We finally got ­­back to Damascus about 2045 but it took us another 30 minutes to make the 5-minute walk to our hotel!The old city is a maze of lanes and alleyways and the map we had was crap so combined with the fact that no one knew the Shahrayar, we were up against it.However, we soon had a crowd of locals, arguing amongst each other, in a friendly way, about the hotel's location, and we were quickly whisked off like the Pied Piper's followers for a night tour of the city.A young chap on his way home after an evening out with friends then spent 20 minutes out of his way walking us to our hotel, stopping every 10 yards to comfirm we were on the right track by asking shop keeers for directions. Anyway, we said our goodbyes at the hotel and he continued on his way, munching on his snack that was now cold as he didn't want to eat it whilst walking with us for fear of being rude. We eventually got home and it turns out that we were within 50 yards of the hotel on 3-separate occasions!!! All we can say is that we Westerners have a lot to learn about humanity; we love these people!