Hi folks,

I'm in need of some advice/encouragement. After a few tough years my girlfriend and I have decided to follow our dream and start a new life on the other side of the planet. We both worked really hard and sacrificed a bit to follow it. So here's the dream; ship our bike to SE Asia, travel around for 6 months experience as much of the culture as possible, then start our lives afresh in Australia. We've been saving for the past few years and should have about 12k between the the both of us by the time we plan to finally go in March 2013.

Now here's the reality; I've budgeted about 3k to cover the cost of shipping the bike to SE Asia and then into Oz.
My bike is a Honda Transalp XL700 worth about 4.5K. I've just been reading up on Carnet de Passages and it is looking like this is gonna cost me a bond of 150% the price of the bike's value i.e £6,750. Meaning that when I take this into account we'll have about 50p to spare to travel around SE Asia and then start our new live in Oz.

It is now looking increasing likely that in order to be able to afford travelling around SE Asia for 6 months then starting up again in Australia I will have to sell my bike. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my girlfriend very, very much but my bike - I just cannot bear thinking about leaving her! Is there any way of getting around selling my bike. Note: I have already tried selling my girlfriend.