Travel agents sending clients to Bali or Lombok in Indonesia should advise them to ensure that they are served only genuine spirits, particularly in cocktails.
Following the death of yet another Australian tourist from drinking a methanol-laced cocktail, at a bar on Gili Trawangan off the island of Lombok, the head of the Bali Tourism Board, Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, said yesterday that tourist restaurants and bars in Bali and Lombok should be closed down if they are known to sell adulterated produce.
Richard Flax, Director of the Emergency Response Service in Indonesia, said that drinks mixed with fruit juice were easy to adulterate. “It isn’t necessarily the local brew arak that is dangerous – any spirit mixed with fruit juice could be risky,” he said.
