Father and Son Survive for 40 years in the Vietnamese Jungle

 

You probably heard about the father (82) and son (41) in Vietnam that spent 40 years in the jungle after escaping during the Vietnam war. If you’ve been under a rock yourself for the last week, its an incredible story, and a reminder to all of those that believe in the “If SHTF I’ll run to the nearest national forest” mentality. 

Surviving isolated in the wilderness for decades is not only unbelievably hard, its not much of a life either. The common denominator in these stories is that people perished to sickness, hunger and those resilient enough to survive show great physical and mental deterioration. As important as it is to learn wilderness survival skills, I don’t believe that the point of that is to use those skills to perpetually hide from the world.

Its fascinating though to see how they lived. Other than a handful of rusted blades, its clear that their most precious piece of gear was their metal cooking pots. This was the same with that family that lived for decades isolated in a Russian forest. The metal containers to cook were extremely valuable an irreplaceable. 

The Lykovs also spent 40years isolated in the Siberian wilderness, and according to their accounts when the last of their pots succumbed to wear and rust, getting by without them became much more difficult. The wood and bark containers they made to replace the metal ones couldn’t be placed directly over the flame, changing the way they cooked, and their diet, for the worse.

The Vietnamese father and son gathered fruits from the jungle, hunted, and even farmed one hectare to grow sugarcane and some tobacco. They lived in a tree house 6 meters from the grown,  a clever choice for jungle shelter.

Here are some pics, notice the worn tools, woven clothes, baskets and bamboo containers.