Families of tainted vodka victims fight for justice

Laotian authorities yet to charge anyone for the deaths of six tourists who consumed methanol-laced drinks in 2024

- ALISHA RAHAMAN SARKAR

Late last year, Bethany Clarke was chasing the trip of a lifetime through Southeast Asia with her best friend. Today, saddled with grief, she's left wondering how an evening out drinking could have turned her life upside down.

Clarke and her friend Simone White, both 28 at the time, were on a night out in Laos when they drank what turned out to be methanol-tainted vodka at a Vang Vieng hotel.

While Clarke survived the poisoning, her friend and five other foreign travellers died, in an incident that sparked global concern about the dangers of tainted liquor as well as calls for accountability.

The two Britons started their journey with a meetup in Cambodia - Clarke was working in Australia at the time. They travelled through Vietnam before making their way to the party town of Vang Vieng, famous for its dramatic limestone cliffs, blue lagoons and river tubing. The town is one of the main stops on the popular “Banana Pancake Trail”, a backpacker circuit that winds through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia.

After arriving in the town in November 2024, Clarke and White went for free happy hour shots at the Nana Backpackers Hostel. They downed five or six drinks poured from two different bottles, joining a crowd of fellow travellers.

Nothing about the taste of the vodka seemed out of the ordinary, Clarke says. And it wasn’t until later the next day, when they were on a bus to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, that they realised they were sick. They had woken up with grinding hangovers, which grew worse during kayaking at the Blue Lagoon. On the bus ride, though, their symptoms worsened, with White vomiting and Clarke fainting and hitting her head.