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While preparing the trip I was reading Malaysia guide which, frankly, was a bit dated and referred to Penang butterfly farm as a small simple establishment. Trip advisor reviews were not exiting either so we doubted if it is worth a visit. But after few days spent wandering around Georg Town we wanted to get out of the city and finally decided to drive around Penang, visit tropical fruit farm and check the butterflies. It resulted to be a great idea!

In fact it appeared that the previously existing butterfly farm had a complete makeover and became Entopia – a modern butterfly wonderland. It had just opened its doors after the transformation that’s why the reviews that still referred to a previous farm appeared mediocre. As we did not know of the new modern farm we initially planned to make a short stop there but ended up spending almost four hours!

Already the building itself was promising, modern structure covered in plants. Inside there was a huge open space with the free roaming butterflies and a number of activities for kids: they could release newly hatched butterflies from the boxes, observe and listen the stories of various other insects, there was a room with interactive exhibits and movies on the life of the butterflies. Well, some exhibits were a bit too much for Elin. Her romanticism of the butterflies was destroyed by the explanations on their nutrition. She learnt that they land on her not because she is a butterfly princess but because they like to suck her sweat. Even worse, she learnt that butterflies eat dead rats and caca! Overall, it was a great and highly recommended experience. And I shall also mention that the staff was great, they were very enthusiastic and ready to show and explain whatever you were interested in.

Besides Entopia we also stopped at a nearby topical fruit farm but it was rather disappointing. The tour was really short and quite expensive for what you get. The only saving moment is that after the tour you get to try the variety of tropical fruits and a fruit cocktail included in the tour price. But logistics was also complicated as you had to leave the car on the main road and catch the shuttle up the mountain. While going on tour it was OK, returning back got to be challenging as there were too many people for too few shuttles. We missed several of them before we realized that being polite and allowing more aggressive ones to pass will not get us anywhere.