Penang Owl Museum

This guide to the Penang Owl Museum, at the lowest level of Penang Hill's funicular terminus, traces a private obsession a handful of local collectors built over decades, buying owl figurines in porcelain, glass, wood, seashell, brass and clay from flea markets and gift shops across more than twenty countries. It follows how the collection outgrew their homes in 2012 and became Malaysia's first owl museum. For over a decade, families rode the train up specifically to see watercolours of owls beside gold-plated figurines, and a wall explaining how an owl's head, not its eyes, does the swiveling.