Day 4 (5/12) Taipei

First Business Visit: GIANT BICYCLES. We had an amazing tour of the actual manufacturing factory. Everyone was in an assembly line working on a specific job. Hot atmosphere. Although I was impressed with the cleanliness of the factory. As we questioned our tour guide throughout the factory, we learned that each of the workers rotate jobs so that they can experience different aspects of the bicycle making process. These GIANT frames are insanely light; pricey too. They gave us a formal presentation and answered questions. Once again I was very impressed with their English. The main guide was very friendly with us and chatted outside after the visit was over. I asked him all about his living situations and work conditions; interestingly enough, the company pays for his living arrangements (similar to a dorm), as well as his meals. He uses his GIANT bicycle to travel to and from work too! Awesome.
Lunch was a traditional style Chinese lunch with a huge circular table that has an elevated spin top in the middle. All food is served in large portions to the center of the table and everyone spins the top and serves themselves. We ate fried rice, beef & shrimp wontons, noodles, the food just kept coming. I was really suprised to find the meal delicious, everyone got seconds and thirds. We then ate at a local place called Monster Ice, which featured this stuff called Mango ice: mangos, vanilla ice cream, and whip all over shaved ice...YUMMY!
Saxaphone Museum: the owner's daughter and Megan played a song together on saxaphone, it was the song from Pocahontas "Colors of the Wind." They both did such a good job.
Greenhouse: The flowers were beautiful; huge orchids in any color imaginable. Lovely. I bought 3 packets of seeds: chinese pink, treasure flower, and purple balloon flower, because I thought they all were interesting. Yet, after I purchased them I was informed that it is technically illegal to transport agricultural seeds overseas, but oh well- I figured I would just hide them in my clothes and if they wanted to take them at the airport they would.
Love Motel: Exotic & Secretive. Park cars in a garage below the room; no one will ever know you were ever there. Charlie said jokingly, "Good for affair." The room was enormous with a huge pool with elephant fountains, laying jacuzzi, wooden spa bench with steam jets that spray down on you, massage chairs, loungers, and fish inside planted displays in the bathroom. We played Karoke all night and had a blast!!!
Bar: We weren't able to get in at the first place we went because NO shorts/sandals allowed. We ended up at an empty bar that was really snazzy. We enjoyed each others company, yet I wish we could have been around more locals at this bar, it would have changed our experience drastically. At one point Angela and I went outside to sit for a bit and found two lonely dogs. We tried to get them to let us pet them but they never allowed us to get close. Apparently, people in Taiwan do not domesticate dogs quite like we do. They allow them to roam freely, giving them the ablilty to pursue their own lives, therefore they aren't used to being treated and groomed like our dogs. Plus, they all look extremely strange. Some have no hair and weird ears. Our bartender's name was Allison and she definately was kind and patient with all of us.