A British gran has issued a stark warning after she blacked out and was found wandering her hotel naked, suspecting her drink was spiked with a potentially lethal substance in Thailand.
Janet West from Swansea is speaking up following the investigation into the deaths of six tourists, including a British student, in nearby Laos, believed to be victims of methanol poisoning from adulterated alcohol.
The 61-year-old recounted her harrowing experience during the Thai New Year celebrations on Bangkok’s Khaosan Road, where she thought she was enjoying a simple whisky and coke from a bucket. She went to bed, only to wake up thinking she had dreamt about being led back to her room by hotel staff, but it turned out to be all too real.
Janet was informed that she had been roaming around the hotel without clothes for four hours. She was told by the staff that she likely consumed drinks laced with ethanol that night.
“I was lucky to survive and to have no side effects, but I’m frightened to drink the local spirits in Thailand now,” Janet said. She advises fellow travellers to avoid local spirits due to improper distillation processes: “The local alcohol is not distilled properly and, although cheap, it’s not worth the risk – stick to imported spirits or bottled beer.
“Other tourists on that trip told me about people dying or going blind after drinking from the buckets. It’s really difficult because shots are just poured down your neck in Thailand. They just knock on your door shouting ‘free shots’, and nobody questions them. I feel so sad for the unfortunate travellers in Laos, and so disgusted with the people who made the alcohol and sold it.”
Janet, a retired individual who has worked in Army, in bars and in telephone banking, has been exploring the globe solo since 2022. She developed a passion for Thailand’s cuisine, its golden temples, warm seas, and stunning beaches back in 2016.
Despite a harrowing experience in April 2019, she returned to Thailand in 2023, although drinks very little while abroad. Reflecting on the night she believes she was drugged, Janet recounts being informed by hotel staff that she had walked out of her room naked after going to bed with her boyfriend.
She later remembered thinking she was a pregnant teenager in need of transport to a maternity unit. It wasn’t until hotel employees spotted her attempting to exit the premises that she was escorted back to her room, as she was later told.
Janet remarked: “On that visit we were buying buckets of whisky and coke but I haven’t a clue what we were really drinking.”
She was later informed by others that what they consumed might have been ethanol due to an improper distillation process.
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