Penang Butterfly Farm

I have been staying and working in Penang for almost one year now. Before that, I frequented Penang often too, because it is one of the nearest town/city from Taiping where you can find decent shopping complex. It has never occured to me to visit the Penang Butterfly Farm located in Teluk Bahang, near Batu Ferringhi.

In my mind, what's so special about butterfly? You can see them flying around all the time, and it's free. No point wasting money just to see them being locked in a park rite? A visit to the park last weekend proved that I am so wrong...

Penang Butterfly Farm is named the World's First Tropical Live Butterfly Sanctuary, which I think the name is cool even though I don't get the whole meaning of it. They even have their own website here. Entrance fee is RM10 for Malaysian adult and RM20 for none Malaysian. There are also discounts for certain privilege card holder or credit card. I don't remember the whole list of accepted cards but I do remember that AEON Credit card gets a 20% off! The Store card member also get discount but forgot how much. So if you're giving the park a visit, don't forget to bring along those cards ;)

I was there visiting the park because we had a visitor from KL to Penang, Mr. Maxis Bing. He was here to attend his colleague's wedding. I'd give him the honour to tell his own story in Penang, since he's the visitor. Check his site for updates (if he got any).

Ok, back to the park. The fees were a bit expensive to see butterflies but I think it is worth it. If you're a photographer, or you'd like to try out your camera quality, this is the place to go. That day, I did not bring along my camera. I felt that it is such a waste that I cannot capture all the nice and colourful butterflies, flowers, park and so many other things. I am not any pro-photographer, but I like to take pictures. While walking through the park, I kept thinking: "How nice this would be if I took a photo from this angle, if I zoom from here, if I tried this mode, etc etc".

I can only take a few photos using my handphone camera, better than none lor... (Anyways, photos in this blog post are solely from my handphone)

One of the staff there, En. duno-what, sorry, forgot his name, he explain to us some information on butterfly and moth. He also showed us some fat-ugly-hidden caterpillar among the plants. Other than butterflies, you can also find scorpions, lizards, spiders, bugs, turtles, fishes, mandarin duck and some other interesting insects. Also available are insect exhibits and a video room that shows some documentary on insects, a 6mins video.

An insect in camouflage, notice that the leave I highlight in the red frame is different from the rest of the leaves?

Exhibits of insects

When we were there, we saw parents bringing along their children to the park. The kids were so happy and they look so amazed with all the insects that surrounds them. Ah, it gives me a warm feeling that this park, aside from exposing children to nature, it is a good place for family to bond.

You can even find pond with Koi fish in the Butterfly Farm

It is not a very big park, don't worry that you'll get tired if you're not an active person. When you're tired or hot, you can go into the video room I mention earlier and have a rest there. It is an air-conditioned room with benches.

The Penang Butterfly Farm is a place worth visiting. So, next time when you visit Penang, don't forget to come by Penang Butterfly Farm. It's a comfortable way to get closer to nature. And don't forget those privilege card, bring every member card/credit card you have, you might get yourselves some discount (They don't accept credit card payment, just need to show them and then pay the discounted entrance fee by cash). It's free to bring camera, it's not free to bring video cam.

To view more photos from Bing's camera (he's the only one with camera), please go to my album: My Photo Album