This Gizmodo post about the different plugs in use around the world is both informative and hilarious. I liked this bit a lot:

You know how the British had control over India for, like, ninety years? Well, along with exporting cricket and inflicting unquantifiable cultural damage, they showed the subcontinent how to plug stuff in, the British way! Problem is, they left in 1947. The BS 1363 plug - the new one - wasn't introduced until 1946, and didn't see widespread adoption until a few years later. So India still uses the old British plug, as does Sri Lanka, Nepal and Namibia. Basically, the best way to guess who's got which socket is to brush up on your WW1/WW2 history, and to have a deep passion for postcolonial literature. No, really.

It's always fun to take a trip that involves both the UK and the continent; you need two different plug adaptors (and, coming from North America, you also need a converter for everything but laptop bricks). Makes your bag even heavier...

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