Ashley King was in great shape. It was 2011, and the 18-year-old Canadian was taking a gap year. She had just spent a month in Bali on her way to a hiking trip to New Zealand. She enjoyed it so much that she considered deferring college for another year to work abroad.
On her last night in Bali, she and some fellow backpackers went to a nightclub in Kuta’s party district, where they were served cocktails in plastic bottles.
The next morning, she suffered what she believed was the worst hangover of her young life. She had just arrived in Auckland and was so exhausted she could barely move. Her iPod appeared to be broken because the screen wouldn’t light up when she touched it. The lights in her hostel seemed very dim and she kept fiddling with the switches. Her headache didn’t go away. She had trouble breathing.
Eventually, King realized that she wasn’t hungover at all. She suffered from methanol poisoning.
The cocktail she drank in Kuta likely contained methanol (a clear, odorless solvent that occurs naturally in the distillation process of alcohol, but can cause fatal side effects if ingested) instead of vodka.
“My mom was really scared about me going to Bali, so I did a lot of research,” King said. “I was looking through Canadian travel websites to see if there was anything I should know about Bali,” she said.The only things mentioned were the Bali bombings (the 2002 Kuta nightclub attack that killed 202 people) and pickpockets.
There were no problems with the iPod’s screen. King went blind from the lasting effects of methanol poisoning.
Mr. King had heard anecdotes about tampered alcohol before. But she felt safe. For her, the risks were limited to clearly dangerous “street” drinking situations.
“I had no idea that was something you could buy at a bar,” she says. “I was at a bar recommended by Lonely Planet, I wasn’t drinking in a roadside shack.
“You can’t prepare for something if you don’t know it exists. I thought I would have been attacked by a shark before I went blind.”
The number of people killed, blinded, or permanently injured by methanol poisoning will likely never be known. However, periodically serious incidents occur that bring the issue back into the international headlines.
In November 2024, six tourists died after drinking alcohol mixed with methanol in Vang Vieng, a popular backpacker town in Laos. The dead included two Australian teenagers who were studying in Southeast Asia on a gap year, and a doctor from the United Kingdom.
Asta Mann, senior communications officer for the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said most methanol poisonings occur in poor areas where there is a market for contaminated alcohol.
It’s highly unlikely someone would intentionally try to poison a large group of people in this way, she says. Methanol is a normal byproduct of distillation, but not everyone has the technical knowledge or equipment to completely remove it during the manufacturing process.
Although incidents of foreign tourists accidentally poisoned while on vacation have garnered the most attention, the majority of methanol poisonings occur at parties, weddings, and other group events, often in countries where alcohol is banned or where distillation is unregulated due to supply shortages. Because testing costs a lot of money, many people take a chance and continue drinking despite the potential consequences.
“Shame is always present,” Mann says. “In some cultures, this is almost an accepted risk of drinking spirits. They may not know what methanol itself is, but there may be a word in the local language that means ‘blinding alcohol’. It’s an accepted risk.”
MSF advises travelers to drink beer directly from cans or bottles, and to ensure that spirits are poured from unbranded bottles. We also encourage people to read up on the symptoms of methanol poisoning (such as blurred or cloudy vision) so they don’t assume they have a normal hangover.
You can’t prepare for something if you don’t know it exists. I thought I would have been attacked by a shark before I went blind.
ashley king
“Even in Western cultures, while alcohol consumption is common, there’s also this idea that ‘you did something stupid because of the alcohol and it’s your own fault,’ and that stigma is accompanied by a lack of compassion,” Mann says. “You can’t smell or taste it, but you’re putting the burden on the person to recognize the unrecognizable.”
Despite losing his eyesight, King is considered one of the lucky ones who at least survived. However, exposure to methanol can cause a variety of long-term symptoms, including liver disease, and significantly increases the likelihood of certain cancers.
Before she lost her sight, King had planned to major in theater. Eventually, she wrote a play loosely based on her experiences, which became a four-part podcast called “Static: A Party Girl’s Memoir.”
But sharing her story publicly came with challenges and stigma. According to Ms. King, many social media commenters blamed her for drinking in the first place and said her blindness was solely the result of her own poor choices.
For Stephanie Boyle, stories like Dr. King’s are essential to educating the public about the dangers that lurk in plain sight.
Boyle works for the Safer Tourism Foundation, which, as its name suggests, aims to reduce the risks of travel. The center was founded 10 years ago by British woman Sharon Wood after her two young children died from carbon monoxide poisoning at the family’s rented holiday home in Greece.
The Foundation’s activities have expanded to raise awareness of other potential hidden dangers that travelers may encounter on the road. These days, that includes educating people about the risks of methanol exposure.
But the biggest obstacle is not a lack of education. I’m no longer interested in mixing fun trips with trips I don’t feel like.
Boyle believes the single best way to get the message across is by highlighting the stories of people like Ashley King. Putting a human face on a public service announcement is more likely to grab people’s attention.
“We’re not trying to be the fun cop,” Boyle said.
MSF’s Mr Mann believes a two-pronged approach is best. MSF publishes public service information, but also travels to areas where there is a high risk of methanol poisoning, educating doctors on what to look for and how to identify possible symptoms of poisoning.
“People want black-and-white answers,” she says. “They want to know that there is one thing they can do to stay out of harm’s way, but sadly that is not the case. Ninety-nine percent of the time, everything goes smoothly. Everyone is having fun. A lot of tourists go to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and they don’t encounter these problems. Sometimes, something bad happens.”
Currently, the UK Foreign Office website lists Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam as countries at risk of methanol poisoning.
Boyle, of the Safer Tourism Foundation, believes slow changes over time will have a big impact. She gives several examples of things that most travelers no longer find bothersome. For example, wearing your seatbelt, using a phone tracking app, and even wearing sunscreen.
“We try to speak to people in a language that doesn’t feel judgmental or murderous,” she says. “I want people to have as much fun as possible, and I actually think that considering all of these safety measures means it’s okay to let your hair down a little bit more when you’re traveling.”
