For Australian friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, it was their first big trip venturing out to explore the world.
Like so many 19-year-olds, they were drawn to the romance of backpacking across South East Asia – where food is great, people are friendly and the scenery stunning.
They had “saved up enough money after school and university to have their overseas jaunt, as so many of our kids do,” said their football team coach Nick Heath. “And off they went.”
They ended up on 12 November in the riverside town of Vang Vieng in central Laos.
The two checked into the popular Nana Backpacker Hostel – where guests often receive a free shot upon arrival. Days later both were on life support in hospitals in Thailand.
Jones’s death was announced on 21 November, and Bowles’s a day later. The death of a British woman, 28-year-old Simone White, was also announced on Thursday.
They are among six foreign tourists who have died from what is believed to be a mass incident of methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng.
Two Danish women, aged 19 and 20, died last week, while an American man also died. They have not been identified.
It is unclear how many others have fallen ill, but a transnational police investigation is now underway into the deaths.
Much of the scrutiny has fallen on the hostel where some of the victims were reportedly staying. The girls had taken free shots there before heading out for the night.
The hostel manager has denied culpability, saying the same drinks had been served to at least 100 other guests that night who reported no problems. The manager was taken in by police for questioning on Thursday.
Mr Heath, who spoke to media on behalf of Ms Bowles’s family, said they knew it was methanol that caused the girls to fall ill. But “no one really knows how and where it entered their system”.
To understand what happened, the BBC spoke to backpackers and a diplomat about the area.
Our reporting found the town where travellers fell ill remains a party hotspot despite past efforts, with some success, to clean up its image, and that while the risk of methanol poisoning is known among consulates and tourism operators, travellers appear largely ignorant… BBC
