UTOPIA: First meal in Panama

It was almost 6pm when I arrived at Panama Tokumen International airport.

It is a small airport and the check-out was smooth and quick. The airport has sniffer dogs and somehow my suitcase was 'marked' by a junior sniffer dog for further checking (darn!). So, I proceeded to the baggage inspection. Quite scary especially when I'm not sure what sort of 'illegal' items I have brought in my suitcase. Luckily, the inspector found nothing illegal (phew!), though I'm still puzzled with that incident.

At the arrival hall, I was picked up by the company's driver who wrote my name big enough so that I could notice it😂

I was then chauffeured to the apartment and greeted by the GM of Panama office and another colleague who was posted there from another office. That colleague (Joe) is a friendly guy who used to stay in the apartment that I will be staying. He took care of my first meal (dinner) by ordering a huge delivery from Austin Mama's Brisket restaurant, which is located nearby.

It came in a few boxes of items packed separately and he assembled these on the plate.

Here's my portion of everything - Chicken slider, mac & cheese, deep fried chicken strip, grilled beef, pickles, biscuit.

I don't know how my body adjusted to this heavy meal. It was 8am M'sian time (so, that's breakfast if based on my biological clock).

Panama time is 13 hours behind, so their night time is our daytime.

Here goes our dinner date in 'our' apartment (new tenant & ex-tenant)

After then, he went back to his place (some 4km away) and i was left to settle myself.

Here's some snapshot of the apartment. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 storeroom and 2 bathrooms, somewhere around 1200sqft, and the rental is about USD1900 per month.

The owner tastefully decorate the place with nice leather sofa set, marble table and fancy lamps. It has a 60 inch TV too!