Cock fights

A few days ago an employee at our hotel  mentioned something about “cock fights” to my dad and of course being my dad and all, he jumped at the idea. My mom had to stay with Bella and my brother had to do work, so that left me to go with him. My dad and I hopped on the backs of Wayan's and his cousin's scooters and off to the “cock fights” we went. We stopped in front of a small corner store and Wayan led us around to the back of it and down a small trail.

 At the end of the trail it opened up to a a clearing that had a small bamboo covered ring or arena in the middle. It was surrounded by vendors and little kids waiting for the fights to begin and on the small waist height walls there were bags hanging on them with little twitches coming from the bags. About an hour later the actual fights began but before any fighting could be done all of the fishermen had to place their bets and the owners of each rooster went and squatted in the middle of the arena with their rooster of choice and fondled, weighed, bounced, compared, challenged each other to fights and sometimes kissed each others' roosters. After a pair had been chosen, the roosters had fitted and attached to the razor blades that go on there feet. After a fair fight was agreed on, the two roosters and their owners with their rooster squatted in the middle and bounced their roosters up and down, getting them all hyped up for the fight while all the people in the crowed yelled something that sounded along the lines of "halle, halle, halle," or "salle, salle, salle". Then the owners of the roosters let them go and retreat to the edges of the arena and the fight starts. The actual fight only lasts about 2 or 3 minutes but in those minutes the roosters jump over each other and claw peck and stab each other. The fight is usually to the death or until one rooster can't fight anymore or  if the losing rooster is still alive he gets killed 5 minutes later when they cut him up to be eaten. The fights last for about 3 or 4 hours but overall it's very interesting to watch the people and betting because sometimes the owners can win up to 400 dollars. The actual sport was banned in most civilized countries around 1850 but many Third World countries still permit it.