The city called Agra has a special meaning to me, because a big bass clarinet solo in one of the movements of the Far East Suite  is called after Agra. In that city there is the Taj Mahal, a world famous monument with incomparable beauty. And we’re going to visit it!Of course I hope that, by seeing the Taj Mahal, I get a new perspective which will help me to play the solo even better. Just outside the city of Agra a man enters the bus jolly introduces himself as our host for the day. We didn’t expect him of course, but he assures us that he will not charge us any costs, because we are his guests. By the way, his name is Cash. I don’t care, as long as he tells me everything I need to know about the Taj. The bus brings us to a parking place where we change to another bus which drives on electricity. This is for not damaging the building. It brings us to the gate, where we are attacked by the local population who also wants to help us, but, pity them, we already have a guide. Cash tells us about the origin of the Taj Mahal: built as a Mausoleum in the 17^th century, etc., etc. The marble is etc., etc. I absorb everything he says and wonder if I ever saw anything more beautiful than this. The Taj Mahal changes colour several times a day and even after a shower it seems to have a special beauty.   “The Taj Mahal has many faces”,  Cash concludes his story. We comfortably sit down and watch the building for almost an hour. We see a group of monkeys walk across the square, a small boat on the river as the Taj changes color in the sunset.During the five hour car drive back to Delhi I wonder if my solo will have changed. Jelte

 During the first days of tour in India we stay in a hotel which is situated on the side of a beautiful park in Delhi. It is a perfect way to get a smooth introduction to the Indian way of life. In the middle of the park there is a mausoleum from the 17^th century, around that there are trees and stretches of grass. Indian people are taking a nap, reading a book or just chit-chat. The most beautiful bird sounds make the image complete.  It’s peace man!  We haven’t got a lot of time in Delhi but there is time enough to visit The Red Fort, one of the touristic sites. A rikshaw should take me there in half an hour. The broad lanes get narrower and the traffic more chaotic as we approach the city centre. I showed my driver a picture of my destination so I’m sure he’ll take me to the right place. Meanwhile all kinds of transportation are fighting for priority. The bigger, the better and also a big horn will help. It’s a way of enforcement.The way back to the hotel is tricky, because how to choose a reliable rikshaw driver when everybody looks reliable. Of course a get a lot of help, but I don’t get the impression that  the people know the address of our hotel which I wrote on a piece of paper. What doesn’t help either is the fact that I don’t recognize a thing.  It’s the same every time I visit a new city: My eyes see so many new things that the only things I seem to remember are moving objects and big advertisements. Not very handy for a reliable sense of direction. To me everything looks alike. Just after a few days my eyes seem to relax and I’m starting to recognize details. As for now: the driver does his best and after a lot of questioning he brings me to the gate. I’m remembering the entrance.  Greetings, jelte       

At the moment we’re in Guangzhou where we are doing four concerts at the Sun Yat Sen University.We are flying home after Guangzhou and I want to buy some presents for my family, so it’s now or never. Luckily we had some free time yesterday morning to visit the city centre. There is one thing I learned about cities in China and that is that every part of the city is specialized in one type of shops. There is the street where you can buy new spectacles. That street is close to the part of town where the plumbers do their work.  So when your eyes are fine and so is your water supply system, you’re in the wrong part of town, which was in the beginning my case. But wherever you are, you have to keep looking, because you can see the most extraordinarily things. The contrasts are big. In front of the tool shop there are people sitting and eating. That is because it’s the terras belonging to the restaurant next door. There was also a beautiful shop window with all kinds of pastry. His neighbor was the butcher who just cut a dog into two pieces and emptied the upper half. I don’t think the Chinese care about these things. Luckily for me after passing the tool shops there was the district with small galleries with Chinese paintings. Greetings, Jelte

Yesterday we had a day off in Zhenjiang , and because Irene (one of our tour managers) had told us about some touristic sites, we decided to visit the old part of the city, which was supposed to be an example of how Chinese cities were in the old days. But we’re still musicians, so first things first: coffee. This caused us some delay, because the Chinese make such a big ritual of the coffee making. Compared to the coffee ritual, making Chinese tea is peanuts.  Anyway, after one and a half hour or so we took a taxi again and than I did something very rude: while opening the backdoor, I meanwhile pulled out the complete handle of the door. If the taxi driver reads this: I really apologize, I didn’t do it on purpose, but did I really do that? (I don’t want to complain about the taxies, because they bring us everywhere, dead or alive!). This taxi brought us to the Zaanse Schans of Zhenjiang: I loved it! You could look inside the old Chinese homes, where the old Chinese people were still living. There was an old man destroying an old chair to make some wood for the stove. Another old man was reading the newspaper in the middle of the street. But the most beautiful image was this old woman clipping the nails of her husband: real Chinese love. Greetings from China,Jelte