By: Tommy Walker, Asia Media Center, November 26, 2024
The recent deaths of foreign tourists in Laos caused by tainted alcoholic drinks has highlighted the risks of bootlegged booze across Southeast Asia . Tommy Walker has more from Bangkok.
The recent deaths of foreign tourists in Laos caused by tainted alcoholic drinks has highlighted the risks of bootlegged booze across Southeast Asia .
Six foreign tourists have died in after drinking suspected methanol-laced drinks in Vang Vieng, a rural town 150 kilometres north of the Lao capital Vientiane.
Once little more than a bus exchange on the trip between Vientiane and the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang to the north, Vang Vieng's growth has been exponential, largely driven by tourism.
Vang Vieng has long been a popular place for solo travellers and backpackers. With its serene setting, filled with limestone mountains, blue lagoons, verdant green fields and eerie caves, it’s easy to see why the town became a focus for those seeking adventure, and a party.
It’s the town’s main attraction, river tubing, which brings most visitors, despite its chequered history. In 2011, 27 tourists died from drowning while tubing in the Nam Song River, where at the time, rope swings and riverside pop up bars were common, selling alcoholic drinks for those drifting by. The following year the Lao government stepped in with a number of new regulations. Tubing was supposedly banned, but forms of it still exist.
Fast forward 12 years, and tragedy has hit Vang Vieng again.
The recent deaths of six foreign visitors centre around a backpacker hostel known for its intense partying and social vibe. Nana’s Backpacker Hostel has been a popular party spot in Vang Vieng for many years.
But the hostel is now under the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The six victims, all reportedly drank there prior to their deaths.
Australian’s Bianca Jones, 19, and Holly Bowles, 19, British woman Simone White, 28, American man James Louis Hutson, 57, and Danish pair Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21 – were all said to have drunk or stayed at Nana’s Backpackers Hostel on November 12.
The hostel had reportedly given free shots of vodka to its guests at the time, not uncommon in party hostels around Southeast Asia.
A day later, some guests started to get sick.
It was November 13 when Coyman and Sorensen died from heart failure. They had both been vomiting blood for hours, reports say. Australian’s Jones and Bowles ended up in two different hospitals in Thailand to get medical treatment. Jones died on November 20th and Bowles died a day later. Brit Simone White, a lawyer from London, died also on the 21st November. American James Hutson also died around the same date.
Reports say anywhere between six to 11 more people may be sick from methanol poisoning. At least one New Zealand citizen was also unwell in Laos, but has since left the country and returned home.
Nana’s Backpacker Hostel has since closed and its manager, Mr Duong Duc Toan and eight of his staff were arrested by authorities over the weekend.
Toan has since denied giving out tainted drinks, claiming he gave out shots to 100 people, arguing no other guests had become unwell, suggesting it was other bars that may be responsible for providing the poisonous alcohol.
The Laos government first acknowledged the deaths in a statement on Saturday, saying it was “profoundly saddened” by the incidents, and it would find those responsible and bring them to justice in accordance with the law.
Details have been slow to emerge, which is normal in a country like Laos. The landlocked nation country is governed under a Communist one-party state, with the government controlling almost all the national media. Local media are forced to publish what the government dictates, and for international media, interviewing locals or receiving comment from authorities can be extremely difficult, or a security risk itself.
According to the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontier, methanol poisoning is more common in Asia than anywhere in the world.
Dr. Chenery Ann Lim, project manager from the methanol poisoning initiative at MSF, says the deaths are the “tip of the iceberg”.
“We don't really hear a lot of what is actually happening on the ground, a lot of the (people) who are consuming (the drinks) are not tourists, but also the local population,” she told Australia’s SBS News.
Methanol is similar to ethanol, the chemical that makes drink alcoholic. Illegal bootleggers use methanol as it’s a cheaper alternative.
But its consumption can be deadly to humans, with fatality rates between 20-40 % depending on the concentration level. Methanol can also lead to a variety of common symptoms associated with alcohol at first, including feeling drunk and sick. But it can lead to serious complications including coma and permanent blindness.
“Methanol is not uncommon in home-distilled alcohol and if there is enough of it a person drinking it can go blind, get internal organ failure and even die. It is the metabolites which are the active toxic agents,” Professor Christer Hogstrand, Professor of Molecular Ecotoxicology at King’s College London, is quoted saying in the Science Media Centre.
“Methanol is like the alcohol in our drinks – colourless and odourless – but its impact on humans can be deadly. It has a different carbon atom structure which completely changes how humans process it in the body, leading to these potentially fatal consequences,” he added.
This is not the first-time methanol found in alcoholic beverages has claimed lives in recent months within the region. In August, at least eight people died in the Thai capital of Bangkok after consuming homemade moonshine that was laced with methanol. Two brothers were arrested for making the illicit alcohol.
Pravit Rojanaphruk, a veteran journalist and political analyst at Khaosod English, says even Thailand isn’t immune to the risks of cheaply sold booze.
“Unfortunately, the risks are high in poorer countries like Laos, while Thailand isn’t immune as some locally made alcohol back in August. Most government’s oversight is needed and the advice for foreign tourists is to stick with reputable brands when drinking and not accept free drinks,” he said.
Tourism is vital to the economies of Southeast Asia
Laos is one of the poorest nations in the region, and in recent years has increased its investment to cater to more international tourism. Vientiane will hope it can lure more visitors to the country in the future, having already welcomed 5 million arrivals this year, but the foreign deaths will be a blow, experts say.
Vang Vieng received more than 600,000 tourists in 2023, and expected to see even more this year, according the district governor, who was quoted in state media.
Gary Bowerman, a tourism analyst who lives in Kuala Lumpur, said that tourism in Laos will be impacted in the short term, but hopes its a wake up call for governments throughout the region.
“It may have a short-term impact on the backpacker market. Laos needs to prove that this cannot happen again to rebuild trust. Longer term I don’t see backpackers staying away in large numbers, but behaviours will change. Those free shot parties will be viewed very cautiously,” he said.
“More broadly, this should concern governments across South East Asia, as counterfeit liquor is widespread and travellers will ask more questions than before about the origin of their drinks,” he added.
Despite the risks, travellers visiting Southeast Asia are split on whether the deaths in Laos will affect their plans.
In a poll created in a 71,000-member Southeast Asia Facebook group, only 10 per cent of respondents voted they would now not visit Laos following the recent deaths. Over 450 people voted, with a whopping 86 per cent saying they would still visit Laos, albeit 65 per cent of that figure voted they would take more care over the alcohol they drank while in the country.
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