Halloween in Bali

Feeling back to normal and surfed the main reef yesterday for a few hours. Received a cut worthy of stitches, and urchin spins in my foot. Butterfly bandage and some crazy Asian antiseptic worked just as well. A new guest at the house, who just happens to be a ER doctor back in Seattle, said it looks ok and I shouldn't have any issues going back in the water this afternoon. The spines aren't deep and will work themselves out.

Went out for Halloween last night. It's a pretty big deal here too. We started off a small club Eric's friend owns. It's the only bar in Bali the does punk and hardcore shows I guess. The guy who owns it, Jarinks ('Drinks'), is obsessed with Social D. The topic of bands came up and I asked him if he knew of Himsa. Turns out he's a big fan and has all their music, but missed them when they were on their last Asia tour. When I told him I knew some of the guys in the band he wanted to hear some crazy stories about hanging out with them. He read in trade mags that they party pretty hard. I think he was bummed when I told him D couldn't hold his liquor and I have to occasionally hold his hair back for him when he gets sick.

At about the 5th or 6th club, and 12th vokda and soda, I got separated from our crew. I had no clue where I was and had a taxi take me back to downtown Kuta so I could find my scooter. I started to make my way back and ran into a few Aussie guys we were hanging out with earlier. They had no idea how to get back to Canggu, but told me a story of how they got in a taxi and when they found out it was a rouge taxi they had to jump out while it was still moving. When one was making his escape some chick on a scooter plowed right into the door. They ran the other way and never looked back.

I made it back to Canggu around 4am and only took one wrong turn. I still haven't heard from Eric.

There's a traffic cop on the corner taking bribes from tourists driving with international license so I'm going to have find another way home if I want to surf before sundown. I've been lucky so far and have avoided being stopped, but I was in the car when Britt was driving and had to cough up 100,000 rp. ($10.00 US). She's had been stopped a bunch of times so she was negotiating the bribe before the cop had a chance to harass her. Wish me luck.