A video of a backpacker has gone viral after she refused to remove her feet from the seat next to a fellow passenger’s head.
While travelling recently from Bangkok to Sukhothai province in northern Thailand, Narong Thaopanya, was horrified when the bus passenger behind him put her feet onto the seat next to him and refused to remove them.
The 21-year-old filmed the incident and posted it on social media.
Thaopanya said he was overcome by a rancid smell from the moment the fellow bus-goer sat down behind him and put her "sweaty socked" feet on the headrest of the chair beside him.
He politely asked the woman to remove her feet, however, he claims she refused to listen, stared back at him, and put her feet back up on the seat.
“This woman’s face was beautiful but she had no manners,” he reportedly wrote on social media.
“The smell from her feet was filling the whole bus – it was hot and made me feel sick, because her feet were next to my head."
"I asked her many times to put her legs on the ground and she would not do it. She just kept them in the air.
"Somebody will have to use the seat and put their head where her dirty feet have been."
Of course, this is not the first time travelers have been called out for their inconsiderate behaviour on public transport.
Last year, Boston Globe columnist Dante Ramos tweeted an image of a woman’s ponytail flung over the back of her airplane chair. While this might have been very comfortable for her, her long hair obstructed the view of Ramos’ partner’s screen.
Top Comments
This is particularly offensive behaviour in Thailand where it is impolite for someone to even touch your head with their hands unless you are very close. Pointing your feet, which are considered the lowest and dirtiest part of your body, at people, or putting them on a pillow or head rest is just not on. People should be required to read about manners and etiquette in any country they want to visit and their visa should be dependant on them being able to pass a test about their understanding of those manners.
The people in the examples above are displaying rude, antisocial behaviour for sure. But this trend of putting it all online worries me. These are minor offences & should be dealt with by airline staff.
Where is it all going? Are we entering a time when all our moments of rudeness lead to us being publicly shamed, sometimes even horrendously bullied & harassed? How rude is rude enough to deserve the public shaming treatment? Who decides? Haven't we all done something at least once we'd be ashamed to have splashed across facebook?
Who can honestly say they've never littered, for example?
Personally, I'm a bit over people " going public" with ever minor complaint.
At least these photos don't contain identifying images of people's faces, I suppose.