Downloading Photos on the go

Are internet cafe's ok to download your photos? People keep telling me there could be viruses in an internet cafe where I could lose all my photos - not sure how true this is?

Internet cafes are not very safe BUT if you protect your memory card but using the Write disable LOCK slider (on the side of the SD card) you won't pick up any viruses. If your camera uses xD-Picture Card then you are out of luck as this type of memory card does not have a lock. I'm not sure about the Sony Memory Stick as I have never used one.

Also I have heard of dropbox to back your photos up to... do you have to have this downloaded to the computer though?

You just need to go to Dropbox.com and sign up. You only get 2GB space as part of the free account which will not be enough if you shoot lots of photos so you will need to pay for the service (50GB for USD$9.99/month). To use without installing it on a computer, simply go to dropbox.com and login which will show your storage folders in the Dropbox cloud. Then copy the files on your memory card to Dropbox. Note that the copy speed will be dependent on the internet cafe's upload speed which generally are NOT as fast as the download speed so be prepared to wait for the uploads to finish.

I have also read that internet cafes can burn your photos to cd's to send home, I am just concerned that as my photos are quite large, is this actually viable

CDs can hold 700MB if you have more than this, they will burn multiple CDs for you. Alternativley, ask if they can also burn DVD as this stores 4GB.

Good luck!

Even if someone does not shoot too much upload of files via internet in that part of the world often is painfully slow. Too slow in fact to consider online storage as back-up.
Anything involving a net cafe is a no-no to me, you might be able to write protect your card but not the device you put the back-up on - be it DVD or USB stick or whatever.

Photo storage devices are a great solution in my opinion as they allow direct download from your memory card to the hard drive, independent from net cafes and even power source (as long as the inbuild battery lasts). Disadvantage is price as they cost a bit, but them it is a one time investment, mine have given me sterling service since about 4 years. See recent topic:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2173433

You need a netbook or laptop if you want to upload as you go - we were often able to upload photos at night while we were sleeping if wifi worked in our room. Only places we couldn't do this was Laos and Thai islands.

Over a long trip the netbook will pay for itself as you won't be paying for internet cafes.

Thanks all so much for your replies! Lots to think about... quite interested in the storage devices as quite small to carry around and don't need the internet!
Tools4fools... I have spoken to a friend about these and he has said:
"I used to have a Epson P4000 one of the storage devices mentioned, but it was slow.
The new ones are a little better but again your swapping from SD/CF cards to Hard disk which is susceptible to knocks/water etc.." His suggestion is just buying more CF cards... I am concerned about backing the photos up though so I have them in 2 places...
Could you let me know from your experience how easily these are to break if knocked etc? I would be carrying it around with me a lot in a bag, so I suppose it could get knocked... the water thing is the same to me as my camera... I obviously wouldn't let my camera near water.. .(haven't thought about monsoons etc if it were to get wet in my bag - could get a waterproof bag though!)

OP if you are really concerned about water, get a waterproof bag (like a kayakers bag see exmplese here).

You are worrying unnecessarily.

I use Lowe pro camera bags, they come with a rain cover. Never had a problem with rain, inside the bag humidity might be on the high side at times but this over cause any probs.

I carry two nexto drives, similar to the hyperdrive in the link above but without colour screen.
Never had it to fail if the past 4 years, I used them on many trips and this included a motorbike trip covering 4000km in Laos, the vast majority on bumpy dirt roads.
Download speed are good on hyperdrive and nexto, about 1gb per minute, some of the newer models being even faster.

As you don't shoot too much really you could go with extra memory cards indeed, but this way you get only one set of images, no back-up.

Personally I recommend such a back up drive, its a bit expensive but a term good and lasting investment. That way you easily can back up your images while on the go.
Mine is often purring and downloading images inside my bag while I keep on shooting.

Btw, just read up a bit on the internet and found that you can actually put a SSD drive into a standard nexto drive instead of a hard drive.

I've been away from home for work, but expect my Sanho Hyperdrive Colourspace to be waiting for me when i get home next week, so I can report on it then.

Thanks all for the info! Much appreciated! I am not very techie... so not too sure about Hardrive vs. SSD drive! Can I swap this over myself? I read that SSD has less moving parts etc so guessing this is better?
Phimeow - I know I am worrying... this is only my photography questions... ha ha! :)
Justin23 - Look forward to hearing your reports!!