Details here. 269 of you guys died here last year. I assume that’s just tourists and does not include, say, retirees living here and who have a heart attack or something.
Excerpt: **"The figures mean that Thailand has the highest rate of deaths in proportion to the number of British tourists of any country worldwide. In the year to March, an estimated 860,000 British tourists visited Thailand.
“This figure also makes Thailand the country where, proportionately, British tourists are most likely to end up in hospital, according to the organisation’s British Behaviour Abroad report, released today.”**
I recall a relative of two British board members and her boyfriend had a motorcycle accident down South some months back. You guys be careful over here, okay?
That could have been either Mekong, the local branded whiskey made from rice (whiskey purists argue since it’s made from rice, then it can’t be called whiskey, but it’s still referred to as such) or some variant of the infamous local moonshine called lao khao.
You have to be very careful with lao khao. Cheap and strong as hell. But not happy enough with the strong kick, the locals will often spike it with insecticide to give it a little more oomph, and then watch out! I am convinced I got ahold of some insecticide-laced lao khao once back in the 1980s. That night, I was naked, howling-at-the-moon drunk! Fortunately, a couple of friends managed to keep me under wraps, as this was out in a mountainous village of the North and no telling what could have happened to me. We all agreed the next day it must have been an Insecticide Special. I swore off lao khao after that and did not touch it again for more than a decade, when I picked up some quite tasty stuff in Laos. These days, though, I’ve foresworn drinking contests with the locals, you just can’t win them, so not much lao khao comes my way.
And you can’t believe them if they tell you there’s no insecticide in it. One of those aforementioned friends was attending a wedding one time, and by chance he just happened to see them mixing insecticide into a big container of lao khao out back behind the temple. They offered him a glass later, and he said: “I’m not drinking that. It’s got insecticiede in it.” They said: “No! No, it doesn’t.” And he told them: “I saw you pouring it in. I saw you!” Whoops! Caught! Red faces all around.
And now, Australia, too! More Australians die in Thailand than anywhere else in the world, outside of Australia itself. 105 Aussie-tourist deaths last year. See: Australian Dream Holidays to Die For
I’ve had the lao khao also in a mountainous village up north several years ago,didn’t know about the insecticide.(Might even have been the same village) but didn’t feel overly well the next day.
Have been told that a certain “big cat” named beer, contains formalehyde,which I always thought was the stuff used to preserve dead bodies.
Had to laugh at a couple of items in the news when I was down in Pattaya recently.
A German was close to death after being stabbed sixteen times by his Thai wife.
When asked by the press,Police said that she wasn’t available for comment.
And another German “businessman” found dead in the earlyhours blown up by a grenade according to the news,but blown up by a couple of blocks of C4 plastique attached to his body and remotely detonated according some local sources that I know there was reported by the police as a “suicide though murder hadn’t entirely been ruled out.”
Singha beer, which I’m sitting here drinking right now, does NOT contain formaldehyde, I can assure you. That old story was debunked ages ago, but Boonrawd Brewery, it’s maker, is still having to counter that claim to this day. You can Google some info, too. How that story got started is anyone’s guess, but it seems it’s perpetuated by guys who drink something like 20 or 30 bottles in a night, wake up sick as a dog, then think: “Damn! Must have been that formaldehyde. So it’s true!”
I wouldn’t worry too much about the lao khao you got hold of. If it was only a hangover the next day, it was probably okay. Myself, I’m still regaled with tales of that night of mine years ago, the stuff I went berserk doing, and that led all of us to figure it was insecticide. I’d had lao khao before with no problems.
And yes, there have been some rather amazing “suicides” over the years, especially in Pattaya.
No, we don’t! Most of us can handle our booze and don’t act like numptys when refused a drink. Proper no nonsense KO! I love it when I see someone like that get their come-uppance. Especially when the phrase ‘who wants some’ is uttered!
That’s very surprising. This is the first time I’ve ever heard this about Tiger beer. The Urban Legend is obviously evolving.
You said “big cat,” and so since this myth has always, always involved Singha – which is pronounced “sing” and is Thai for “lion” – naturally I thought that’s what you meant. Singha has been accused of this literally for decades, but it’s just not true. So now they’re saying it about Tiger, eh? That’s not even Thai beer, but rather comes from Singapore. I’m not 100% sure, but Tiger may not even be brewed here like Heineken is, but rather imported straight from the city-state. Not certain about that, however.
But it’s not true with Singha, and I don’t believe it with Tiger or any other commercially brewed beer. Lao khao, however – it literally means “white liquor,” lao meaning “liquor,” the tone and shortness of vowel sound differentiating it from Lao as in the folks in Laos – that stuff is the local equivalent of Tennessee moonshine. A small portion has been allowed in the market in recent years in a bid to collect tax revenue on it, but the vast majority remains illegally made. As mentioned, a trusted friend actually caught some people red-handed pouring insecticide into a batch, followed by a guilty admission afterward. It’s completely unregulated.
I didn’t know if I was talking rubbish or not,I was merely passing on unjudged what I’d been told by a local.
I take Sams word for it because he actually lives there,I don’t take the word of Wiki because it is untrustworthy and the internet is NOT the be all and end all of all information.
I’ve had somebody before now tell me that I was wrong about the area where I was born and grew up in because they had read something differently on the INTERNET for gods sake.
Don’t worry your job/shares are safe.
My only connection with Tiger beer and the company that brews it is as a customer.
I spent a few years living in Singapore and drank Tiger and visited the brewery where we were shown the brewing process from start to finish and given fact sheets about it.
Your remark about me either having shares or working for Tiger Brewaries is pathetic and insulting.
Do you seriously think that a company with sales in dozens of countries including many in Europe and most of Asia and won dozens of awards would jepardise that by including Formaldehyde intheir top brand of beer?
I do know you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but in this case I would rather believe the many sites debunking the myth of having Formaldehyde as an ingredient rather than something some guy told me.
