Penang was pretty much to be as expected... Singapore as it was 40 years ago, as my mother kept saying. It reminded me a lot of Joo Chiat Road, with its reputation for good, delicious, cheap hawker food, as well as the general architecture. Those photos will have to be posted another day as I'm still searching for my camera cable.

And the one thing I have learnt about Penang is... you can have a civil conversation entirely in Hokkien.

Unless you've heard a Penangite speak Hokkien, you, like me, have probably been under the misconception that Hokkien is a most coarse and uncouth language... in short, the German equivalent of all Chinese dialects.

And you'd be wrong.

Penang Hokkien is the kinder, gentler version of the kind you hear in Singapore. And I don't think I even heard one local use any swearwords. It's so unlike Singapore.

To get an idea of the accent, check out PenangHokkien.com.

Meanwhile, I'll continue the search for the cable which lets me download the hundreds of photos I took of Penang before I post next.