An apparently lovesick Vietnamese wanted to paddle from Thailand to his wife in India in a rubber dinghy – after almost three weeks, the approximately 2000-kilometer journey has now failed: the man was rescued with little remaining supplies on board and still in Thai waters, like the The Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Wednesday evening, citing a spokesman for the Thai Navy.
According to his own statements, the 37-year-old married two years ago, but was then separated from his spouse because of the corona pandemic.
Fishermen spotted the rubber boat about 14 kilometers off the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea and called for help.
Marine park rangers went to the site and found the man.
At this point, the paddler had already been on the road for 18 days, it said.
According to the information, he only had an almost empty drinking water bottle, a suitcase and ten packs of instant noodles with him.
In a photo distributed by the Royal Thai Navy, he can be seen - apparently well - in his blue and yellow inflatable boat.
The Vietnamese told the helpers that he flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok on March 2.
From there he wanted to fly on to India, but was unable to get a visa.
According to his own statements, the man in love then decided to take a bus to Phuket in southern Thailand and bought the inflatable boat there.
On March 5th he set sail.
After his rescue, he was cared for by employees of the Mu Ko Similan National Park.
It was still unclear when he would be able to see his wife again.