While in Pakse, we took a day and a half to explore Si Phan Done, or 4000 Islands, an area of the Mekong bordering Cambodia that is packed with overgrown tropical islands, some of them just tiny speck of land barely big enough for a person to stand. We stayed two nights on a large island called Done Khone. Other than guesthouses and restaurants, the island was a village of rice farmers. We rented bikes for a day and rode along rutty dirt paths between paddies and followed signs to uncover hidden waterfalls and beaches. The day was marvelous. The weather was warm, but bright clouds shielded us from the hot sun. The only sounds came from our tires across the dirt and from animals. Cicadas hummed, dogs padded alongside us, and cowbells clanged from the necks of grazers in the nearby forests.
When we grew tired our bumpy ride, we stopped to watch the villagers work. Here's a video of a man tilling with his water buffalo: http://youtu.be/s-xdjVF7_Bw