Recorded on the 'Buddha's Birthday', May 2009. But drums and bells for the Buddha are not the only things you will hear around the constant passing parade of floats and moving stages -

Life goes on in the backstreets and alleys, where the very normal sounds of hawkers trying to sell vegetables, traditional-meat and tofu-treats can be heard. They also sell 'services' such as taking your old electrical appliances for recycling or ironing your shirts.

To save on energy, these roving street sellers use pre-recorded digital messages on monotonous continuous rotation, their cries for customers boom out of huge cone-like speakers which are mounted either on bicycles or on the top of small blue trucks. Amusingly, far from wanting to sound as 'powerful' as the actual volume, the messages are usually recorded by women faking doll-like voices, trying to sound sweet and innocent like a bird, a common phenomenon in some Asia countries. At the same time, a local government councilor does his daily round, using his own 'public address version' of the huge speaker system, to remind people not to park in the middle of the narrow alleyways. He doesn't care if it's the big guys birthday - no excuses!

Throughout all of this commotion, people go about their 'normal' lives, despite the sounds of distressed babies crying, dogs barking and car alarms sounding, a result of the vibrations made by the huge Buddhist drums.

For a foreigner, it is something between a parade, a carnival and a political campaign. For the locals, it is just part of the everyday in Taiwan. Suddenly, it's gone - as quick as it came.