A small Southeast Asian town that has made a concerted effort in recent years to dispel its reputation for excess has come under scrutiny following the deaths of six Western visitors connected to a suspected mass methanol poisoning.
After several Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, confirmed that their citizens had died in Laos in recent days and issued warnings about the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol in the country, Vang Vieng, a popular backpacker destination in northern Laos, is at the center of an unfolding tragedy.
Even while the specifics of those deaths are yet unknown, the connection to possible methanol poisoning has brought Laos and its crucial tourism sector into the public eye and brought back memories of Vang Vieng’s occasionally somber recent past.
