Vanessa Betts is a writer and editor from England. She went to India in 1997, as the first stop on a round-the-world ticket, and then found out that nowhere else could quite compare. After time spent living and working in Australia, Egypt and England she has been based in India, chiefly in Kolkata, since March 2006. Vanessa now lives in Israel where she's updating Footprint's new guide to the country. South India-born and raised in the vibrant suburbs of Peterborough, writer and photographer David Stott acquired his taste for India in the womb. At the age of 28 he finally discovered the variety and diversity of flavours at which butter chicken had merely hinted and since his first visit he's become an annual visitor to India, steadily learning to tell his chole from his bhature and establishing a serious addiction to masala dosas along the way. David now splits his time between India and his adopted home in vibrant suburban Sydney, where the pace of life is such that he occasionally has to pinch himself to make sure he's awake.

Introduction; Essentials; Kolkata (Calcutta); West Bengal; Sikkim; Northeastern Hill States; Orissa; Northwest of Kolkata; Andaman & Nicobar Islands; Background; Footnotes.