A teacher in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta has Facebook to thank after he was found and brought home by his colleagues, ten days after going missing during a tour on one of the country’s famous island.
Nguyen Anh Lan, 54, recalled having lived on wild fruits and rain water during the ten days of getting lost on Phu Quoc, an island and tourist magnet off the southern province of Kien Giang.
Lan and his colleagues at My Hiep 2 Primary School in Cao Lanh District of Dong Thap Province visited the island during a tour package on June 15.
After touring several attractions on the island, the teachers returned to the hotel for a meal later the day and realized that Lan was nowhere to be seen, according to school principal Nguyen Van Ngoi.
Lan’s colleagues reported the case to local police, chipped in to print multiple leaflets of him and took motorbike taxi rides on a number of roads there to fetch him.
As many days passed, the effort proved to be in vain.
The school then had recourse to Facebook to find Lan, and started to see information about him coming.
Stumbling across the post, a cab driver who claimed to carry Lan showed the area where he put the teacher off.
But Lan was not there when the My Hiep 2 teachers reached the place, said Phan Van Khanh, the school’s vice principal.
Colleagues and neighbors talk with Nguyen Anh Lan near his house in Dong Thap Province, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Nguyen Van Khoi smiles at seeing Nguyen Anh Lan’s recovery in Dong Thap Province, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre
On the tenth day, a hunter spotted Lan wandering with no clothes on in the uninhabited mountains on the island.
The teacher looked gaunt and grew a long moustache at the time, said Khanh.
Other residents who saw Lan were scared to approach him and intended to go away.
Fortunately, one of them remembered the man-finding post on Facebook and contacted the teacher’s family to retrieve him, Khanh added.
The teacher was taken home on Tuesday.
Lan got lost because he was old and absent-minded, according to him and some of his colleagues.
Around VND30 million (US$1,290), from the coworkers’ contribution, has been spent to tend Lan, who lives in a poor house built from wood and corrugated iron sheeting.
As of Wednesday, Lan has regained the use of his legs but is still suffering mental instability.
By Thai Xuan
Source: Tuoi Tre News