I bought a cheap DVD player in Walmart, went to http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks and hey presto, my player is now multi region.

It's really not worth bringing your electrical stuff here (apart from maybe a laptop), just to echo what everyone else has said.

The best current cheapo player available right now in my humble opinion is the Philips DVP-3962, available at WalMart for under $40, plays everything including Divx/Xvids, MPEG-ISO DVDs, MP3, JPG, etc. It has no problem whatsoever with all the PAL disks you brought with you from Blighty. It also has upscaling and HDMI output for linking digitally to your flat screen TV.

It's also region free-able in about 30 seconds with a simple keypress procedure using the supplied remote, instructions on the website linked in the post above mine.