Note to self...pass on Laotian vodka. Not that I had ever heard of such until now.
Laos is just all over my bucket list. (sarc)
Will we ever know?
Shitholes are called shitholes for a reason.
Methanol. Actually I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often in various tourist traps.
Jimmy Wah selling beer outside of Vietnam?
Ba!
Stick to weed
“Methanol is a byproduct of poorly distilled homebrew liquor”
I’ve never heard of that before. How can a simple distillation process be poorly done to create methanol?
> Laos is a one-party communist state with no organized opposition and the government keeps a tight lid on information. In this case, officials have released almost no details.
No comment, strikes too close to home. “Missed it by -that- much.“
“Laos is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations and a popular tourist destination.”
“Vang Vieng is particularly popular among backpackers seeking partying and adventure sports.”
These two statements sum up the whole situation.
This has been happening in Caribbean islands as well....bars substituting real booze with homemade moonshine......if made incorrectly it’s deadly......obviously.
Many Westerners are naive. They simply can’t grasp the evil that exists in some places, and what some people will do for literally a few extra pennies.
I know some people who just love traveling to places where a single US dollar can be stretched into a car cover. I have several problems with this. You’re often surrounded by people who make less in a year then you have on person at the moment. That makes me uncomfortable from several perspectives. There’s personal safety. I also feel guilty even though there’s nothing I could do for most of these people even if I gave them everything I own. Then there’s the possibility they’ll feed you dodgy alcohol or substandard food. As to the food, that might not be on purpose. If you grew up eating “bad” food, it might not bother you. My cat will snack on stuff that would easily kill me even if I cooked it. It’s all in what you’re conditioned to handle. (He did bring me a fresh mouse this moring.)
Heartbreaking security cameras from inside the shelter show the girls being transported to the hospital, one by one, on the back of motorcycles.
Hostel manager Duong Duc Toan, who served the girls the Laotian vodka, claimed that it was not his Tiger Vodka that made the girls sick.
Toan said he bought the alcohol from a certified distributor and insisted that neither he nor his staff had contaminated it.
He said the drinks, a gesture of hospitality, were served to about 100 guests and the lodge had not received any other complaints.
Hostel manager and bartender Duong Duc Toan (pictured), who served the girls the Laotian vodka, claimed that the Tiger Vodka was not what made them sick.
A sad story.
If you can’t trust Laotian moonshine in a third world dump hostel, what can you trust?
Could have been the ice. When I lived in Thailand he did not drink the local water or have local ice cubes in whatever drink you opened from a bottle and that was years ago but I don’t imagine it’s really gotten any better as far as water conditioning goes.
Marks Laos off the visit list....
I was there in 2020. It’s a tourist trap on the Mekong River. Lots of outdoor activities.
Probably my least favorite place in Laos.