Tourist City in Laos

I somehow thought southeast Asia was this far-off undiscovered wonderous place, and I'm sure that it is like that somewhere, but it seems that there is a very beaten path (more like beaten to death) around Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. I hardly know any americans that visit this area, but it seems like half of England and part of Europe settled in here a long time ago. This is just my frustration at being in a small touristy village in Laos which is populated completely by tourists and has the series Friends playing non-stop in every restaurant (no joke, I can hear the laugh track from this internet cafe). It kind of feels like a tropical transplanted english village, with a mix of asian and english cuisine. It's strange, and nothing feels very authentic. In any case, I'm heading out of here in a day after doing some trekking, who knows how that will be.

I came here from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, which also was a bit surreal. I saw tons of foreigners (and creepily enough, tons of dodgy-looking lone males), and ate a recommended cafe which could have easily been in the States. We even went bowling. So, still quite beaten path. In any case, what I did get from Laos is that it has incredibly chilled out people, and it is a communist country, but it seems more capitalistic when you walk around. Welp, those are my thoughts.