I'm currently in Laos and this posts helps a lot. Khop Jai! Everything so far is great except for the alms giving ceremony which felt off. I think it even got worse because we saw this part with pre-arranged tours, flocks of tourists were taking part in the ceremony for photos. The monks later on throw the sticky rice because they know this is not good (we saw kids getting the sticky rice to resell to tourists!). We saw a real one near Wat Mai, and the locals have well-prepared and packaged food to give out.
Might head to Vang Vieng next, your serene campsite looks like my kind of place :)