Why was it called the “Dawn of Tenom” on the hill behind Fatt Choi Coffee Cabin and not sunrise? In mountainous regions, dawn would come before one could see the sun rising behind a mountain, on a clear day, much later. But, very often, the mountain would be covered by mist. So expecting dawn would be much easier than seeing sunrise. Another reason was that no one would want to get up on the hill before sunrise to feed the army of mosquitoes.
Sunrise in Sabah was expected to be at 6am but the heavy rain, that had been signaling its arrival the whole night, came around the same time, releasing its load on the rooftop of the cabin. When that happened, never be the first to open the door — all insects and mosquitoes that were avoiding the rain outside the door would be invited in. Some would still be able to get in through any openings they could find though.
Unable to go back to sleep, I washed up, boiled a bottle of drinking water and made coffee in the pantry. I tried the 5-in-1 Tongkat Ali Ginseng Coffee from Fatt Choi Coffee. It was a milk coffee with tongkat ali and ginseng flavours.
Dark clouds still lingered in the sky and it rained again at 7:40am. I did a check on the opening time of most coffee shops and cafes in Tenom town on Google Maps and noted that most would open at 9am or after. The canteen in Fatt Choi Coffee Cabin would not be opened until 10am too. I exercised in the room, then got ready to hike to town — it would take less than 30 minutes.
I started the day after the rain stopped, around 8:40am, re-explored Fatt Choi Coffee Cabin, checked out some exhibits of old coffee-making instruments and taking in the view over Tenom from the hilltop.
Then, I walked down to the coffee factory at the bottom of the hill, but it had suspended its factory tour since COVID and still not opened to public yet. Another 20 minutes’ walk, I reached Fatt Choi Coffee’s old outlet near the edge of town that had closed with a “For Rent” notice.
Tenom’s tourism had been hit pretty hard. With the railway service to Beaufort disrupted, most travellers would not be travelling to Tenom since it would be one way here and back to Kota Kinabalu — I came because I wanted to know if Tenom was worth it for a foreign traveller and a coffee addict, but I did not know of the disruption in the Tenom-Beaufort train service.
Another few minutes, I came to a covered area opposite Pasar Tenom (Tenom Market). There were a number of eateries located side-by-side one another. It was hard to decide which one to dine at. I came to Tenom Cafe, saw the dishes on the tables of diners and decided to eat at the restaurant.
I pointed at a dry-tossed kon lo mee being served at the next table and told the waitress I wanted "that" with kopi-o kosong — Tenom coffee was lighter in taste and less bitter even though it was made from Robusta beans.
Tenom Cafe’s kon lo mee was simply called “kon lo mee” without a specific name. The noodle was quite a lot! I thought I had ordered a wrong size because I simply pointed and said “I want that” without specifying that I wanted small size. But I saw several customers asking for their unfinished noodles to be packed as takeaways and realised that the normal size of the noodle was indeed a lot.
I walked down the street towards a spot call "Tenom Coffee Valley" (with tourist information) and checking out the shops along the main streets. Almost all the “cafes” that I noted on Google Maps were actually restaurants, coffee shops or eateries. None of them were cafes that served western coffee, light meals and, most importantly, WiFi.
I thought Tenom Coffee Valley was a tourist centre promoting Tenom’s coffee products and housing a cafe, but it was actually a cafe having a small retail section for coffee products and a tourist information counter. It was the only cafe that I found in Tenom town — to be specific. Since I just had breakfast, I ordered a cup of cappuccino and used the WiFi to book my accommodation for the next 2 days in Kota Kinabalu.
I tried searching for flights from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan or Kuching and from Sandakan to Kuching, but there were no good flying time and closer dates were mostly not available. Flights from Sandakan to Kuching would need to stop-over in Kota Kinabalu for several hours too, wasting a full day. It really was not easy trying to book last-minute flights, yet when all flights were pre-booked, the itinerary would be sealed and became inflexible. Unable to settle on a course of action, I shelved the forward planning, finished the coffee and left Tenom Coffee Valley at 12pm.
Tenom Coffee Valley was actually very near Tenom Railway Station. I went to Tung Ma Nui Luk’s container outlet to purchase a bus ticket back to Kota Kinabalu the following day at 12pm (RM30).
I strolled slowly back the way I came and returned to the covered area opposite Pasar Tenom — not sure if it had a name. One thing I noticed was the lack of rubbish bins yet the town was rather clean, which was a good thing that the locals were conscious of their own living environment, but to tourists, it was a pain. I thought I had to carry my rubbish back to the hotel when I saw a big rubbish bin in the middle of a car park meant for the eateries. I dumped my rubbish there.
I went to Restoran Chi Hin (志兴茶餐室) for its corn-fed chicken dish that I discovered while googling at Tenom Coffee Valley. I ordered a white chicken thigh with rice (nasi ayam jagung) and kit chai peng. There were no fats under the skin of the tender chicken and overall a tasty dish.
With nothing much to do in the little town, I retraced the 30-minute hike back to Fatt Choi Coffee Cabin. The final lap was going upslope and I had to walk slowly which allowed me to noticed that the plants on the hill-slope were Robusta coffee plants, and there were coffee fruits on most of them, but few were ripe-red. I had not noticed them when going downhill too fast in the morning. Finally, something related to coffee!
Back in the cabin, I showered and rested.
4:30pm, I decided to climb the steps of “Dawn of Tenom” to the top, which I had missed in the morning due to heavy rain. The view from the top was splendid. I would probably come up again the following morning if the weather was good.
At 5pm, I went to the canteen for dinner before they closed at 6pm. The noodle stall was closed for the day so I was left with the satay stall, called D'warung Sate Aiman. I ordered different things this time: 5 daging satays, 2 chicken wings and a daging special (beef + egg) burger. And an ice-blended green tea from the beverage kiosk.
While eating, three cats surrounded me, wanting me to give them some food. I shooed them away but they would not bulge. I ignored them despite their purring. If I were to feed one cat, the other two would expect the same treatment. I recalled an incident on my first backpacking trip in Vietnam in 2005, I gave money to one beggar, the next thing I knew was several other beggars started advancing towards me and I had to run into a fast food outlet and wait for them to disperse. It was a terrifying experience. I never gave money to beggars ever since. Sorry, cats.
At 6:30pm, the sun was going down. I took in the sights of the surroundings once again as the only thing I could do on the hill.
I tried to linger a little longer outside but the mosquitoes forced me to retreat back to the room. Several of them had followed me into the room as well. I killed over 20 of them over the next 4 hours, until only a few were left and I felt asleep. One or two of the bloodsuckers managed to get under my quilt in the night, sucked my blood but was unable to fly out. They were crushed, when I flipped and turned, and became red blotches on the bedsheet — me, a man, no menses.
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