A British grandmother claims she blacked out and ended up roaming her hotel naked for hours after drinking from a ‘spiked’ bucket of alcohol in Thailand.
Janet West, 61, recalled her harrowing ordeal in Bangkok amid ongoing investigations into the deaths of six tourists in nearby Laos, in what is believed to be a mass incident of methanol poisoning from shots and booze buckets.
The mother-of-two from Swansea, Wales, celebrated the Thai New Year on the city’s famous Khaosan Road, drinking what she thought was whisky and coke from a bucket.
She said that after going to bed she thought she dreamt about being escorted back to her room by hotel staff.
But she later discovered it wasn’t a dream – they told her she had been wandering around naked for four hours.
‘I was lucky to survive and to have no side effects but I’m frightened to drink the local spirits in Thailand now,’ said Janet.
‘The local alcohol is not distilled properly and, although it’s cheap, it’s not worth the risk – stick to imported spirits or bottled beer.’
Janet, now retired, visited Thailand for the local new year celebrations in April 2019, and has been travelling the world solo since 2022, but says the incident has made her think twice about drinking in the region.
Janet West visited Bangkok to celebrate the Thai New Year in April 2019
She said she bought a bucket of whisky and coke, but believes it was spiked
Janet, who formerly worked in the army and in a bar, said that she visited the country again in 2023, but rarely drinks out there now.
Recalling the night she suspects she was poisoned, she says she was later told by staff she walked naked out of the room she was sharing with her boyfriend shortly after going to sleep.
She later recalled she believed she was a pregnant teenager and had to get transport to a special delivery unit.
She came to when hotel staff noticed her trying to leave the building and ushered her back up to her room, she was later told.
She said: ‘On that visit we were buying buckets of whisky and coke but I haven’t a clue what we were really drinking.
‘Afterwards people told me it was ethanol, because of the incomplete distillation process.’
She said other tourists had warned her about people dying or going blind after drinking from the buckets of cheap booze.
‘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.
Janet West with her then partner, David, while in Thailand
Janet first fell in love with Thailand’s food, golden temples, warm sea and beautiful beaches in 2016. After her terrifying visit in April 2019 she went again in 2023 – but says she doesn’t drink much out there now.
Janet said staff she she was likely drinking ethanol laced drinks that night.
‘I feel so sad for the unfortunate travellers in Laos, and so disgusted with the people who made the alcohol and sold it.’
Six people including a British student died after swallowing drinks believed to have been mixed with methanol – a cheap, toxic substance used to ‘bulk out’ alcoholic drinks.
Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, died after taking shots believed to have contained methanol at a hostel in Laos in November.
Sue White, mother to British victim, told The Sun how the hostel offered free whisky or vodka shots for two hours every night.
Hostel manager Duong Duc Toan and bartender Toan Van Vanng denied diluting their alcohol with methanol when questioned.
Toan said he bought the alcohol from a certified distributor and that free shots of Tiger Vodka had been served to around 100 guests.
He said he had yet to received any complaints from other backpackers who been given shots on the night.
He also drank from one of the vodka bottles that were in use on the night to prove it was safe.
But Ms White said her ‘kind, fun-loving’ daughter and friends took ‘six shots’ each, watered down with Sprite, before falling ill and having ‘trouble breathing’.
She told The Sun how Simone and two friends took themselves to hospital the day after, but were ‘dismissed’ by medics, who told them they had food poisoning.
By the time an ambulance arrived to take them on to a private facility, Simone was already ‘delirious’, her mother said, adding ‘I think, basically, it had already affected her brain’.
Simone White, 28, died in hospital after drinking alcohol suspected to have been laced with methanol in the backpacking hotspot Vang Vieng
Victims of the suspected poisonings had been staying at Nana’s Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng
Australians Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, also tragically died after consuming alcohol while staying at the hostel in Laos.
The victims, who were in Laos celebrating their graduation, were taken to hospital after being found unresponsive, having failed to check out of the Nana Backpacker hotel.
Ms Jones and Ms Bowles did not leave their dorm at the hostel 24 hours after going to Jaidee Bar and reported feeling unwell on November 13, before being rushed to hospitals in Bangkok.
CCTV from inside the hostel shows one of the women being transported to a local clinic on the back of a motorbike being driven by a hotel staff worker.
James Louis Hutson, a 57-year-old American, and Danish citizens Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, were also named as victims in a spate of tragic deaths believed to be linked to methanol poisoning.
