Mumbai Central...our first India train station experience.

Trying to describe what a train station in India is like is almost impossible. They are hands down one of the most fascinating places on earth. You can stand in one place for 5 minutes and you would see thousands of people coming and going, people going to the bathroom on the tracks, children crawling on the ground begging, people laying around sleeping, etc, etc, etc. Are first experience with an Indian train station was Mumbai Central. We took a wild cab ride (almost hit 4-5 pedestrians) from the Colaba area of Mumbai to the train station. From the outside it does not look that much different then any other train station around the world. This impression was quickly diminished the moment we stepped inside. It felt like 120 degrees, there were people everywhere and the sights and sounds of people coming and going were overwhelming. We ended up just finding a place to sit to try and digest it all. After a few moments we simply fell asleep on our bags from exhaustion. About an hour before the train departed the officials came and posted a list of passengers and assigned berths. This whole process was quite fun as I got to join the mob of locals trying to read the list. It felt pretty funny to be the only westerner among a whole group of Indians pushing my way through to read the postings. We eventually made it on our night train to Delhi and said goodbye to Mumbai. By the end of our time in India train stations were one of our favorite places to hang out but our first experience with Mumbai Central will be one we will never forget.