A UK-based travel vlogger known as ‘Backpacker Ben’ has sparked a discussion online after sharing what he described as an “awful” experience on an Indian Railways journey. In a video shared on Instagram, Ben said a series of incidents during the trip left him deeply uncomfortable.
In the clip, the vlogger recorded a man sitting in front of him repeatedly placing his feet on his seat despite multiple requests to stop. “This guy next to me keeps putting his foot on my chair. I have asked him a couple of times politely, please don’t do that, and he smiles, and two minutes later he puts his foot back on my chair,” Ben said.
He further stated that the situation took a turn for the worse when another man spat on him while he was walking past. “Some person spat on my arm when he went past. He was chewing his cucumber thing, and he looked at me and said something. It went all on my arm, a big gob of it,” he said.
(Also Read: French tourist in India left traumatised by 46-hour train journey: ‘I want to go home’)
Social media reactions
The video has divided the internet. While some blamed the passengers, others blamed the traveller for not choosing an upper-class compartment.
“Its funny that people blame the creator instead fixing the problem, its not about cheap or expensive. ‘Cheapest’ train in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan isnt like this. Its lowkey they normalize this behaviour and consider it as part of culture i guess,” one user wrote.
“Instead of criticising and improving, the commenters chose to defend this. If this happened in China or Japan, there would’ve been outrage over poor behaviour and infrastructure, and the government would take strict action if they wanted to remain in power,” commented another.
“Putting legs on the seats isn’t right, but I’m just wondering why you’re travelling in a local train compartment,” a third user questioned.
“Why not just spend like $5-10 and you can have your own nice space Haha just decided to go the cheap option for content so u could complain,” one user said.
“You’re complaining about the local compartment, but you chose it. There are perfectly good AC coaches and standard compartments available. You could’ve spent a little extra and travelled comfortably, but instead you went for the cheapest option just to complain? Interesting strategy,” commented another.
