Victoria Terminus – The Heart of Mumbai

Located in the heart of Mumbai India is the incredible “Victoria Terminus” train station. This is the busiest station in all of Asia and one minute in this place will bring your senses to their knees. The outside of the terminis is a mix between classical European and gothic architecture. I have never seen a building that looked even remotely close to this. Lindsay and I took a few minutes admiring the outside and then ventured inside. We were immediately meet with what seemed to us to be complete caos (although it was actually quite organized). Thousands of people coming and going with trains arriving and departing every minute. The most fascinating people to watch are the businessmen who take the suburban trains in/out of the city everyday. These trains are filled to the brim with riders who are just hanging out the doors…literally hanging on for dear life (you can find videos on youtube of men falling out of these trains when they loose their grip). Because space is a premium the business men start running and will jump on these trains before they are fully stopped in the station. During one of our last nights in India we went to this station, stood on the overhead catwalks and watched the commuters come and go for hours! We were mezmorized by the scene in front of us. To this day when we talk about our trip to India we always bring up this experience. You would think that watching people come and go at a train station would get old…but not at the Victoria Terminis in Mumbai, India.