jesus christ ... and i thought my dad's old car was embaressing
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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Sorry, but I can't just believe every extraordinary claim that I see on social media, so I had to double-check it. In this case it seems to be true (although not his father but a "village strongman") and happened in Vietnam: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kids-cross-river-in-plastic-bag-school-video_n_5002877 https://vov.vn/tin-24h/chui-tui-nilon-vuot-suoi-lu-den-truong-nguoi-trong-cuoc-noi-gi-809014.vov Although quite old, so not sure if it's still happening.
Imagine being a village strongman. Sounds awesome and annoying at the same time.
As a tall person, I kind of understand the experience. Whenever I put my mighty powers of slightly longer torso to the benefit of others, I like to make sure to announce to those who have benefitted that I am a "Friend to the littles".
I'm the only man in my family under the age of 60. It's my job to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk.
'Hey Strongman, a banyan tree fell on my grandma again. Haha. If you don't mind'
'It's ok. Hrrrrrhhhhhh'
I do it already for fun and sport. Do I get pay and/or elevated status?
People will totally be grateful to you! It’s like being a firefighter light: you get to help people, it’s impressive, and it’s kind of a hassle a lot of the time. I was going to say it’s a lot safer, but given the picture, I don’t know if that’s a given
I will pick up everything.
Bro wtf it takes them 5 hours to get to school? That's fucking wild
I can't hold my breath in a garbage bag that long
Thats fucked
clippy "it looks like you need a bridge here..."
If bridges aren't in the budget, maybe zip lines? Weeee!
This new Bubble Boy reboot looks wild!
Let's hope the kid can swim while entangled inside a garbage bag if the father drops the bag.
Must have been a heavy rain week or something. Otherwise they would have a boat or something
*Looks at comments about fake news and air capacity*
Me: that guy is a literal good-guy chad
They really need to build a zipline, there must be some ways.
What's really interesting is how he's able to tie a plastic bag so it's waterproof but not airtight. Otherwise he's arriving on the other side oxygen-deprived.
I'm not saying the story is fake, but, it's just a photo. There's probably a low-tech solution, like a snorkel, that allows air in, and it's watertight around the snorkel, and the end of the snorkel is kept above water. Even then, without an outlet for the carbon dioxide, it's not sustainable for long — how long, exactly, does it take him to cross the river?
That bag probably has enough air volume to last someone around 5 minutes (give or take, probably give since that's based on adult respiratory rates, and that's a kid) before noticeable symptoms of hypercapnia (too much CO2, which will become a problem before oxygen deprivation does) start setting in.
Depending on how wide the river is, that's not actually too much of an issue.
I mean, it’s possible he’s gripping a pipe/snorkel of some kind in his hand protruding through the top of the bag itself.
He’d just have to grip it tight and hold it above water as he wades through. Perhaps it’s just deep enough that there’s not a reasonable way for him to hold the kid completely out of the water, but it’s easy enough for him to hold him up just enough that water doesn’t come in over the top of the bag itself.
With the amount of air in the bag to be “full” and relatively pressurized, he’d reliably have several minutes before any issues. It’s not like it’s suctioned around the kid’s face. There’s several minutes of air in there. More than enough time to ford a river with width measured in yards.
If there was an air outlet, the water pressure would force the air out of the bag. It's clearly inflated at pressure in the image, proving it must be (mostly) airtight.
So it could be no snorkel or one with a valve. Either way, plausible enough. Kids are tough.
As long as the river crossing doesn't take (significantly) longer than around 5-10 minutes, there's probably enough air volume in that bag for CO2 levels (which are actually the more accute problem in an airtight space, not oxygen) to remain acceptably low
Yeah I can think of plenty of crossings just within 100 miles of me that I’d hate to have to cross on foot to take my kid to school every day but if I had to do it, it would be worth it for their development, self esteem, and best shot at success - as long as I could do it safely. Good dad.
That's it. Get a bag and go find a river you two.
I'm not convinced that it's actually an issue if you're only in an air-tight bag for like 10 minutes (depending on how wide the river is, but at some point it becomes unrealistic to cross it while swimming one-armed and dragging an entire person).
Besides what others have suggested, there might be areas of the river shallow enough for him to pause, both to rest and to refresh the air supply.