Approximately 120 kilometers from the provincial capital, during the monsoon season, Sampanboak remains a secret. Then, once winter comes, a stone peak begins to break the surface of the mighty Mekong River. By the dry season, it’s become a massive island of stone with as many as 3,000 pools, or Samphanboak in Laotian, the local dialect. Residents of this area have also called this natural formation which has taken thousands of years to create, the Grand Canyon of the Mekong, rising up to seven meters from the surface of the river and stretching as wide as 20 meters across.