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Product Engineer Erik and I recently returned from Taiwan where we got to visit our factories, sample some of the local cousine, and view the beautiful countryside… a lot. Here is a break down of the goings on.

Factories: The International Headquarters and home of the factory where most our products are designed and produced is located in Taichung, Taiwan. This was the first time I have visited the factory and it truly was impressive and pretty cool to see everything getting produced. On one side of the facility there were stock piles of stand components and on the other end there were sweet little Taiwanese ladies bagging and placing bar pads on our bars. Everyone at Kinesis Taiwan was extremely friendly and almost over accommodating. By the end of the trip there were handing us bags of different little treats that Erik and I would probably never use.

Cousine: Everything seemed pretty edible and we did stay away from as much poultry as possible(Bird Flu). But… I found out that everything was not as edible as I had imagined by my last authentic meal. I was eating what seemed to be Miso Soup and it tasted pretty good. I was half way through my bowl and realized that what I thought were noodles was actually little 2” long fish or something else that survives in the water. What mad it worse was that the soup was like 150 degrees when they brought it out and I came to the conclusion that the poor little fishies were cooked as the sat on the table in front of me. Ewwwwwwwwww!!!!!

Countryside: I was just joking about the beautiful part. Unfortunately Taiwan is not as fortunate as the good old U S of A and everything is packed together and a bit run down. Rice patties, factories, and high rises dominate the tiny island. However, we did spend at least 10 hours of our time there driving from factory to factory in search of new vendors, so I did get plenty of time to see why I should be more grateful to be an American.

Until the next adventure,

Mike D.