Dubbed “Vietnamese Tarzan” by the media, he returned to civilised life in 2013 with the support of local authorities after spending more than 40 years with his father in remote jungles to avoid the American war. They did not know that the war had ended until being discovered by locals.
In 2016, Spanish explorer Alvaro Cerezo returned with Lang to the exact area he used to live and made a documentary on his lifestyle in the wild jungle over five days.
On the last day, Cerezo promised to show Lang his world on a desert island in the future.
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| Ho Van Lang (middle) rode a boat for the first time, an experience he found scary (Photo courtesy of Docastaway) |
“Lang and I became very good friends,” Cerezo said. “During the past three years I used to call him every few months (through my Vietnamese translator).”
Few months ago, Cerezo took Lang to a desert island in the Pacific Ocean that his company offers to clients.
“He flew on a plane for the first time,” Cerezo said. “He didn’t stop looking through the window. Always impressed and always with a very serious face.”
Lang also saw a big city for the first time.
“We always tried to protect him so we didn’t make him walk in the city,” he said. “But he couldn’t sleep at night looking at all the skyscrapers through the window. He was also very serious and not very talkative. He said he didn’t like what he saw from the window.”
When Lang saw the ocean for the first time, his mood started to change and he started to smile, Cerezo reported.
He traveled on a board for the first time and he was frightened, holding himself tightly.
“When he landed on the desert island, his mood completely changed,” Cerezo said. “He was extremely happy. He was moving freely, hyperactively, exploring the island by himself. He opened coconuts for the first time in his life because in his jungle there were no coconuts.”
They spent two days on the island, where Lang was very happy.
“Just like a little child in a theme park. We fished, made a fire and a shelter, climbed coconut trees...,” Cerezo said.
Cerezo said Lang did not know sea water was salty so one morning he drank it and spat it out.
“He couldn’t sleep at night because he was afraid the island was floating and it could sink at any time,” Cerezo said.
Cerezo said he had met some wild people like David Glasheen and Masafumi Nagasaki, yet he found it interesting staying with Lang.
The documentary on Lang’s trip to the island will be released on Youtube in early 2019.
The last documentary on Lang by Docastaway, which followed him in the jungle, attracted 5 million views.
Cerezo, who loves wildlife and exploring deserted islands, founded Docastaway to organise explorations to deserted lands and ancient festivals.
He has been to some 30 islands in Indonesia, Melanesia, Africa, the Philippines and the Caribbean.
He has spent the past ten years on deserted islands in Indonesia, the Philippines, Fiji and Tonga.
