Singapore II

The next morning we got up early, had breakfast and set out for the university. Silvan first showed us the ample food court where we immediately grabbed a delicious mango juice and a seat in the sun. That's how days should start! After a short walk to the lecture building, Silvan introduced us to the professor and we could attend a lecture about nutrition and cancer. As the students had presentations afterwards Sophie and I left and went on a bus tour around the extensive campus. We then waited for Silvan lying in the gras under a palm tree, getting suntanned. For lunch we decided to go to a nearby a food court, which was bigger than the one in the morning. I had green thai curry with chicken and a fresh made kiwi juice, for as much as nothing! However, we went to eat chilli crab in the evening which was fairly expensive. But cracking the crab with your hands made up for the price, and was pretty funny!

Back to the afternoon: As Silvan had to write a lab report Sophie and I went to Orchard Road, which is the major shopping and entertainment street in Singapore. There are innumerable shopping malls where you could spend whole days strolling around. As we took the MRT from the uni campus we got off at Orchard Station and hence we were already in the middle of the ION Orchard shopping mall. It's probably the newest one, opened in July 2009 and houses six double-storey flagship stores of close to 9,000 square feet each, including Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Cartier. Its signature glass façade doubles up as a giant media screen as well. Then we walked along the road to Wisma Atria, and further on to the largest mall, called the Ngee Ann City. It houses the Japanese department store Takashimaya as well as it is home to Southeast Asia's second largest book store Kinokuniya.
This all-afternoon shopping session made us tired and so we decided to walk home. At sunset we went to the Esplanade for a drink on the top of the theatres with a stunning view on Singapore's skyline (see pictures of the last post). We actually watched the sun go down until it was well dark, when a nice firework started, to celebrate the beginning of the Chinese New Year. After that we were hungry and ready for crab. We tried not to get too dirty hands as we intended to go to Zouk afterwards. Best club ever in Asia!