Abidjan/Lome, Jan 17

Togo. All we saw was this presidential "palace", but it was a sight worth seeing.

We spent the morning in Abidjan where Clinton met with Ouattara, who is trying to stabilize things after their recent civil war. They were nice enough to drop all of the Internet security firewalls for the presidential palace so we could hook up to the web, but it was still an awfully slow connection and I wasn't able to get much out. The comms have been pretty bad throughout the trip -- in most places the blackberry didn't work, longdistance calls drop, etc. I was filing stuff through by text message for most of the day in Liberia.

Anyway after her meeting with Ouattara Clinton made a speedy stop at an NGO, where she watched kids put on a skit about political reconciliation, and then we headed back out to the airport.

Clinton was the first ever U.S. secretary of state to visit Togo, a former French colony without a lot of economic or strategic importance...at least until they were elected to the U.N. Security Council last year.

U.S. officials say they believe the young president, took over on the death of his father one of Africa's "presidents for life", was actually a budding democrat, and Clinton was here to check him out and talk Security Council.

The guy may be a closet George Washington but his palace was 100 percent dictator. Its a huge, newly built colossus, topped by a dome and all done in what looked like red granite. As we pulled up, rows of women cheered and ululated while a little military band piped up.

Inside, weirdly, they still had some Christmas lights up -- all somberly surveyed by what I took to be special presidential guards equipped with red capes and ceremonial swords. They refused to smile.

Clinton went into her meeting and we went to a hold room equipped with blazing fast Internet, cookies, and Guinness. The palace is so new that they hadn't even hung up the artwork yet..it was all sitting in the floor, waiting to go up.

After about an hour Clinton emerged and the president walked her back down the red carpeted hallways, past the guards, and out to the entryway where the women, joined by drummers and dancers, yelled and screamed. You could tell Clinton REALLY wanted to go over to say hello to them, but the whole thing looked a little complicated what with both U.S. security and Togolese security milling around so she decided just to wave.

We got back in the van and back out to the airport -- Lome doesn't seem to have much going on, but they made sure by keeping the roads clear with roadblocks manned by soldiers in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.

Clinton seemed impressed by the president, tho, so I guess he said the right things. A George Washington University graduate, apparently.

Fourteen hours home, with a refueling stop in Cape Verde.

Monrovia Jan 16

This picture does absolutely no justice to the event...but it is the only one I have on my Blackberry.

We were at the 2nd inauguration of Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf today, and it was a doozy. The local grandees were out in force and wearing the most amazing outfits -- towering headscarfs, huge sunglasses, tailored skirts in every color you can think of, slick British-style suits on the men and not a drip of sweat in sight. All them more amazing because it must have been 95 degrees and the inauguration ceremony went on for hours.

I wish I had taken more pictures -- we followed Clinton up the red carpet to the VIP area and all the people were laughing and cheering and reaching out their hands...a hilarious high fashion gauntlet, West Africa style. I'll try to find some more pictures to add.

We got in at around 8:30 in the morning. The small airport is what you might call unpretentious, and the first thing that hits you as you get off the plane is not so much the heat but a very pungent smell. It turns out (perhaps happily, given the potential alternatives) that the smell comes from the huge Firestone rubber works next to the airport compound. Firestone has been a major (if not the major) investor for decades and the airport was apparently built in part to serve its needs. Its a searing, acrid atmosphere and certainly lets the visitor know that things are a little different in Liberia.

The airport is also about an hour out of town. We convoyed in, through lush green scrub and scattered houses. Once you are in Monrovia itself things are a little more built up, but not crowded by any means. It looks, basically, like its been through the wringer which of course it has.

Clinton's trip to West Africa, the first of what she says will be her last year on the job, and her first stop was today's celebration of Johnson-Sirleaf, the only woman head of state in Africa, and a fellow champion of both development and women's rights.

I wonder (and I guess doubt) whether a male U.S. secretary of state would have made the trip, but for Clinton it was a must do: it hits all the themes that she is most passionate about, and perhaps can give a boost to a country that has seen pretty much the worst of everything.

We stopped at the foreign ministry for Clinton's one-on-one with the president, and then headed to the legislature where the inauguration was held outside. There was lots of music, lots of reading of titles, and lots of people crowded around. She took the oath and a series of celebratory cannon bursts were fired...you could feel it in your bones.

Johnson Sirleaf gave a very good speech -- about how Liberia has work to do, but has "turned its face toward democracy". Not hard to see why Clinton is a fan.

It was pretty damn hot tho..and by the time the whole thing was over I was feeling the long overnight flight and the lack of water (we'd been warned not to drink too much before the ceremony because there were no toilets beyond what were described as "Liberian porta-potties" -- not an option). I slept in the van back to the plane, and then we made the short 1 hour flight to Abidjan where we are spending the night.

More on that tomorrow

Rangoon, Dec 2

We're wrapping up the Burma trip. It's been amazing -- we spent the morning at Aung San Suu Kyi's house, where she was under house arrest for close to 20 years.

Its a slightly dilapidated villa on the shores of a large lake, the same one that the American nut swam across several years ago in an attempt to "save" Suu Kyi. There is now a chain link fence topped with barbed wire along the shore line, but the rest of the house looks pretty untouched although Suu Kyi's people said they had been trying to fix it up for Clinton's arrival. The new paintjob seemed to limited to the veranda where she and Clinton made their public remarks.

We arrived before Clinton, whose motorcade came in about 15 minutes after we got there. It was impossible to see Aung San Suu Kyi (well anything except the flower decorating her hair do) as she welcomed Clinton to the house, and then they both went inside.

It was sunny and extremely hot, so we wandered around looking for shade. Along the way I encountered Aung San Suu Kyi's dog (see picture above). The name is unpronounceable and, even tho it looked mighty cute, Suu Kyi's aides said it has a nasty temper.

After their talks the two women -- the most famous female political figures in the world? -- walked around Suu Kyi's garden and then came to the veranda to make their statements. In person you can really see why Suu Kyi is compared to Mandela...she is as beautiful as he is handsome, and just as patrician. She and Clinton held hands as they addressed the media, and both said exactly the right things about democracy, halting rights violations, and making sure that Burma's ethnic conflicts are brought to a close.

After they finished it was an absolute scramble to call in the quotes. We are wrestling with satellite phones here...regular cellphones don't work here ... so every call is a gamble to see if the phone will find the satellite and the call will go through. And you have to call over and over again because the line keeps dropping, so I was dictating essentially a sentence at a time to the Reuters office in Bangkok to get the key quotes in.

We did that in the herky-jerky minibus headed to the ambassador's residence. This is one of the best looking U.S. ambassadorial setups I've seen -- also on a lake, great gardens going down the water, a tennis court, and a lovely house with teak paneling, ceiling fans and simple furniture. Looks like a good place to live.

My friend Neil Hamilton made me smile today with a message saying that he'd heard the design esthetic here is "Myanamarist"...which I guess is true.

The scene here is the view from my hotel window this morning as dawn broke over Rangoon. We haven't been able to see much of the city at all, but at least it looks like a real city unlike the brutal made-to-order capital. In the evening, the Shwedagon Pagoda is lit up in the distance and bars and restaurants twinkle beside the lakes that dot the city. The people seem reserved but friendly, and there were lots of smiles. But I don't think most people really knew who Clinton is or what this visit is all about. The state media has not been playing it very strong (not as strong as their front page story about the visiting prime minister of Belarus!) so they must be mystified as this great screeching motorcade plows through the city.

We are waiting for another Clinton press conference, and then its back on the plane for the 22+ hour trip home. I'm going to try to write up a "reporter's notebook" on the trip to file from our stop in Yokohama.

UPDATE: here's a link to the reporter's notebook piece

Naypyitaw and Rangoon, Dec 1

We're in Rangoon...what a day. Its been long and fascinating -- fighting with sat phones always adds to the frisson.

I'm just adding this now to show a pictures of the Pagoda visit Clinton made this evening before heading off to dinner with Aung San Suu Kyi (their first face to face meeting).

Here's the story I did on it -- I'll try to fill out more detail tomorrow

Security goes barefoot with Clinton in Myanmar

By Andrew Quinn

YANGON (Reuters) - U.S. security went barefoot on Thursday as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured one of Myanmar's most revered shrines, a towering golden pagoda that is the symbol of a country seeking fresh rapprochement with the West.

Clinton arrived at the Shwedagon Pagoda shortly after arriving in Myanmar's main commercial city, Yangon, and took off her shoes to follow respectful Buddhist tradition at a site rich with religious and patriotic significance for the country also known as Burma.

Clinton's U.S. diplomatic security detail quickly followed suit, while barefoot agents in business suits fanned out across the huge complex of spires and Buddha statues, muttering into their radios.

A crowd of tourists and local visitors applauded as Clinton made the rounds, stopping to make an offering of flowers in front of the Gold Buddha statue, one of the centerpieces of the elaborate pagoda site, as well as to pause and hit a huge bell three times with a gold-adorned staff.

"Hitting the bell means she is sharing the merits of today's events for both of our countries," said Phone Myint, one of the tour guides at the shrine which dates back as far as the 6th century.

The visit represented an incongruous mash-up of official Washington, Asian tradition and modern-day tourism, with Clinton and her entire staff of diplomats, advisers and the travelling press all shuffling shoe-less past Buddha statues decorated with neon halos and stalked by feral cats.

The pagoda stop was also one of Clinton's few chances to see anything of modern-day Myanmar, which is implementing tentative political reforms as it seeks to improve ties with Washington after decades of estrangement.

She is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit in more than 50 years, and U.S. officials say they still know little about a country many view as both hermetic and hard to read.

After finishing her pagoda tour, officials handed out moistened towelettes so the U.S. delegation could clean their feet.

Clinton later left her hotel for a dinner at the U.S. charge d'affaires residence with Aung San Suu Kyi, the veteran pro-democracy leader and Nobel peace laureate who has endorsed Washington's outreach to Myanmar's new military-backed civilian leaders.

The pair - arguably the two most famous women in the world - will dine on their own during their first face-to-face meeting, comparing notes on Myanmar's political reforms and the country's halting steps to re-engage with the rest of the world.

Earlier in the day, Clinton got an up-close view of another side of Myanmar, meeting President Thein Sein at his enormous presidential palace in the new capital of Naypyitaw - an almost deserted city established on orders of the former junta several years ago.

Clinton was the first senior U.S. official ever to visit the presidential office, and her car zipped along a deserted, 20-lane highway to reach the complex, a vast concoction of marble and chandeliers set on a bluff and protected by what looked like a moat.

Here's a picture of the palace: you don't really get a sense of how over the top it is, but it is.

Busan, South Korea and Napyitaw, Burma Nov 30

We flew from DC to Busan last night (this morning? it's all a little confused). Clinton was in South Korea to attend a conference on international aid, but the real point of this trip is Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

I've written the story over and over again over the past week or so, but now that it is happening it really DOES feel historic -- the first U.S. secretary of state to visit since 1955, the potential opening of one of the world's most reclusive and at times brutal regimes.

Busan was sort of a wash -- we were exhausted after the 20 hour trip, and the point of the conference (international aid) was worthy but a little dull, at least as far as an international meeting goes. She gave a speech, took a dig at China, which is expanding its own international aid programs but does not follow the same standards when it comes to transparency and accountability, and that was it. Pusan is a good looking place: the world's fifth largest port, lots of new skycrapers around the harbor, and another one of these amazing new Asian bridges that soars across the narrows. But we didn't see much and it was all over so fast.

Then the flight to Burma. Five hours, and everyone was a little edgy. They played the movie "Beyond Rangoon" -- a pretty awful Hollywood offering from a few years ago about a pretty young American woman (of course) caught up in the Burmese pro-democracy demonstrations and ensuing brutal crackdown in 1988. I was nervous all the way because of my rough experience with sat phones in Libya, and wasn't sure how the whole thing would turn out.

Lots of turbulence as we passed into Burmese airspace, and then the descent to the weird new capital of Nyapytaw (I can never spell that right), the new capital that the regime built from scratch about five years ago in the middle of the country because, it is said, the top general got a premonition that the U.S. was going to attack Rangoon.

On the way down we flew past an enormous gold-plated stupa, and then onto the airfield -- which has no terminal, and no lights so we had to arrive before sunset. She came down the staircase to a low-key welcome from a handful of Burmese officials, while photographers snapped pictures standing underneath a huge "welcome banner" -- for the prime minister of Belarus, who arrives tomorrow (!).

The motorcade trundled along a very new but very uneven highway, past rice paddies and construction sites for more of the new ministry buildings which the government is building everywhere even though nobody lives here. At most intersections there were uniformed policemen very solemnly holding up their hands to stop non-existent traffic...there are even fewer cars than people!

We're at the hotel now..It has Internet which is a huge relief. And my sat phone is working. So..so far, so good. Clinton starts her meetings tomorrow

Dushanbe-Tashkent Oct 22-23

The president of Tajikistan had us over to lunch today, which is the first time we've been fed (officially) since the King of Bahrain earlier this year.

After the hectic pace of the past few days, today was a bit better. Clinton's official program didn't start until 10:00 a.m., which at least offered the potential of decent night's sleep. Last night was quiet, and I ordered chicken shashlik from room service -- one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, perhaps just because it was different from the plane food, which has featured turkey at EVERY MEAL this week. We've had turkey sandwiches, turkey chili, turkey lasagna, turkey pasta..it has been weird and, as the week wore on, sort of disgusting. But last night's shashlik was incredible...a hunk of perfectly "wood cooked" chicken, a fantastic salad of tomatos and onions, and that was it. Couldn't have asked for better.

Back to today's schedule: Clinton went to the Ismaili Center, which is one of the organizations funded by the Aga Khan, to hold another one of her "town hall" meetings with local students, activists, NGO workers etc. These are always pretty impressive, mostly because the people asking the questions seem so sophisticated and their questions (usually in very good English, no matter where we go) so earnest. She talked a lot about human rights -- not a strong suit for either the Uzbek or Tajik governments -- and about allowing religious freedom, which both places are trying to suppress because they fear the growth of Islamic militancy. It was a pretty standard Clinton performance, but you can tell she believes what she is saying so it is effective.

We then got back in the vans and drove back through Dushanbe to the "Presidential Dacha" where she was to meet the president, one of a group of authoritarian leaders that has persisted in this corner of the former Soviet Union. I liked the look of Dushanbe in the daytime..it is small, grey, and has a lot of Soviet era architecture. But there are snow capped mountains in the distance and the boulevards are wide.

The dacha was a bit disappointing.....it looked like an 80s modern office building on the outside, complete with mirrored windows. Inside it was all marble and presidential. She met the president, then came out and did a press conference with the foreign minister. His speech really showed you where Tajikistan is politically -- 100 pct apparatchik, stilted, uncomfortable, government-line. By contrast Clinton seemed very human and alive. She delivered the same message about religion and human rights, this time going harder and saying that regional efforts to suppress Islamic worship risked creating the very kind of militants they were out to discourage. The official party then went into lunch with the president, and we were taken to an other part of the dacha where, low and behold, the lunch above awaited. It was pretty good..little roast quail, hunks of mutton and pilaf, and big piles of cucumbers and tomatoes. Nobody was complaining.

We were not able to get Clinton to talk about the "Northern Distribution Network" -- the backdoor route into Afghanistan via Uzbekistan and the other countries in the region. It seems pretty clear to me that that is why she is here, cozying up to these autocrats.

We're in for the evening in Tashkent -- she's off meeting President Karimov, the worst of the bunch.

Islamabad, Oct 20-21

This trip feels like it has gone on for a loooong time...and it isn't over yet. Something about the quick pace, multiple stops and lack of sleep all combines to make it feel like a real trek. It has been really interesting but I am tired!

We arrived in Islamabad from Afghanistan last night. Direct to the Embassy, where they put us up in their version of the container-dorm room "hooches". Not bad. We were back in the regular filing center, in the "community center" next to the embassy pool, where the staff had actually provided a refrigerator full of beer (gratis) which seemed above and beyond the call of duty.

And then we waited. And waited. Clinton, the new CIA director Petraeus and the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs were all in town (an "interagency" intervention with the Pakistanis) and were all going to a dinner with their Pakistani opposite numbers. We were going to get a read-out of the meeting when it finished..which wasn't until 2 a.m. Not what we were looking for, but I can't imagine what it was like for Clinton and the other officials who actually had to think while they were waiting. We were just waiting. Finally Toria Nuland, the State Dept spokesperson, came out and told us that the meeting lasted four hours -- and absolutely nothing else. We could have gone to bed at 9. But that's the way these things work..so back to the hooches, go to bed, try to sleep..and four hours later it is time to get up.

There's something about the cumulative sleep deprivation that makes it fun, in a gruesome sort of way. You have an excuse to be cranky, to sit there with your eyes closed...and everybody else is doing the same thing. The normal rules don't apply.

Except to Clinton, who has to keep on with her packed schedule of meetings. Woke up, had a bowl of cheerios in the little canteen, and then back in the vans to go to the Foreign Ministry where Clinton had a presser with the new, 34-year old Pakistani foreign minister. Islamabad is still such a weird place..it feels suburban and threatening at the same time. There are checkpoints everywhere. And not many people smile (at least when you are riding in a U.S. embassy van).

The presser was ok..Clinton said her piece about how it is crucial that the Pakistanis go after militants, and the Pakistani said they totally agreed but it will take time to "operationalize" the agreement. Huh? Doesn't sound like the message got thru.

There was other stuff..Clinton holding a "town hall" meeting with various Pakistanis at the Serena Hotel in a ballroom that smelled very strongly of lighter fluid (accelerant? you think of that kind of thing in Pakistan)...another media "round table" with Clinton where she revealed that U.S. had had a preliminary meeting with the Haqqani network militants...back to the embassy, she did the "meet and greet"...you get the picture. Tired. In fact I forgot to take a picture until the last minute at the embassy, where I took the above pic of a signpost. Shows you how big the place is.

We are now in Tajikistan, home of the tallest flagpole in the world. More tomorrow.