Leaving for Ubon Ratchathani

Awoken early once again by the noise of Khon Kaen (my room has no windows, just mosiqutio net sellotaped over the gap in the wall) I left to go to Ubon.
Arriving at the bus station, tired and aggravated, I hopped on the bus, which luckily was their waiting for me. It was a sign from god!
I hopped on board opposite two bike rider travelers Mike and Michael from Canada and started happily speaking about each others journeys. The trip was a long one, slowed down by morning traffic we arrived at roughly 3pm in Ubon Ratchathani. It was a nice place, busy but pleasant, one of those places you wouldn't expect to see many travellers. As one of the less favoured crossings to Laos, the only real users are the locals.
With my bag on my back, and a skip to my step, I headed to the nearest travel agent. Who, without me knowing, was about to bring bad news.
The Visa laws have changed in Thailand, land crossing Visa's now only last 15 days and my current three month visa is a single entry visa. Calculated cost to go to Laos and come back £60, not to mention on January (10th) I'd need to do another Visa run to validate it for a further 15 days (extra £35), or face a £20 per day cost and possible jail time, if caught.
Conclusion.....no Laos for Charlie.
A bit disappointed and frustrated with the new law, implemented two weeks ago, I started the search for accommodation for the night. So I hopped on the nearest Saamlaw, two bench taxi, till I saw a cheap looking guesthouse. After a 15minute wait, I found one, this time for 150Bh I found a 'hotel' right opposite the train station (pictured top right). It was empty and looked dangerous (if you've seen the film 'Hostel' you'll know what I mean, just look at the pic to the left, this is what it looked like at night, and I was the only one there!). The price was right however, so I took it, drinking a couple beers placed me in a sense of security. After a brief stroll around the 'locals' area and further harassment by Thai ladies wanting to 'be with me' I slept a heavy sleep planning to leave the following morning.

NB: The last couple days I've been budgeting and walking around looking for rooms, opposed to using the Lonely planet. This way I get cheaper rooms, however normally they're empty and in the parts of town where tourist's don't go. Which is a fantastic experience, but the amount of attention you get and the amount of girls that look at you and try to 'interact' with you is somewhat tedious! Even though I love girls!