BBCA group of brightly colored hot air balloons scurry across the Vang Vieng river as the sun slowly sets behind the jagged mountains of Mount Nam Xay.
Young people paddle their boats and joke each other in the valley below.
This small city in northern Laos attracts a large number of tourists, which is not difficult to see. The landscape is beautiful, the excitement cheap and plentiful.
Six tourists died last week from suspected alcohol poisoning, which has caused the city to become the center of an international controversy.
Their alcoholic beverages may have contained alcohol, a chemical used to create illegal alcohol frequently.
Vang Vieng has gained notoriety for what is known as “tubing” in South East Asia due to the throngs of youthful northern travelers on the backpacker trail. One person described it as a pub crawl involving waters.
Swimming-wearing friends board enormous interior tubes that would ordinarily be used on trucks, slide downstream, stopping occasionally at riverside bars to give out generous vodka shots, before returning to the water.
All is enjoying themselves by the time they arrive in Vang Vieng.
” I think we’re going to give the tubing a miss” two 27-year-old women from Hertfordshire in the UK tell me ( they did n’t want to give their names ).
No single wants to consume the native liquor at this time, even though the liquor pictures are included in the package.
The couple arrived in Vietnam just as the earth was hearing about the deaths of alcohol poisoners.
” In Vietnam we got completely drinks, especially when you’re playing sports in the evening”, one of them tells me. You simply assume what they are giving you is secure, and we just always thought about it. We’ve crazy containers before, but we are not going to take the risk suddenly, and a lot of people around feel the equal”.
Smaller plastic containers filled with inexpensive liquor and other spirits are exactly what they sound like. Through lengthy cheap sticks, friends can share the combination.
” Now this has happened it definitely makes you think about it”, the person’s friend says. You’re asking “why are the coffee completely,” you might ask. We learned that for an hour each night at the hostel where the incidents occurred that they provided complimentary whiskey and vodka shots. You may undoubtedly believe that if that occurred in the UK.
Both women said they will continue to consume canned or bottled beverage.
The deaths of six tourists has sent shock waves through the backpacker scene. Young female travellers feel most vulnerable. The dead include Briton Simone White, 28, two young Australians, Holly Bowles and her best friend Bianca Jones, and two young Danish women, Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman and Freja Vennervald Sorensen.
Only one of the deceased, a 57-year-old American, James Louis Hutson, was adult. Some people have been asking whether even women’s beverages have been spiked with alcohol in the chat rooms where they hang out. The truth is, it’s also a secret.
The Nana Backpackers guesthouse, which was where all the subjects stayed, is what we do know. The American victim’s death was then confirmed to have occurred on November 13 in his home there. The two Swedish victims were discovered comatose in their suites the following morning and taken to a nearby hospital.
Now, the Nana dormitory is closed, the swimming share that until a few days ago was opening pool parties, is clear. A short walk away beside the river a club called” JaiDees” has also been raided. Both owners have made it clear that no improper or homemade alcohol was being served.
There is little evidence that people entering Vang Vieng are being poisoned out on the creek. The holiday period starts in late November. The rainy season has ended, the weather is clear, and the weather is only 28C ( 82F ) above average.
The users of the hostels along the main pull informed me that they were sold out. Majority in the group of young people visiting Australia and Europe. Thailand and China, two of the country’s neighbors, are by far the largest groups, with the latter heading west on the recently finished high-speed bridge range from China to Laos.
Vang Vieng is still a remote area that is filthy. But it’s rising. Large, dark area cruisers and variety rovers allow local business owners to pass by. The quiet bark from a Lamborghini travelling along Vang Vieng’s one main street as I returned to my hotel on Saturday night took me by surprise.
This weary, rural town was surrounded by wheat fields twenty years ago. Thai and Chinese funds is currently transforming it. With infinite pools and cocktail bars along the river, elegant new hotels are popping up.
But the younger northern backpackers are not here for the five-star practice, they come for the welcoming anything-goes environment.
I meet two recent graduates from Sussex University at a nearby bicycle lease.
Due to what transpired, Ned from Somerset claims that he has no desire to change programs. ” People are scared for sure”, he says,” but I do n’t get the impression anyone is leaving. Everyone is enjoying themselves while everyone is still around.
He adds:” But everyone is also saying the same thing, do n’t drink the spirits, so people are being careful, there’s definitely that feeling in the air, but I think it’s actually quite safe now because all the bars are on edge, no-one wants to go to jail”.
His companion Jack is extremely unflustered. ” We’ve come here to meet up with some friends and have some fun, and we’re still going to do that”, he says. ” I’ve only been here for a week, and I can tell you how attractive people are around. Some of South East Asia’s most welcoming persons are some of the individuals we’ve encountered. So whatever happened, I do n’t think there’s anything malicious about it”.
Harmful or no, six people are dead, five of them adolescent girls.
The surprise waves from what happened have reached residential properties from London to Melbourne, where concerned families with young children who are backpacking are constantly messaging and trying to persuade them not to travel to Vang Vieng.