cheap hotel with free wifi.
They are building quite a few new places and even moving the school and some government offices further out of town. Unfortunately the peace is not going to last forever.