I have used GRIC through Earthlink/Mindspring at various cities in Southeast Asia (HK, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) and it worked every time.

Even though I have DSL at home, I have maintained a $6.95/mo account with Earthlink/Mindspring (good for up to 5 hours a month) in order to use GRIC when I'm travelling overseas. I understand that they have since then discontinued the $6.95/5-hour plan.

Basically, you get a "Global Roaming Dialer" application which lists the various countries and cities where you can connect by calling a local number.

In my experience, the connection speed has been usually ~24k. Cost is $0.10/minute (in addition to any local toll charges your hotel may impose).

Bottom line... it's OK for checking email and light web surfing but could be expensive for extended web surfing. I much prefer to stay at a hotel that offers high-speed access.