Tony and I have spent the last week of our long winter break hanging around Vientiane. We ride our bikes in the countryside, walk around town, try new restaurants and chill out at home. One of our favorite places to relax is at our patio table under the mango tree. Unfortunately, that little oasis has been transformed into auditory hell, thanks to a construction project next door. When Tony walked over to check it out, he discovered they’re using recycled lumber and hand-planing each board one at a time. In case you’ve never heard the sound of a hand-planer, it’s comparable to fingernails on a chalkboard with the volume on max. So when we’re home, we stay inside with the doors and windows shut tight in a futile effort to drown out the nerve-shattering noise.

That’s why it was such a relief when another teaching couple, Tom and Karel, invited us for a daytrip to the Nam Ngum Reservoir, about 90 kilometers north of Vientiane. The reservoir was created in 1971 by the construction of a hydroelectric dam across the Nam Ngum River.

They picked us up in their newly overhauled car, and we headed out of town. Soon our little city was out of sight, out of mind. Farmers wearing conical woven hats stood in knee-deep water to plant clumps of rice. Water buffalo pulled plows through heavy mud. Villagers rested in the shade of thatched-roof platforms raised above the rice paddies. We stopped for lunch alongside the river, and then Tom drove up into the hills. Far away from the hand planer and the traffic of Vientiane, we sipped sodas at a peaceful guesthouse overlooking the reservoir.

Lunch on the Nam Ngum River.

Overlooking the reservoir.