Sunday, June 16, 2013

"UK backpacker dies from poisoned alcohol in Indonesia"

A fairly distressing article, but as someone who has backpacked in Asia I wanted to share it. Obviously this isn't extremely likely to happen to every person who steps foot in Indonesia or any other SE Asian country, but it's good to be aware of if you're headed there on a backpacker's budget.

The long and short of it is that Indonesia has a high tax on alcohol, leading a few dodgy characters to start moonshinin' and selling it illicitly in the form of gin, vodka, etc. However the batches are actually methanol and can lead to blindness and even death. Booze and backpacking go hand-in-hand, and it's not going to change any time soon, so it's better to be aware of this than not.

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