It's been decades since Alan Truong and his family piled into a rickety old boat and fled from Vietnam in the 1970s, leaving behind his friends and neighbours in Mong Cai.

But Monday night, more than 40 years after he boarded that ship, Truong was reunited with old pals and classmates whom he hasn't seen since he left.

"I think he thinks about Vietnam a lot," said his daughter, Samantha Truong, who often helps her father with his broken English.

"I know he misses it. Sometimes, if not the food, definitely the culture of everyone being able to say hi and to know each other."

Alan Truong, his siblings and their parents were forced to flee their homes during the Vietnam war.

The Sino-Vietnamese family crammed onto a flimsy ship and originally set sail for Hong Kong, where they shared the Cantonese language, but landed instead in nearby Macao. There, the family lived in a refugee camp, waiting for more family to join them, until they set sail for Vancouver in the late '70s.

Since then, Alan Truong got married and had five daughters, all while working odd jobs until he settled in his current career as a skipper catching crabs in White Rock.

Family featured in text book

Samantha Truong says her father hasn't shared a lot of details with her about his journey.

"Culturally, it's often not appropriate to just talk about such sensitive matters about the journey and all these things, but I'm a very curious person," she said.

Instead, Samantha Truong says she has learned many of the details of how her family came to Vancouver from a worn out social studies textbook she found, which outlines where they were from and how they arrived.

"Just reading the textbook, it says they made room for everybody on the boat," she said. "Everybody was really happy to see each other, but also lots of tears, lots of happiness but still lots of uncertainty about where they'll be."

Samantha Truong points to a photo of her father in an old social studies textbook. (CBC)

Wedding leads to reunion

About a month ago, Alan Truong was speaking with a family friend who was planning a wedding in Vancouver.

The friend decided since he was sending invitations all over the world, he may as well take advantage and add on a reunion for the people who fled Mong Cai.

The reunion, closed to media, took place on Monday night of the Victoria Day long weekend.

Earlier on Monday, 59-year-old Alan Truong said he hadn't seen his old friends, some of them living as far as New Zealand, since he left them as a boy in the early '70s.

"We don't know who is who now. We think, oh, you're this guy, you're this guy," he said.

For his daughter, the reunion is a once in a lifetime chance to find out more about her father and his journey to Canada.

With files from Jesse Johnston