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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Missing man emerges from forest after 3 weeks dodging elephants

    Like a scene out of an adventure movie, a 43 year old man stumbled out of a clearing in eucalyptus and rubber plantations to recount an incredible 21-day journey he spent lost in the wilderness and fleeing from wild elephants. The tale took place in Prachin Buri, the central province to the east of Bangkok after the man, Thongsa Wanthumma, went missing on December 22.


    Police searched for the missing man and turned up his motorbike 5 days later on December 27. It was sitting about 8 kilometres from the home of his mother and him, 10 kilometres from his work as a timber cutter at a eucalyptus plantation, seemingly abandoned in the middle of a rubber plantation.

    Thongsa said that he had abandoned his bike there in a panic while he was driving along a trail in the middle of the eucalyptus plantation when he was shocked by stumbling into a large herd of wild elephants. Afraid of being trampled, the man jumped off his bike and ran into the rubber and eucalyptus fields to escape the elephants.


    Once he was safe from the elephants, the flustered man suddenly found himself lost in the middle of the massive plantations that span about 20,000 rai, unable to find his way back to his motorbike. As he wandered, searching for an exit or a road, he said that he repeatedly encountered wild elephants in the area.


    Indeed, friends and neighbours had gone searching for the missing man and had uncovered 2 mutilated bodies covered with leaves and dirt, indicating and at some point they’d been trampled to death by elephants which gave them this sort of burial after.


    He spent the next 3 weeks trying to avoid crossing paths with the elephant herds roaming the area with him, elephants that wandered from the Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary nearby to feed, while he himself tried to find food and water to survive.


    “In the plantations, I had no food. I survived by eating sour leaves and drank from ponds and irrigation canals. At night I slept on leaves that I gathered to keep myself warm.”

    After foraging for weeks, praying to his parents and the holy spirit’s for blessings to find his way, the man stumbled out of the woods, clearly battered, using a piece of wood as a crutch as he walked with a limp from wandering and evading elephants while malnourished.


    Thongsa met a neighbour on the road and hitched a ride to a relative’s house and is now finally back home in his village in Kabin Buri district.


    Missing man emerges from forest after 3 weeks dodging elephants | Thaiger

  2. #2
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    Bonecollector's Avatar
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    Wow, knowing locals in areas such as these, I find it really strange that he got lost in his own area. Usually they are experts in local direction. Good effort for surviving though or has he just been with mia noi for a few weeks.....hmmmmm suspect

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    I thought it strange that he was drinking from irrigation canals but didn’t follow one down to a dam. Surely there would have been a trail at a dam.

  4. #4
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    Buckaroo Banzai's Avatar
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    21 days is a long time. Me thinks there is more to this story.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    ran into the rubber
    He'd have been ok if hadn't doubled down on 7 no Trumps ad lost his Bike

    By nightfall the Texas old 'em Wubba Puntas cleaned him out so he bought a tried and tested red bs alibi from the slippery croupier a Miss NOSVET-LANNA WUBBAWANKSI @ Golden Triangle Casino. Like so many who lose their shirt and bike he had to sign an IOU and walk home with a very sore derriere.

    His Aunty Reporta MissedKitoff said


    "He's a very naughty boy"

    Quote Originally Posted by Latindancer View Post
    I just want the chance to use a bigger porridge bowl.

  6. #6
    Making people dance. :-)
    Edmond's Avatar
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    The inch wide bites on his neck were from mosquitoes.

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