When I called Lili in the morning she informed me that her friends in Shenzhen were away but that she was still waiting for pricing for a truck to take my bike through. I was going to call her again in an hour. When I did she told me that the price was 200 Australian dollars one way. With my budget I could not accept the offer. However, she told me that her family really wanted me there and that her mother is more than happy to pay for the transport. Of course I could not accept! However, she informed me that the truck was actually already waiting for me at the border. I could not refuse now, after she went into all this trouble. We will have to come up with some solution that all of us will be happy with as far as the money is concerned. Lili’s father works in the industry so the way back might be cheaper.

When I arrived to the border I found that it was a car towing truck. I had to put the bike on the towing arm and was really unsure if that was safe enough for the bike. The likable driver assured me in very broken English that he has already done that once before…

As expected getting through the border was much easier this time. However, once we were through and on our way, my fears were confirmed when the bike disappeared from the rear view mirror while we were moving. After we stopped we discovered that it fell forward and was now lying on the towing arm. We lifted it up and to my happiness (as much as I could be happy after a very bed personal news I received today morning before I left for Hong Kong) it was all right. As we continued driving I was thinking how virtually indestructible the bike is. It has survived so much already without any major harm. As I’m thinking about this there is an intersection with first lights. The signal changed from green to red just as we were approaching. If I was the driver I would still go considering the package at the back, but I wasn't and the real driver braked and sure enough, the braking was heavy enough for the bike to take a second dive. This time I could clearly hear how it was being dragged behind the truck on the bitumen. “Great! L” I thought as I was hastily getting out of the truck to asses the damage. This time the break lever was bent enough to be unusable, the fuel tank had a few dints and the paint was off at couple of places and one of the plastic handlebars hand protector was torn from it and stayed in my hand as I touched it. A considerable thickness of the side wall of my additional side tank was shaven off too. “I knew this was going to be a trouble..” I thought to myself now really unhappy.

After arriving into Lili’s father’s work place they took me for lunch to a canteen, after which we sat there and they drank beer. Then the father took me to a car and motorbike wreckers to find myself a new brake lever. The problem was that he didn’t tell me before (as he basically can’t speak any English) and so I didn’t take the old lever with me. In any case I had a spare one with me so we could go. Lili told me that her mother wanted to have me there as soon as possible. She took a day off only for me so I was really eager to be there soon. However, we didn’t move from the wreckers for at least another hour since the people are Lili’s father’s friends and so I had to wait until another beer (or a couple, I’m not sure) was drank.

The ride to Lili’s place looked according to the number of beers her father had to have drunken that day already – it was very fast with heavy braking and I was thinking to myself how stupid it would be to be killed in a car when I’ve been driving a motorbike for the last 21 thousand kilometers at many dangerous places and was still fine.

Amazingly we arrived unharmed and after Lili’s unbelievably caring mother took all my clothes and started washing them Lili and her boyfriend – Gary – took me for my first walk through the famous Hong Kong shopping malls. They are also both very caring. They were trying to help me with getting my cell phone that I bought in Australia unlocked to be able to use local SIM cards.

We were invited for dinner to her father’s favorite restaurant and spend the rest of the evening at home, where I could, for the first time in China, properly use Internet.