Forced Seat Swap To Ticketless Bus Ride: Internet Outraged Over Indian YouTuber's Behaviour in China Vlog

An Indian YouTuber has found herself at the center of a heated controversy after her travel blog about documenting her journey in China went viral. In the video, Jyoti Malhotra, a travel vlogger, is seen flouting local regulations and making racist remarks while documenting her trip from Shanghai to Beijing. The vlog shows her travelling on a high-speed train, hopping on a stranger’s scooter and boarding two buses without following any rules, causing inconvenience to everyone she encountered along the way.

The video begins with Malhotra boarding a high-speed train, only to discover that she did not get a window seat. She promptly asks a fellow passenger whom she calls “Cheeni Bhai,” to swap seats with her. The visibly confused passenger obliges and moves to the middle seat.

Later in the vlog, Malhotra attempts to secure a ride across an intersection from a woman on a two-wheeler. The woman explains to Malhotra that she was headed to the other direction but the vlogger kept on persisting to drop her. Eventually, the woman seeks help from a police officer to make Malhotra understand but she continues to record the video while speaking in Hindi.

The video also captures Malhotra boarding a bus and ignoring the driver’s request to purchase a ticket. She heads straight to her seat and later tries to disembark at a traffic signal, arguing with the driver and pointing to her destination. The driver informs her that the bus only stops at designated drop locations.

Throughout the video, Malhotra makes several condescending remarks about the local people. She continues to speak in Hindi or English, languages not understood by the people she interacts with further exacerbating the situation.

Although Malhotra posted the travel vlog on her YouTube channel about a month ago, it went viral when the video featuring excerpts from her 35-minute vlog was recently posted on X. The caption read, “High caste youtuber in Ask for a window seat in a commanding tone. Forcibly boarded the old lady’s scooter without consent & asked her to travel in the opposite direction. Forcibly stopped a moving bus, took the bus without a coin (twice),& asked the driver to stop at a non-station place.”

Malhotra’s behaviour left the internet fuming with numerous users lashing out in the comment section.

One user remarked, “Disgusting behavior by an Indian woman!! This is price people in China, Taiwan, US, UK and Europe will pay for writing thousands of media articles about how Indian women are getting oppressed and raped by patriarchy. Does she look like an oppressed woman?” while another added, “Completely pathetic behaviour.”

A person commented “Boorish behaviour. Getting second-hand embarrassment watching this!”

Another user wrote, “This is so annoying! The arrogance. She’s not even respecting them. And is she talking in Hindi? So typical! She’s lucky that they are being courteous.”

The video posted on X has received over 1.6 million views so far.