When you are head over heels in love, they say all common sense goes out of the window. And that’s certainly what happened to one lovelorn Vietnamese man who hadn’t seen his wife in two years.

Not letting anything get in his way he decided to row 2,000 kilometres from Thailand to India after being separated by the COVID-19 pandemic from his wife.

Ho Hoang Hung, from southern Long An Province, set off from the Thai resort island of Phuket in an inflatable rubber dinghy.

He had some water and packets of instant noodles, but no navigation system for his trip across the  Bay of Bengal to reach India.

According to Thai Navy forces, a fishing boat found the 37-year-old man paddling the inflatable boat on Wednesday morning at about 14 kilometres off Thailand’s Similan Islands or about 80 kilometres off the Thai mainland.

Forces from Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet then came and rescued him.

Hung told them he was trying to reach India to meet his Indian wife in Mumbai. They were married two years ago but were parted by the pandemic.

The man said he arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport from HCM City on March 2. At the airport he planned to board another flight to India but was unable to obtain a visa. 

Instead, he took a bus from Bangkok before eventually reaching Phuket where he bought the inflatable boat. He had launched it on March 5 and spent 18 nights paddling alone on the sea until he was rescued.

According to local media, Hung was brought to the Mu Ko Similan National Park in Phangnga to arrange for further assistance. VNS