see, now you've gotten me all nostalgic and i can't seem to stop with the advice!

i forgot to mention - i'm all about the scooter. a bicycle would be great for getting around gokulam, but with a scoot you can get into town super quickly. no need for a motorcycle unless you plan to go long distances. a lot of people just use rickshaws. but there's nothing quite like scootin' around wearing flipflops and no helmet (although police have started giving tickets for not wearing helmets, so i recommend wearing one when you go out of gokulam). mysore traffic is pretty mellow, and gokulam is an easy place to get used to driving. you can arrange a scoot when you get there.

what to bring? you really don't need anything besides what you'd bring on vacation. gokulam is pretty modern and has lots of amenities - plenty of grocers and pharmacies to buy pretty much anything you need. ganesh at anu's or tina can tell you where to find pretty much anything you can't find on your own. our apartment had all the cookware we needed, but you can buy pots & pans, linens, bath towels for pretty cheap if needed.

you can buy a mat and rug in gokulam if you don't want to carry it with you. i choose to bring my own.

i don't know what the weather is like in the winter, but i think you still may need a sweatshirt or sweater for chilly mornings. some warm clothes for evenings. perhaps some decent clothes for a nice dinner out every once in a while. a pair of jeans. casual, comfy, loose clothes for hot days.

any specific toiletries you need.

earplugs are good to have.

lots of people brought their laptop - good for DVDs and Anu's has wireless. our house was wired for internet.

if you want to be social at all, bring a cell phone that can use an indian SIM card.

bring DVDs and books. you can buy cheap pirated english books on the streets in mysore or borrow books from tina's, but then you're at the mercy of bad copies or what other people have left behind.

plenty of ATMs, so no need for traveler's checks.

bring your own supplies if you think you may have sex - it's such a hush-hush topic in india - never once did i see condoms or lube for sale and i wouldn't even know how to go about finding them without being horribly embarrassed. it may be easier for a man, though.

bring rolling papers if you're a pot smoker.

if you drink and like a specific type of booze, bring it - indian booze is pretty terrible.

you can get clothes made cheaply, but i've heard it's really much better if you have an actual article of clothing for the tailor to copy. some people have tried to have clothes made from catalog photos and they turn out pretty terribly, but i don't know if that's true for men's clothes. in any case, if you have a pair of pants or a shirt you want reproduced bring them with you. and go to krishna tailor - lokesh owns it and he's the sweetest, most helpful man! tell him i sent you and give him a warm greeting from me. other tailors may be a little cheaper, but lokesh is worth it. he's in gokulam, right next to the stand-up tea stall - it's a door with steep steps leading up to his little second-floor workshop.

ok, enough for now!