After talking to Tanja yesterday it was clear that from among the four different plans about what we can do to see each other before the relationship suffers too much – plans I devised during the long ride from Hong Kong to Shanghai (almost 2000 kilometers) – there were only two viable. I was supposed to take the time in the evening and decide what I wanted to do, sort out my priorities. And since I had no time for this yesterday evening as I spent it talking to all the new people I met (there were some very nice Chinese guys in our dorm as well) I had to make the big decision today. I somehow already knew what is the probable final decision but I still had to evaluate all the pros and cons from many points of view. The fact that after quite a long time I was once again among other travelers having fun and sharing experiences didn’t make it any easier.

After spending half a day thinking hard, counting, arguing with myself etc. I came to the final decision. I’ll be going home – at least for the time being. Even though the risk of loosing Tanja was not absolute I could not risk it – I realized I loved her too much for that and even though just a few days ago I would have never had thought that anything or anybody could get me out of my journey at least until I reached Europe. I now decide to go home. However, as I think I mentioned earlier in some of the previous articles, this journey would not make sense without having somebody loving waiting for me at home. This is it, I’m going home.

The plan is to return on my journey maybe next year at least to reach Europe as planned originally. I would fly myself and the bike to Kathmandu and do the rest as planned, which would effectively mean that I would at the end have missed “only” the north and north west of China. I was looking forward very much to ride along the top of the Tibetan plateau and then across the Takla Makan Desert in Tarim Basin to the Himalayas and cross the exotic border to Pakistan on Karakorum Highway in the elevation of about 4500 meters, especially after I was let into China on my bike against any expectations, but it is not meant to happen - not this time anyway. I can still see the border at least from one side when I’ll ride the Karakorum highway from the Pakistani side.

I started to phone shipping companies that would potentially be able to ship my bike home but lots of those don’t speak English at all and others can’t do it. I’ll be trying again tomorrow.

I spent the evening walking some more through the city with Igor. The contrast between old and new is really amazing at places. Photos from today are spread through this article and you can find more in my photo album.