It's Official: Muscat 2013

After some pretty serious "will we, won't we" over the last month it's finally official.  We are headed to Muscat, Oman in the summer of 2013!  We are beyond excited.  

Oman is on the tip of the Arabian penninsula, across the Straight of Hormuz from Iran.  It borders Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.  Despite some rowdy neighbors, I've heard Muscat is a lovely, safe, interesting, clean, low key, wondrous place to live.  And hotter than hell.  I left out hotter than hell.  

Last time we were assigned to a place we'd never been I listed all of the reasons why it was awesome on our blog.  After having actually lived in Casa I re-read that list and laughed heartily.  "It's clean and safe" being my favorite.  It's not terrible in those areas, just not the utopia I had imagined.  So, I'll avoid projections and what I have gleaned from google image searches and give you the facts.

- Muscat is the capital of "The Sultanate of Oman"   Kings and Sultans are our thing, I guess.  

-Since the ascension of Qaboos bin Said as Sultan of Oman in 1970, Muscat has experienced rapid infrastructural development that has led to the growth of a vibrant economy and a multi-ethnic society.  (That one reeks of wikipedia, doesn't it?  Guilty)

- They speak Arabic though VERY different from the Arabic they speak in Morocco

- There is a "Little India" in Muscat.  What in the Chicken Tikka Massala? 

- It will be the farthest East and the farthest away from home we've ever been

- There is a sea turtle nature reserve

- And Snorkling and Diving

- And This

-And a brand new Opera House

- A double 30th birthday celebration in Thailand sound awesome to anyone else? 

- But...90 + temperatures 8 months out of the year with 100 + temperatures in the summer

- The culture is more conservative than Morocco. Hello again long sleeves.  

What I'm looking forward to most, outside of doing outdoorsy things and photographing the amazing landscape during the three months Oman isn't a furnace, is learning more about this part of the Arab world.  We are literally going from one tip of it to the other and I imagine the differences are stark. 

Much more to come as things develop, but for now I think I'm spent.  One last thing: we've never been to the gulf before - any one have tips, books to read, or "heads ups" for us?