2016.
According to travel blogs, not too long ago, Vang Vieng in Laos used to be a haven for party-goers. Tubing in Vang Vieng, especially, had gained as much popularity as the full-moon parties on Koh Phangan, Thailand. Some 400 tourists would go on the tubes everyday, getting drunk on Lao whiskey and buckets of cocktails at the bars lining the river.
And then, there started to be horror stories about deaths of drunk tourists drowning in the river or knocking their heads on rocks when attempting to rope swing into the water. Around 20 deaths were reported each year, but nobody knew for sure if there were actually more, because of the lack of press coverage on the matter.
