00:00Police in Laos are continuing to investigate these suspected methanol poisonings, but it's
00:07clear that travellers themselves are doing their own investigations.
00:12I've been sent a series of now-deleted Google reviews that show that in the days after people
00:17started falling violently ill, travellers were trying to warn each other about this
00:22unfolding situation and the hostel at the centre of this scandal.
00:27We now understand that all six of the people who died were staying at the Nana Backpackers
00:32hostel, and eight staff members have now been detained.
00:36But before the first death was even made public, travellers were taking to Google reviews to
00:42try to tell each other about what was going on.
00:44One traveller wrote,
00:46Don't go here.
00:47They have methanol in their drinks and me and three others have been hospitalised because
00:51of this.
00:52Another wrote,
00:53I stayed at this hostel for five days.
00:55Myself and friends were sick from consuming free vodka here.
01:00Some of the reviews were met with claims of slander from the hostel and were subsequently
01:06taken down.
01:07And we've now also learnt that the hostel continued to check people in even after three
01:13of its guests had died.
01:16One young traveller has told the ABC that they also continue to offer free drinks even
01:21on the day that police had been to the hostel and questioned staff.
01:27They had the free shots again and no one was touching any of the liquor on the second night.
01:32So I think at that point everyone sort of knew, okay, something's happening here.
01:38And it wasn't, we didn't party very hard on the second night because there was all these
01:41police around and we weren't sure, like, yeah, it was pretty quiet.
01:45Yeah.
01:46And it's obviously, it was just awful.
01:47Like, I just, hearing about it was not nice.
01:50And it sort of put a stain on what was, like, Laos is actually quite a nice place.
01:55And yeah, it just wasn't, yeah, it wasn't a great experience.
02:01As I mentioned, eight staff members from the hostel have now been detained.
02:05They have not yet been charged.
02:07And the owner of the hostel has vehemently denied that the poisoned drinks came from
02:12his bar.
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