The deaths of six foreign tourists linked to a suspected mass methanol poisoning has thrown a spotlight on a small town in Southeast Asia that has worked hard in recent years to shed its reputation for excess.

Two Danish backpackers who died in a mass poisoning in Laos messaged a friend to say they had been vomiting blood for hours before they went eerily silent, and were later found deceased.

Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was one of a number of people taken to hospital after the incident in the popular backpacking town of Vang Vieng last week