The father of one of the two Australian teenagers who died from methanol poisoning in Laos is calling on the authorities there to provide answers. This weekend, the Laotian government spoke out about the deaths of six tourists in a popular holiday town, but the police aren’t sharing any details about the investigation.
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00:00On the main bar strip of Vung Vieng, a more subdued vibe. Bars are still open, drinks
00:08still flowing, but gone are the free shots of spirits that used to lure so many backpackers
00:13in.
00:14So I'm not drinking any alcohol that's out of a spirit bottle. I'm only drinking beer
00:20Lao at the moment, but it's really hard to tell where it's coming from.
00:26Ten days on from the first death, the Government of Laos this weekend finally issued a statement
00:31expressing condolences to the families of the six victims, including 19-year-old Australians
00:37Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, two friends on the trip of a lifetime.
00:41Police have shut the hostel where most of the victims stayed, detained the operators
00:45and also questioned at least one other bar owner, but they are otherwise tight-lipped
00:50on what they've found, despite desperate pleas from the victims' family members.
00:55I would like to take this opportunity to urge the Lao government to investigate this
01:00to the fullest extent to make sure this incident doesn't happen again. We'll forever miss our
01:06beautiful girl and hope her loss of life has not been in vain.
01:15Backpackers still coming to Vung Vieng have become more cautious, with many aware it could
01:19have been them.
01:20We're not doing as much drinking as we would have here before, we're more doing the daytime activities.
01:24Everyone's very cautious.
01:25All the locals are taking it very seriously and I feel like it's affecting everybody equally.
01:29I think it's one concentrated incident I think.
01:32Vung Vieng has been in the headlines before. The town was notorious for a string of alcohol
01:38and drug fuel deaths and drownings more than a decade ago, but nowadays older tourists
01:43from Asia have helped moderate the party town vibe.
01:47Tourist operators here have generally been reticent to go on camera, but they say they
01:52are really rattled by the deaths. They fear if local authorities don't get to the bottom
01:58of this, then the tourists might be reluctant to come back to Laos in future.