Indian survives 7-day ordeal after falling from Cambodian peak

, Jul 9: In an incident reminiscent of the Hollywood movie "127 Hours", an Indian-origin man from Singapore managed to beat all odds to remain alive after slipping from the highest mountain in

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Sanjay Radakrishna (26) survived seven days on water, confronted with a giant python, slept on wet ground and in caves after he lost his way while coming down Phnom Aural, Cambodia's highest mountain, in Kampong Speu. He took a tumble, tore his pant during the process and had a flat mobile battery, cutting him off from the GPS network. Radakrishna trekked his way back to a village last Sunday.

Clad in a T-shirt, sports shoes and underwear, he slept on wet ground, in caves and thought of inspiring stories such as the "127 Hours" film about an American climber trapped in a canyon who had cut off his arm wedged between rocks to survive. "There was no point panicking, crying or screaming because no one was there to help me," The Straits Times quoted Radakrishna as saying.

"After a while, I realized that help was not going to come so quickly because of the remoteness of the place," he said. Radakrishna followed the course of water from the waterfall in the area and headed west, often swimming, jumping between rocks and clinging to vines or branches. He received 60 leech bites from feet to groin and was stunned when hit by a tree trunk. He eventually spotted a village last Sunday, also his birthday, where he met a motorcyclist who gave him a hammock to rest and his first meal in the week – an unripe banana.

The motorcyclist brought him to the village and then on to the Kampong Speu police station where he charged his mobile phone battery and found 200 Facebook and 3,000 WhatsApp messages from worried friends and relatives in Singapore. "To me, it was not that big a hoo-ha," said Radakrishna, who has trekked more than 40 mountains. "But knowing how things are in Singapore, going missing for seven days will surely make everyone panic. It is essentially a good experience. I learnt a lot." The trainee teacher will take on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro next month, the daily reported.

PTI