Palmyra, the night of two hotels

After parting ways with Sabine in Homs, both the Alex's and I caught a minibus to Palmyra. Upon arrival the driver pointed us in the direct of the city centre and went on his way.
The moment we stepped onto the street it seemed like we were swamped by children. It was about 9 at night and there were a couple dozen kids hanging out on the street with a soccer ball. Out arrival seemed to feed a frenzy of excitement that ended their game. They came over and more or less without words just swarmed around us, occassionally one would ask a question, I would do my best to answer, the Alex's would tell them to go away.
After a bit of walking a guy in a truck came to tell us to stay at his hotel, and that not only would he give us a ride, he would also reduce the price. After two such encounters we gave in, hopped in the back of his truck got our rooms, had some tea and chatted a bit.
I was hungry having not eaten anything but pistachio's(from Aleppo) since that morning, so I went in search of food. Found a shawarma stand and ate my fill, then went in search of more tea. I couldn't find anywhere for tea, but one place the owner instead offered beer.
He gave me the full treatment telling me about all the beers, I eventually settled on Petra Beer 10%, which came with a bartender's warning not to drink more than one otherwise you'll start to see the chick inside the egg, I told him not to worry.
He was a quite interesting fellow. 3 beers later I knew all about his position on geopolitical matters, the War on Terror, Islamic Radicalism, Al Bashar, Israel, Obama, and different types of cigarettes.
Two hours later, I went on my merry way, go to bed to be able to check out the ruins in the morning. When I got back to the hotel, the door was locked. How odd, places usually closed their doors no earlier than 11, I rang the bell, knocked, and figured the owner had just gone out and decided to lock up while he was away.
So I figured I'd come back in a half hour and he'd be back.
In the mean time I decided, hey I've got a half hour, go check out the ruins of Palmyra at night, see what they're like, and they were, majestic I think would be the way to describe them. It was neat wandering around at night, imagining what it would have looked like in it's heyday. And then the dogs began to howl. Not like wolves or Coyotes howling, but a close, angry howl, and barking, and growling. I'm not one to be afraid of dogs, but there seemed to be an aweful lot of them, and nobody who could speak my language well enough for me to rely on if I got in trouble.
So I headed back to my hotel, still locked, I considered climbing in the window in my room that I had left open, but decided against risking the 30 foot drop.
I went in search of a telephone to wake up the owner. I found one in another hotel, which was full of guys playing cards, drinking what amounts to flower tea and smoking. Great guys, said they'd call my hotel to wake up the owner, and served me some tea.
The tea they claimed was bedouin and it was unlike anything I'd ever had, it tasted like flowers, it was wonderful and strange at the same time. Very good, so they gave me more. Same as in Iraq, they played cards counter-clockwise which made it hard to follow their game, but they seemed to be playing a Rummy type game.
After 4 tries to awake my hotel owner, we gave up, and I gave in and got a room with these guys for the night, they gave me a discount because of the circumstances.

It was a night to remember in Palmyra, the next day was pretty good too, I explored the ruins, had a run in with some Bedouin, a pair of kids, and a flock of sheep. But you'll have to wait until next post