"chilling" in Pai

We've been in Thailand for the past week, and I keep thinking about Laos. How can a country bordered by 1 billion Chinese, 80 million Vietnamese and 65 million Thais have a population of only 5.5 million? Laos is a land untouched by time. There people still live in one-room houses made of bamboo and use candlelight after sunset. Even the capital city, Vientiane, despite its wide roads lined with royal palm trees felt half asleep. There was a certain slow, listless quality about life in Laos that grated on my nerves. Besides the construction of new hotels and guesthouses, nothing was happening in Laos. And while every tourist seemed to be searching for a fictitious undiscovered Asian paradise, the entire country was clearly on the verge of a tourist explosion: temples crowded by foreigners and sly local tuktuk drivers well-practiced in overcharging tourists.
I did not have high expectations for Thailand because I imagined it would be basically a more commercial, touristy, crowded version of Laos. And yet Thailand, receiving over 10 million tourists annually, has proven to be a truly lovely place. It is easier to take public transportation here (and thus get away from minibuses crowded solely with travelers) than in any other country we've been in. Tourism is so much a part of the local culture in Thailand, that it doesn't seem out of place to see foreigners everywhere. Thais are accustomed to foreigners and genuinely seem to like us. People here are unbelievably friendly and smile at you for no reason at all. Best of all, daily life is intact and is moving at a pace I can relate to. We had a great time walking around Chiang Rai, going to markets and junk stores, catching a marching band play "It's the Final Countdown", and just watching life unfold on the streets. Thai people are unselfconscious, busy but not rushed, and that makes them so fun to watch.
But then we came to Pai. About 4 hours West of Chiang Mai, nestled in a beautiful mountain valley, Pai is Thailand's "hippie" town. The hippieness refers to the fact that every bar and restaurant advertises itself as being "chill" and Jack Johnson is playing at at least 4 restaurants at any given time. Pai is more than a tourist destination- it feels like its own tourist nation. On the streets foreigners outnumber Thais. Everyone speaks English. Gringos ride around recklessly on motorbikes. There are more massage and tattoo parlors than there are places to buy water. In the past 3 days I heard the following expressions, all spoken in an intentionally drawn out, stoner voice: "take it easy", "relax", "don't worry", "go slow" more times than I care to recall. Life has again slowed to a snails pace.