I have a packing list* that I put together years ago. I'll use that as a kind of template, and then modify what actually goes into the bag based on this year's contingencies.
For example, I'll take even fewer clothes than usual this time because I am planning to stock up on salwal/kameez the minute I set foot on Indian soil. I may actually take a taxi from the airport to Fabindia, just to get myself what I need for my first day.
For the rest, I'm out of avoidance mode and into getting roughly one packing/organizing thing a day done. Yesterday, for example, I bought a pair travel capri pants. Airplane travel requires TOTAL comfort, on the feet, around the waist and across the shoulders. Fashion be damned, if necessary.
Friday, I had a visit to the doctor to stock up on drugs. I got my regular prescriptions for allergies and acid reflux in a two-month packet, as well as sleeping, diarrhea antibiotics, and nasty-pain meds. I'm not doing special shots. I'm not going anywhere where there's cholera or hepatitis rampant. I can get shot there if I need to.
In fact, the general rule is: You can get it there. Don't bother schlepping it. So: Shampoo, hand lotion, hair dye (it is two months, after all...you think this red hair is God-given? Ha!) and even a cell phone-- all this is available in India/Nepal for cheaper and more adapted to the ways of the land.
*While you're at the road, the road, check it out. It's the first book completely online, made for the internet, that I had ever heard of. I thought I'd invented the genre. Probably not, but still, a great exercise.
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