Realizing that reporters were visiting to see his youngest son who had just returned after 18 days of rowing a rubber boat on the sea, Ho Ngoc Long, 62, in Can Duoc district in Long An province, pointed to a man and said: “It’s Hung. He returned some days ago.” 

Ho Hoang Hung, 37, is a short, thin man with dyed blonde hair. He has a friendly smile and gentle way of talking.  

The Bangkok Post had reported that on March 23, the Thai Navy rescued a Vietnamese man who was rowing a rubber boat with the intention to cross the ocean to India to get married.  

Hung told reporters that he planned to cross the sea to India, where he would meet someone who would help him go to the UK to marry the girl with whom he had become acquainted. 

Hung flew to Bangkok on March 2. After that, he took a bus from the capital city to Phuket, where he bought a rubber boat, 60 instant noodle packages, and 6-7 water tanks. 

On March 5, Hung began his journey of crossing the sea after preparing his luggage, which included clothes, instant noodles and drinking water. He tried to row the boat in the direction of the sun. 

On the first day, Hung and the boat drifted from the mainland to a strange island and then got stuck there for three days. He believed there were whirlpools around the island, which explained why he was swept back to the old position though he tried to paddle away. 

On the fourth day, he tried to row the boat in another direction and when he got up the next morning, he no longer “saw the deep blue of the island”. 

With no map and no navigation experience, he rowed the boat in the direction of the sun in the daytime and the moon at night. 

Exposing himself to the hot sun, Hung became thin and dark. The parts of the body not covered by clothes were chapped and the wounds have not yet healed. 

“I didn’t fear anything and I did not feel tired. When I was hungry, I ate raw instant noodles and then drank water. I got used to such meals, so there was no problem for me,” he said. 

Hung said that during the 18 days on the sea, he encountered big waves, strong winds and typhoons. However, he stayed safe.

Unexpected ending 

At first, Hung planned to cross the sea to reach India within 20 days. However, on the 18th day, he decided to terminate the journey after realizing that he would not be able to reach the place. 

“After more than 10 days, I checked my luggage and found that instant noodles and water were running out. I still saw Thai flags flying on big ships, which meant that I was still in Thailand,” he explained. 

“With leftover food and water, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to cross the sea. So I sought help from foreign fishing boats by saying ‘Help me’,” he said. 

Some boats refused to help. They may have thought he was a smuggler who carried illegal goods or escaped over the border. However, finally, a fishing boat approached him and reported Hung’s case to Thailand’s Navy. Fifteen minutes later, a vessel from the Thai Navy came and took him to the island. 

After that, he was brought to the mainland and received health care at a hospital. A benefactor paid for a ticket for Hung to fly from Thailand to Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City. 

Hung’s father said he only knew about the son’s plan to cross the sea to get married by reading a newspaper. 

“He went abroad and then came back. Only when newspapers reported that he sailed a boat to cross the sea did we feel worried. We are happy that he has returned,” he said. 

Vo Thanh Cu, head of 1B hamlet in Tan Trach commune in Can Duoc district in Long An province, said Hung sometimes has “odd actions and speaks strange words”, but there are no documents saying that he has any mental health problems.

Ha Nguyen