Dark side of the Laos backpacker trail: Drug-fueled hedonism in a Communist backwater where drugs are sold at restaurants and 27 party-seeking tourists died in a year

For decades it was seen as Thailands smaller, sleepier - and safer - neighbour.

But Laos has become increasingly popular with tourists, including Western backpackers, and that popularity has come at a price.

Once famed for temples and processions of Buddhist monks, some of its larger towns are now firmly established on the backpacker trail, but are also experiencing record levels of crime and drug-related violence.

Vang Vieng in particular has become known as a gap year party town for teenagers and twenty-somethings seeking hedonism and adrenalin sports.

The former farming village is now at the centre of an investigation after five travellers died after drinking shots thought to have been laced with methanol, a cheaper form of alcohol that can cause severe poisoning or death.

It is Vang Viengs second taste of notoriety. The town previously hit world headlines in 2011 for tourist deaths while tubing, riding in an inflated tractor tyre inner tube down the Nam Song river.

Ramshackle bars sprang up along the banks of the river, each competing to lure backpackers with free shots of the local Lao-Lao rice whisky.

Enterprising bar owners set up rope swings, makeshift zip lines and rickety water slides for gap year revellers to play on and threw ropes to the tubers so they could be pulled in for drinks or happy milkshakes laced with hallucinogens.

Tourists kayaking in the party town of Vang Vieng in Laos where five people have died from alleged methanol poisoning 

Methanol poisoning victims, Bianca Jones, (left) who has sadly died, and her friend Holly Bowles (right), who is fighting for her life in hospital, were seen at Jaidees Bar in Vang Vieng just hours before being rushed to hospital

Bianca Jones, 19, from Melbourne, sadly died after consuming alleged methanol-laced drinks in Vang Vieng, Laos

The combination of cheap alcohol, a party atmosphere and river games proved wildly popular on the so-called Banana Pancake Trail, a well-trodden path around South East Asia for budget travellers.

The Lonely Planet guide described tubing as one of the rites of passage of the Indochina backpacking circuit.

Vang Vieng - a four-hour bus journey from Laos capital Vientiane - became so popular that at one stage backpackers outnumbered locals by around three to one.

But soon reports began to surface of travellers dying, either from drowning or drinking, or from diving from bars into the river and smashing their skulls on rocks.

Laos is a one-party Communist state, and strict controls on the media meant the deaths often went unreported.

But the authorities finally launched a crackdown in 2011, after 27 tourists were said to have died in Vang Vieng in a single year.

British tourist Benjamin Light, 23, from Bournemouth, drowned after jumping into the river from a rope swing during a tubing trip.

His inquest heard participants were given alcohol during several stops on their way down the river.

WhatsApp messages have since disclosed the pair then left the hostel and travelled 950m to the beachfront bar

Ms Bowles (pictured) was on holiday with her schoolfriend in the popular backpacking destination of Vang Vieng

Simone White, 28, from Orpington in Kent, is the fifth tourist to have died after falling ill last week 

Mr Light was said to have stayed underwater for some time before crawling back up the riverbank.

He managed to stand up but then immediately fell backwards and his eyes rolled back and he could not be resuscitated. A coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

A former pub landlord from Slough, Michael OSullivan, 39, died on his honeymoon in 2009 during a tubing trip with his new bride Ilana in Vang Vieng.

Travel expert Gwen Engler, who runs the blog Thefullpassport.com, said she was shocked by a visit to Vang Vieng in 2011.

She said: Loud, rowdy, scantily-clad people inundated the town, many of them struggling to stay balanced and/or upright.

Waiting to embrace them were streets crammed with noisy bars and restaurants offering cheap drinks; happy menus full of marijuana, magic mushrooms, and opium in a variety of forms.

She went on: It seemed that the entire purpose of being there was to get as quickly and efficiently obliterated as possible... The entire town seemed to have evolved to serve the hedonistic pleasures of the tourist hordes, flying alarmingly in the face of the values and social mores of this conservative, Communist country.

Following the 2011 crackdown, the riverside bars were closed, drugs were taken off happy café menus and tight controls were placed on the tubing operators.

Tourists were encouraged to visit the regions stunning limestone karsts, caves and waterfalls instead of its bars and strict limits were enforced on tubing numbers.

The clampdown was hailed as a success, and record numbers of tourists continued to visit, without the lure of 24-hour partying and tubing.

But Laos remains one of the poorest nations in South East Asia, and alcohol and drugs are cheap, particularly by Western standards.

Traffickers use the country as a corridor to its richer neighbours and have flooded it with methamphetamine, and pills sell for as little as 20p.

Crime levels have also spiked, as have attacks on tourists, with visitors reporting muggings and armed robberies.

Overall, crime rates rose by 28 percent in 2022, with drug-related crime accounting for almost two-thirds of all cases.

Possession and use of drugs can carry the death penalty.

Hostel manager and bartender Duong Duc Toan (pictured), has claimed it wasnt his Tiger Vodka that made the girls sick

Staff at Nana Backpackers Hostel have been interrogated by police who have demanded to see bottles of spirits served on the night the poisoning occurred

Laos experienced a wave of civil unrest in 2022 and 2023, during an economic crisis. Such unrest is rare in the country, where protests and demonstrations are illegal.

Another hidden danger dates back to the Vietnam War, when the US used air bases in Laos, including in Vang Vieng, and bombed suspected supply lines in the south.

Unexploded cluster bombs and landmines remain in some areas, although tourist regions are said to be safe.

The Foreign Office travel advice for the country is to avoid the central Xaisomboun Province, following armed clashes with anti-government groups.

It warns that male and female tourists have reported having their food or drink spiked with drugs, and that travellers should be cautious about accepting spirit-based drinks following the recent methanol poisonings.