Two Cambodian Men are Trending on YouTube from Building Homes and Pools

 

The idea of having “survival skills” means different things to different people. For those living in teeming metropolises such as Hong Kong, this involves an ability to navigate jam-packed streets, keep your sanity and secure a seat on the train before someone else grabs it.

Then there are the “primitive living” survivalists. These people – usually men – leave the comforts and annoyances of civilisation for days or weeks on end to play at surviving in the wild on their wits alone.

Real purists take nothing from civilisation with them. Instead, they make their own tools and weapons for hunting from wood, bamboo and stone. They build their own dwellings from whatever materials are at hand. And they’ll eat anything they can stomach.

The most famous YouTube survivalist is Australian John Plant, who in his videos is a Robinson Crusoe-type character: he’s a loner, wears only a tatty pair of shorts, and never says a word. His Primitive Technology channel has more than 8.5 million followers and almost 54 million views on just one of his 39 current videos (about how to make a tiled roof hut in the bush).

In his other videos, Plant shows viewers how to build a round hut from wood and thatch, how to grow and cook yam, and how to make a pair of sandals from lawyer cane, a local climbing palm.

However, Plant had better watch out – the trend has caught on in Southeast Asia and he now has serious competition from several groups of survivalists who are also making waves on YouTube.