Gran’s Thai booze bucket warning after she was spiked and roamed hotel “naked”

A British gran has told her she blacked out and ended up roaming her hotel naked after drinking a ‘spiked’ booze bucket in Thailand.

Janet West, 61, is speaking out to warn others amid investigations into the deaths of six tourists in nearby Laos, in what is believed to be a mass incident of methanol poisoning from shots and booze buckets.

Mum-of-two Janet, from Swansea, Wales, celebrated the Thai New Year by slurping what she thought was a whisky and coke from a bucket with straws in the country’s capital Bangkok, on the city’s famous Khaosan Road.

However after going to bed she says she thought she was dreaming about being escorted back to her room by hotel staff.

But she later discovered it wasn’t a dream – they told her she had been wandering around naked for four hours.

Six people including a British student died after swallowing drinks mixed with methanol – a cheap, toxic substance used to ‘bulk out’ alcoholic drinks

Janet said staff she was likely drinking ethanol-laced drinks that night.

“I was lucky to survive and to have no side effects but I’m frightened to drink the local spirits in Thailand now,” said Janet.

“The local alcohol is not distilled properly and, although it’s cheap, it’s not worth the risk – stick to imported spirits or bottled beer.

“Other tourists on that trip told me about people dying or going blind after drinking from the buckets.

“It’s really difficult because shots are just poured down your neck in Thailand.

“They just knock on your door shouting ‘free shots’, and nobody questions them.

“I feel so sad for the unfortunate travellers in Laos, and so disgusted with the people who made the alcohol and sold it.”

Janet is retired, but has worked in the army, in a bar, and in telephone banking, but has been travelling solo around the world since 2022.

She first fell in love with Thailand’s food, golden temples, warm sea and beautiful beaches in 2016.

After her terrifying visit in April 2019 she went again in 2023 – but says she doesn’t drink much out there now.

Recalling the night she suspects she was poisoned, she says she was later told by staff she walked naked out of the room she was sharing with her boyfriend shortly after going to sleep.

She later recalled she believed she was a pregnant teenager and had to get transport to a special delivery unit.

She came to when hotel staff noticed her trying to leave the building and ushered her back up to her room, she was later told.

She said: “On that visit we were buying buckets of whisky and coke but I haven’t a clue what we were really drinking.”

“Afterwards people told me it was ethanol, because of the incomplete distillation price.”