I just returned from my backpacking trip. So here are my tips... If you are using your own laptop, an effective firewall, a patched system, and the use of SSL is all you need. Since you are posting on Slashdot, I assume you are capable of keeping your own laptop clean and secured. In reality the risk of someone stealing your laptop is much higher than the risk of anyone breaking into your laptop, so... 1) Some sort of chains/locks on your backpack is much more important than a VPN. 2) Do not store any password, sensitive documents on your laptop. In case it will be stolen later.. 3) Keep backup of important documents (e.g. scan copy of your travel insurance) in a gmail account... 4) Do not keep all your vacation photos in one laptop, copy it to CD/DVD/cheap USB devices and send it home every few months. 5) Bring a USB drive and backup everything on your harddrive (including your vacation photos), store the USB drive in a different location (e.g. inside your main backpack) If you are really desperate and have to access your bank in an internet cafe, here's what you can do... 1) To make it harder for key loggers to steal your password, scramble your url/password using your mouse. e.g. if your password is ILovePizza, you can type IHatePizza, highlight the word "Hate" with your mouse, click delete and type "Love" instead. It's not 100% secured, but it's better than nothing. 2) As soon as you reach a safe location, change your password.

Some historical facts... 1721 China Invaded Tibet 1848 US Invaded California & New Mexico.... So China occupied Tibet a bit longer than US occupied California, in fact, longer than the whole history of US. (Tibet was kind of independent from 1911 to 1950, but was reinvaded by China again on 1950) Even minus the 40 years of independence, China still occupied Tibet more than the US occupied California & New Mexico... I'm not saying such occupation is a good thing though. And it certainly doesn't mean Tibetans don't have the right to ask for independence. I'm just saying that if you really care about the Tibetans, you may want to read their history and your own history...