Penang Butterfly Farm

How can anyone not love butterflies??  They are magical, beautiful, delicate, and have no real purpose in life but to bring joy - oh and reproduce.  Did you know that a butterfly's life span is about 2 weeks and they spend 48 hours of that in one mating event??  How's that for a useless but jaw-dropping piece of trivia?

An hour or so on Penang Transit and we're at the entrance to the Butterfly Garden.  What a surprise - getting out of the 'city' - we make our way up the east coast of the island and are amazed at the beaches, mountains, jungle . . . this could be any one of the Hawaiian Islands.

This isn't a butterfly garden, it's a farm where butterflies are literally cultivated along with the plants needed to sustain them.  We're in luck and a guided tour has just started.  The guide is very knowledgeable (trained in IT but could't find work!) and encourages the 6 of us to let the butterflies land on us, take photos of them, even hold them, ever so gently . . .

Let them ride along on your collar . . . 

Or your ankle . . .

Or just sit quietly in your hand . . .

Just for variety, we have some other creepy crawlies (millipedes)-

And the most amazing stick creature . . .

And the once daily release of the 'baby' butterflies . . .

All in all, a magical afternoon!