A grandmother shares her shocking experience of wandering naked after her drink was allegedly spiked while celebrating in Thailand
While celebrating Thai New Year, she had a drink she thought was whisky and coke from a bucket on Khaosan Road. After going to bed, she thought she was dreaming about hotel staff helping her, but it turned out she had been wandering for four hours without clothes.
Janet learned that six people, including a British student, died from drinks mixed with methanol, a cheap and dangerous substance. The hotel staff suggested she might have consumed similar tainted drinks that night.
“I was lucky to survive and have no side effects, but I’m scared to drink local spirits now,” she said. She warned that local alcohol isn’t distilled properly, and while it’s cheap, it’s not worth the risk.
Janet mentioned how easy it is to get caught up in the party scene in Thailand, where shots are often pushed on you. She expressed sadness for the travelers who suffered in Laos and disgust for those who sold the dangerous alcohol.
A retiree with a diverse work history, Janet has been traveling solo since 2022. She fell in love with Thailand back in 2016 but now drinks much less after her frightening experience. She recalled thinking she needed to get to a special delivery unit during her ordeal, only to be guided back to her room by hotel staff.
She said, “We were buying buckets of whisky and coke, but I have no idea what we were really drinking. People later told me it was ethanol due to the poor distillation process.”
