You will most likely be placed in a rented housing block with other teachers. It is boring, it is isolating and it is just plain depressing!!! The apartments are sparsely furnished and are not secure in the least. If you are of an uneasy disposition, I really think that this is not the ideal country for you. ESL schools and colleges in KSA really do not have the faintest idea about western social living and human contact. If you are not offered compound accommodation then refuse to teach here!

Nothing new there, the situation in the sultanate is EXACTLY the same.

Now from what I have heard, and what Turnoi has said, a compound is no better, just a place where you can let off steam in the desert sun, isolated from everything. And what if you don't get along with or like your fellow FT's? You could be in for a year of hot hell, with no cold beer, literally.

Personally, I would never even visit that country.