Fisherman laid down his body to rescue trapped tourists

Greater love hath no man than the fisherman who would lay down his body to rescue two birdwatchers from a muddy field.

Okay, John 15:13 doesn't say exactly that, but it's what a lot of people in Thailand and Europe are saying about an unlikely Good Samaritan last week.

The good Samaritan in this story is Thai construction worker Chat Ubonchinda, who was in a boat, fishing, just offshore of southern Krabi province, when he saw a Norwegian couple, who prefer not to be named publicly, slowly sinking in quicksand-like mud. The Norwegians had been bird-watching along the coast, and had ventured far beyond the safe limits, into a dangerous bog.

Chat walked gingerly to the couple, but was unable to help them at first, without sinking into the mud himself.

So he took their photography gear and backpacks, and walked to dry land to deposit them. Then we went back and literally lay flat on the mud so the Norwegians - first the woman, then her husband - could slowly haul themselves out of the sucking mud and get to safety.

An amateur video fan, Theerasak Saksritawee, captured the entire event and posted it to his Thai language Facebook page. From there, it went viral and now has been posted other places as well, including on YouTube.

Within a day, the Facebook page alone had 150,000 likes, and the YouTube video had more than 400,000 page views. There was pretty well universal love for the young Thai, who later cleaned up and met the Norwegian couple to get a profound "thank you" from each.

Comments on the video cameraman's page were virtually all admiring and positive. They included sentiments such as "All Thais are proud of what you did," and "I wish all Thais would have such a big heart like this."

Tourism has become an important part of the Thai economy in recent years.