On the subject of vehicles again

The picture in this post is an example of a Taiwanese school bus. I believe that this is what in America would be referred to as the Short Bus. There is no long bus.
Because the city is so densely populated, the schools are large and support a huge number of the children. The elementary school near our home has over 2,000 students, the school that we teach at has over 1,500, and that seems to be the norm. In the morning, before school starts you can see children who look like they are in 2nd grade walking the blocks to school. Other students are whisked along on scooters, standing on the floorboard in front of their parents. This morning I saw a toddler resting on her mothers lap, her feet up on the handlebars and a bottle in her mouth, something that would be C.P.S. time in the States, but doesn't even raise an eye here...and no, she was not wearing a helmet.

There are a number of other peculiar vehicles that inhabit the streets of Kaoushong. The strangest one and most puzzling so far is the musical garbage truck. For some reason, and I don't know what it is, the garbage trucks here play a high pitched organ music tune that sounds like an ice-cream truck. The first time I heard it, I ran out to the balcony to see the ice-cream truck and thought that it must have been driving on the other side of the garbage truck that was circling the block. I can only imagine the disappointment of the children who visit here from the states, only to be confronted with rotten pigs blood and egg shells rather than ice-cream. Or, possibly the confusion of the Taiwanese children when they visit the States and see their friends getting excited about the garbage truck coming into their neighborhood.
I'll do my best to get pictures....I hope there is a monkey riding on the back of the truck and making the organ sound!