When travelling abroad you might consider to take a set of different power and phone plugs with you. Also, it's useful if you can change the input voltage of the power supply, for instance from 110V in the US to 220V in Germany. There also power supplies for 12V batteries from cars.
Some models of power plugs:
____ _
/ () \ _ _ _ _ _(_)_
frontal view: |() ()| (_)=(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)
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abbrevation.: C13 C8 ?? PS/2 C5
symbol......: ?? ?? -O)- N.N. N.N.
Though some -O)- shaped plug may seem to be compatible with your laptop, because of the appropriate physical size, take extreme care it uses the same plus-minus voltage scheme, for instance plus for the inner ring and minus for the outer one. Often, but not always, there are the appropriate symbols near the plug.
More about laptop and PDA power supplies at TuxMobil.