The first orange rays of the sun touch the crescent shaped headworks of the Pa Sak Jolasid Dam, a new dawn on the rippling waters of a reservoir nestled between green rolling hills, collecting the waters of a now peaceful river. Far into the distance, new velvets of croplands and patchworks of rice paddies emerge, zigzagged by canals and streams. Herds of cattle graze on lush grassland, making tiny spotted islands in the sea of green. Farmers bend over their rich, wet land, planting rice, knee-deep in gooey black mud.