Two of our friends, who -- like us -- are fans of early-morning walks, invited us for a boat-trip-and-kampung-stroll this morning.

They'd been told that, on the other side of the river, by the little bridge over one of the tributaries, people had recently been seeing crocodiles. The guy who passed this on said he'd seen them in the early morning, and that was the best time to come.

So the four of us assembled at 5 am on this side of the river, and puttered off up to the "karaoke jetty" (the one we'd used on Sunday, but coming the other way).



From here we walked west along the road.

Now -- long story short -- we didn't see a single croc... But it was a really lovely walk, proof again that travelling hopefully is often better than arriving.

There's something very atmospheric about the area on the other side of the river. The weather was drizzly, the sky overcast, the lighting minimal. Mosques on both sides of the river were resonantly putting out the call to prayer. Otherwise, the kampungs were quiet. A few early-morning chickens and a few lit windows were the only things making a mark on the still, damp darkness.







When we'd peered into the little estuary long enough to be fairly confident that our mission was not going to be accomplished, we headed back, via Jalan Merdeka, towards the jetty.

And there we stood for a while, watching the light come back, and the rain fall.




Once back across the river, the next bonus of the day was a new place for breakfast:



The kopitiam people knew the friends we were with. But even so, it was heart-warming to have our breakfast paid for because one of the ladies had won a bit of money on the lottery the previous day...

No crocs, then, but lots of nice memories.