With the recent deaths within the country many are now scared about drink poisoning in Laos. What though exactly happened, how rife is it and just how scared should you be?
Overall you should not worry too much, but with that being said there are a number of things you can do to avoid drink paining in Laos.
What happened?
According to reports at least 6 people have now died from methanol poisoning while a number of others are in differing states of sickness. Most drank alcoholic drinks that had been laced with poisonous methanol in the party town of Vang Vieng, while others had done the same in Vientiane.
Methanol cannot be processed by the body and often times causes extreme sickness, or as in this case death. This can happen under different circumstances, with it often being added to make it “stronger”, but also occurs when people brew moonshine.
How often does drink poisoning in Laos and South-East Asia occur?
It happens a lot more than it should within the region, particularly with locally brewed rice wine. This is something I have noticed a lot in Cambodia with at least a few times a year people dying from homebred at weddings and the like.
It can take up to 24 hours for victims to start showing signs of illness which include: nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain – sadly much like a hangover before heading towards lethal fashion.
And because people ignore the signs up to 40% of those afflicted end up dying. This is basically what happened to the people in Vang Vieng.
It should be remembered that whilst this is a common thing for locals it is not for foreigners. Why is this? Because when foreigners die it hits the news and people tend to get into a lot of trouble.
Can I mitigate being poisoned in Laos and beyond?
Firstly you should remember that this is a very rare occurrence and ot something that should dominate your thoughts. Yet despite this the drink poisoning in Laos will undoubtedly kick the shit of the nation tourism, as well as that specifically for Vang Vieng.
OK so how to mitigate it? Firstly this is a thing done in cheap hostel type places that are offering insanely good drink deals. You will not get this even at really low end bars. This is the territory of mass consumer getting fucking up culture.
To mitigate the risks you can obviously just stick to Beer Lao or whatever the local beers that they have. This is obvious as they are concealed bottles.
You can also pre-drink with Soju being universally available throughout the region, as well as vodka. Get wasted, but do it smartly.
Also where you are is a huge deal. For example having buckets on the Khao San Road has very little risk save fake alcohol and a bad hangover. Fake alcohol is not the same as poisonous alcohol with the fake stuff being almost unavoidable.
Should you avoid Vang Vieng?
Which leads us to Vang Vieng! Vang Vieng is a place that people go almost solely to get wasted. This is not just done by drink, but also drugs. Many bars literally have menus that list things like opium, ketamine and even ecstasy.
And honestly this means that people die all of the time, something I have personally witnessed. Alas because it is not usually 6 young white kids we rarely hear about it. In Vang Vieng though it is like a cottage industry with the locals being almost immune to it.
Does this mean you should avoid Vang Vieng? I will cover this in a later article, but essentially it is your call. In my heyday I liked to get fucked up and had a great time in Vang Vieng. I have also seen the very darker side of things there.
So, overall no, you should not worry about drink poisoning in Laos, BUT as with anything within the region there are dangers and the riskier you behave the more chance that things can go really south.
Click the link for my Laos Tours with Young Pioneer Tours