Celebrity surgeon Nopparat Rattanawaraha on Thursday described drinking oily pond water to survive during three weeks of captivity at the hands of gun-toting kidnappers in Mali.
Dr Nopparat, who also runs the popular “Mor Song Tong Lok” YouTube channel where he posts travel videos, returned to Thailand after being released on payment of a reported ransom of 100 million CFA Francs (5.8 million baht).
The 49-year-old was back at work at his Nopparat Cosmetic Clinic just a day after flying home, and recounted the dramatic moment he was seized while driving from Burkina Faso into Mali with a driver and guide.
After falling asleep in the car, Dr Nopparat said he woke up to find himself surrounded.
“It was like a movie. There were five or six men carrying guns surrounding me but I couldn’t understand them,” he told Channel 3 television.
“They told me to kneel down, put my hands behind my back and covered my eyes.”
The kidnappers took him to a remote location and he tried to stay calm and friendly, he said.
“They were not aggressive; they didn’t injure me. They spoke to me nicely,” he said, though food and drink were limited.
“I had to eat whatever there was. If there was no water, I needed to drink from the pond. Sometimes I could smell oil in it.”
Helping him through, the Phrae native said, was his homemade survival kit — a plastic bag containing mosquito repellent armbands and herbal inhalers.
In the third week of captivity, he was allowed to use the phone to speak to his mother and girlfriend, who spoke to the kidnappers to hear their ransom demands.
It has not been confirmed who paid the ransom, but the Thai police and foreign ministry helped to organise his return.
Dr Nopparat said that while he did not feel immediately traumatised by his experience, he thought he would need professional counselling.
“You may see that I’m smiling right now, but before I shed a tear,” he said. “I will need to seek (a) psychiatrist’s help later on.”
Dr Nopparat had set out on Sept 12 on a trip intended to cover nine countries including Afghanistan, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso. His last video from Africa appeared online on Sept 27 when he said he was about to cross into Mali.
The United Nations has been urging action in Mali, Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger in light of a “volatile” security situation, in which peacekeepers and civilians have been attacked by terror groups.
The three countries have struggled against a jihadist insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians, police and troops, while around 2 million people have fled their homes.