I use xrdp (google xrdp scarygliders for a bleeding edge version) and Jump Desktop, which does RDP over SSH without fuss. Latency over a 3G connection is low enough for coding.

I have the a Vagrant template for setting this up here:

https://github.com/rcarmo/vagrant-templates

...all you need to do is read the Vagrantfile. I use the vagrant-lxc plugin to set up and tear down these environments on Digital Ocean.