Island Hopping in ENO Hammocks
Camping in our Eno hammocks on islands throughout Thailand
My friend Liza is the adventurous soul who encouraged me to apply to teach in Thailand with her. She is also the genius who suggested I get an ENO hammock before we left. Purchasing that pink and purple double-nester was the best damn decision I ever made. Our ENOs quite literally became our homes. After our first night's sleep in our hammocks on Koh Samet, “ENO” became a verb. Thus began our quest to ENO far and wide. Over the next few months, “eno” became a verb, and we eno-ed in parks (local and national), sunflower fields, on many a beach, jungle, and even, against our better judgment, on dimly lit riverside street corners.
We learned a lot in our early ENO days, the main lesson being to trust our instinct. If a gut feeling told us not to ENO somewhere, we didn't. In fact, the biggest source of danger we ever came close to encountering was animals: monkeys, killer ants, mosquitos, baby sharks and insects I previously never knew existed. We built up our ENO skills for months in preparation for an ENO trip of a lifetime. We spent the first two weeks of our school’s summer vacation in utter bliss, island-hopping and sleeping in our hammocks.
My favorite ENO island adventure was on the Surin islands off the western coast of Thailand. We arrived via speed boat and spent hours setting up our ENO home high in the mangrove trees above the water. As night fell, the realization hit us: the incoming tide might complicate our ascent. A nerve-wracking but ultimately rewarding experience as we awoke the next morning to the serene waters of the Andaman Sea. The next two days were spent frolicking in the ocean, journaling, doing yoga and living mostly off rations of nuts and berries we had carried with us.