Vientienne and Letdown

Today was kind of a lame-o day. Not because it wasn't good, but because it's back to being on my own. At least I had kind of a slow transition out of having company. Josh left yesterday at the crack of dawn, but his former roommate Chris was still around. Both of us were sad to see Josh go, and when we met up for dinner we realized that his departure had led us both to think, "well, maybe it's time to start wrapping up the bumming around and go back to real life and friends and work and all those things we miss about where he's going back to."
Then we paused for a moment and realized that we were sitting on the banks of the Mekong eating prawns the size of lobsters. Our life rules.
But today is another story. I went to submit my visa application for China and then came back for one last lunch with Chris before he heads up north to some of the more remote areas. Turns out he randomly ran into some people he went trekking with in Mongolia on the street last night, so we met them for lunch at this great little cafe. Then we had to head back into the main part of town so he could catch his bus and I was on my own...
I was psyched to do my research on what I was going to do with the upcoming two weeks and change I have here, but the net was down all over town, so I was thwarted in that. That left me with very little to do but kill time and realize I was on my own again. I'm reading a great book, which helped to pass the time a bit. It's called Out of the Loop by Morgan McFinn, a guy who scrapped it all to move to Thailand. He's me plus facial hair and hedonism, so it'll give you a good idea of my state of mind when I was back on the 4000 Islands (minus the facial hair and hedonism); I totally recommend it if you can score a copy. But in the end, reading is a solitary pursuit, so it didn't do much to improve me mood. Even a $5 facial didn't help much.
But now here I am at the net cafe, uploading pics and doing some research, so hopefully I'll get myself out of the holding pattern and get my solitary rambler joi de vivre back.
If not, I'll drown my sorrows in more prawns and a $5 massage. Things could be worse.