Anyone know if you can rent scooters in Pingdong? I’m planning on a trip next month to Maolin. I’m going to take a train down and want to rent a scooter for a few days. I know you can rent scooters in Tainan but Pingdong is closer.
Thanks. 
A year later…
Yes, you can rent scooters in Pingdong around the train station, but for some inexplicable reason, they wanted to see a Taiwanese scooter license before letting me rent one. The only other time I’ve tried renting a scooter was in Kending, and I was able to sweet-talk my way into renting one without a license. So my license-less companion and I had to take a bus to Maolin and then hitch while going around in the park. Hitching was no problem; there were plenty of day-tripping Gaoxiongren and blue truck-driving locals to give us rides within the park.
That being said, if you’re coming from north of Tainan, you’d save time by renting a scooter in Tainan and driving an hour and a half east rather than going an extra hour south to Pingdong and then driving an hour north.
The so-called “butterfly valley” was a total bust, but we had a blast visiting the Tona hot springs and checking out the various canyons and rope bridges. But our favorite part was probably just hanging out with the local aboriginal kids in Maolin village. What are some other good “real” aboriginal villages, where the people aren’t dressed up in ceremonial costumes singing songs for all the bloody Han tourists? I’d totally dig teaching for a year in a village like that.
Thanks for the belated info. 
By the way, I’m curious what you mean by the butterfly valley was a bust.
It was a bust in that we didn’t exactly see too many butterflies. Perhaps we were just unlucky.
The best time to go is right when the sun rises over the mountains, about 9am. Otherwise, you will just see scatterings of them, or have to settle for observing them in that big netted enclosure.
We were there at 9AM, just like it said in the new LP, and the sun did come over the mountains and melt away the fog. I got a couple of pictures of some solitary butterflies, but the impression I got from the LP was that it would be like a sea of butterflies.
Oh, and we stayed at the nonghui across the street from the butterfly place. They tried giving us a room that they hadn’t cleaned. Seeing other people’s cum-stained sheets = 
Please tell me how I can rent a scooter in Tainan! Thanks.