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They fell ill after drinking six vodka shots served to them at the Nana Backpackers hostel in traveller hotspot Vang Vieng.

They were among six foreign tourists to die over a few days in the small, riverside tourist town of Vang Vieng.

Chia Vang, a history professor and vice chancellor of inclusion at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, sees the three-pronged curriculum as a testament to the resilience of Southeast Asian communities.

“People never thought that we would survive in this country because we were from a more agrarian background,” Vang said.

The 28-year-old, from Orpington, south-east London, was one of a number of people taken to hospital after drinking alcohol suspected to have been laced with methanol in the backpacking hotspot Vang Vieng.