Believe it or not, and you don't have to ( I wouldn't). There is a place in Hong Kong where you can watch a good cat fight.
This was many years ago while I was on deployment in the Navy. Go ahead and judge me you won't be the first or the last.
For the life of me I don't remember how I got there. I can tell you it was several hours of bad choices off the beating path to get to this hole in the wall. More like a warehouse on a dock, but hey looks can be deceiving right?
It didn't have the atmosphere of those clubs in Wanchai, it felt more like a cross between an all you can eat buffet and a fight club. Granted this started out as a pub crawl and ended up as a private tour of the "real" Hong Kong from what I can only guess was a gender neutral philanthropist that was moonlighting as some sort of business person. I know thats vague, but i'm trying really hard to be nice. Let's call him Sal, it was however hard for me not to call him Sally due to his/her laugh and designer silk pant suit. Very accommodating person, of course I was on liberty for the first time in several months and had a lot of money to spend. Best friends right?
Sal walks us into this paper lantern lit establishment where we are met by several people who obviously knew Sal and announced in mandarin that our party had arrived. Funny thing I noticed was that the people who entered in front of us were frisked for weapons. I expected the same treatment but nope... then the people who entered behind us were also frisked... A little odd but I just went with it. I thought we were there to eat, everything smelled amazing and I was hungry.
We walked past the main dinning area to a bar-style table that seemed to be reserved for us. Sal was clearly a regular and well respected. After the Pub crawl and my new unfamiliar surroundings I thought it would be a good idea to sober up a bit, so I asked for some coffee. What I got was coffee alright.. coffee and baijiu. My throat closed slightly. Sal just smiled and said in broken english; "good right?" Basically Chinese fire water with a high proof. Fortunately it had an toffee after taste and I was able to get some nice oily duck breast to coat my stomach. The waitress was nice enough to bring me some water after a coughing spell. At last I felt as though I could raise the sail for a second wind.
Sal had a very graceful yet commanding presence in this place. Not at all the demeanor from earlier directing the pub crawl. Here, Sal was waited on like a VIP or owner. Several people approached the table and were turned away by Sal. I really wish I knew how to speak Mandarin at this point. The curtains on the wall next to our table pulled back to show there was no wall... there was a large circular pit at least 20 feet across and equally deep. Around the circle were tables just like ours with people who were have their plates cleared. Waiters brought out huge ceramic jugs of baijiu and little ceramic drinking bowls.
"Ganbei!" That could only mean bottoms up... There had to be over a hundred people in the room drinking at the same time~ in a split second of near silence you could hear the crowd moaning over the "Sauce" everyone was pouring into their heads. I could feel this swelling excitement rise up in me because I literally had no idea what I had just gotten myself into. In the last moment of that shot of sauce a loud gong sounded, and shouting started like brokers on wall street.
There were bets being placed! I looked at Sal who was just smiling again (no help) I looked down in the pit and saw two opposing doors that were glassed in, and just started laughing... You have got to be kidding me! There were cats! Now I kinda understood why Sal was smiling. There was a large TV screen where you could see the bets being placed. Most were being placed on the tabby cat and almost none on the black cat.. Sal asked me if I wanted to make a bet on the lucky cat. I said I want to bet on the black cat. Sal's eyes got big. "Oh, Are you sure?" I laughed and said you have been so kind and haven't let me pay for anything. I turned to the waiter to my right who was taking the bets and gave him $485 HK dollars which was about half of my cash at the moment. I did have a 1 once gold bar in my boot that I picked up in Dubai 3 months earlier but that's another story.
The gong sounded again. This time I'm sure it meant that the last bet was booked. More Sauce was poured, and the cuddly cats were let loose from their little gladiator cages that had pillows by the way. They looked very athletic and not mistreated at all. I was very interested to see what was going to happen next. Just then a long red sash unfurled from the ceiling in the center of the ring and was jumping around a bit like someone was tugging on it. I thought maybe they soaked it in catnip. Maybe whoever pulls it down first wins.. it was hanging a little ways above them just out of reach. I saw an array of large stones and tree trunks with branches stretching across the center of the pit. I thought hey we are going to get some cats flying through the air here!
I was right, and I was wrong. the cats did start flying through the air trying to get to the red sash. but only after they smelled what was tied up in the end of it. In the bottom pocket of that bouncing red sash was a live fat mouse. Both cat's eye's were locked on the target. Overtime a cat would take a huge flying leap through the air at the sash, and the crowd would yell "Ganbei" and all spectators would drink more baijiu , and the waiters would pour more just as quickly as the cups hit the table.
Like a piñata at a birthday party these two cats had finally tore enough of a hole to knock the mouse down to the ground. This had brought the game to a whole new level of noise and excitement... People were yelling louder, the mouse was running, the cats were chasing.. then the cats turnned on each other and were fighting for real. Backs arched high, pupils fully dilated, fur fully fluffed out! I had chills! The mouse was running back up the tree trying to get to the sash!
They say that cats can make over 100 different noises to communicate to each other. I heard all kinds of growling and clicking, spitting and hissing.... most of it was a show of prowess.... the tabby had backed the black cat in between a large stone and the wall. When the black cat felt the wall behind him you could see something trigger inside the cat. He had kept one eye on the mouse the whole time, backed into the corner the black cat shot out like a rocket and ran across the wall jumped over the tabby onto the tree and raced up behind the mouse and caught it in its mouth whipping his head from side to side snapping its neck.
"Ganbei!" I won!!! Laughing.. I looked at Sal who's eye's where as big as moons and Smiled bigger than ever said "Lucky Cat!" "Do you know how much you've won?" Of course not!!! I had too much sauce in my belly for that kind of math, but because of my unpopular pick and the point spread, the waiter brought a tray full of money to our table of what had to be tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. I folded a small stack and pushed it in my pocket. I then pushed the rest towards Sal and said "For you" Please buy drinks for everyone here. Sal started laughing and stood up and screamed something in mandarin that made everyone scream and clap. I had hundreds of new best friends that night.
We continued to watch more cat fights and drink sauce and laugh. Sal leaned over at one point and asked "Do you like my place?" I just smiled and said yes! I've never had so much fun! I asked why I was chosen to come here and enjoy all this? Sal said that earlier that night I prevented Sal from ruining his silk suit and favorite shoes when a taxi drove by and splashed by pulling him out of the way. I guess that was rather important.
Anyway, This is how to get free drinks at a cat fight while having good times in Hong Kong with a person that I'm still not sure was a male or female, and who may or may not have been involved with the mafia.. owning a warehouse on the water in china and gambling on cat fights, weapons checks at the door. Because of the potential lack of legality and morality of this story I will let you decide whether or not it is true. If I were you, I wouldn't believe a single word of this.