How good a place would Bali be for a retired Canadian woman?

If you like view and country side you can live near ubud not in the town

Hi Maraniela,

Lots and of western women live in Bali alone or without a partner or stay for several months at a time in Bali. Much depends on the way you carry yourself and treat other people. You should understand that some people, both local and foreign may try to take advantage of you simple because they think that as a foreigner that you are "rich", but of course you will be respected as a single woman. For equal rights, I think there will be no problems. You won't be disrespected in that way.

Maraniela wrote:

How good a place would Bali be for a retired Canadian woman? Will I be respected and have equal rights without a guy by my side?

Thanks

Respected depends on who you are, but also on who you meet. Many locals treat foreigners like ATMs on legs and will try to rip you off as much as possible. You'll be offered travel at stupid prices, many non-blue bird taxis will charge you crazy money, and it always seems like everyone with something to sell will multiply the price by 4.
The closer you are to major tourist areas, the more scams and daft prices you'll get offered.
If you're really unlucky you'll also get drug dealers trying to sell you weed at Rp900,000 per bag.

Being a woman will make little or no difference and Bali, with the usual safety rules you'd expect to follow in Canada, is normally safe.
The greatest danger is likely to be crossing a road rather than anything else.
Personally, I wouldn't live in Bali for a gold pig, but Lombok and a thousand other places in Indonesia are wonderful.
Roy, a gentleman who lives in Ubud, will disagree with me but, as I have yet to visit anything but the southern parts of the Island, I will restrict my comments to Kuta and the south.

However, ignoring the above, the vast majority of Indonesians, including those on Bali, are friendly and helpful to foreigners, even the 'always win but you have to buy something' ticket guys being pretty nice once they know you forgive them for trying to scam you.

However, much as I found the people generally nice, and the place is far safer than a dump like London, I will never go again (unless it's for work) because the 24/7 scammers and pestering got right on my nerves.

Added. My less than pleasurable trip also saw attempted rip off jobs by 2 English guys trying to sell overpriced tours, those being on two separate occasions.
I would strongly recommend places like Lombok or Belitung as far cheaper, beautiful in the extreme, but without the stress.

Belitung
Bangka Belitung Islands
https://maps.app.goo.gl/d8v3zQjgWCFFW3ah7

I cant comment on belitung , but lombok ya its got nice beaches , but its a noisy place "island of a 1000 mosques"  not my cup of tea for sure .

Being near a mosque with a duff PA system, or one that has a less than pleasant voiced caller, can be an issue for 2 minutes a go. That works out at 10 minutes out of 24 hours.
If that 10 minutes is more than you feel is acceptable, stay in a place more that 50 meters away from a mosque.
Since that's most of Lombok (and most of Indonesia), I wouldn't let it influence me much.

Imho , I prefer to live in a peaceful place disturbed only by the birds in the morning , like where I live now in nusa dua , .

Noise pollution is not something I like .

scouser59 wrote:

I cant comment on belitung

Belitung is alright but you might find it a bit boring as the place is so small and not all the much to see and do there. The only really fun thing to do it island hopping but apart from that....kaolin pits, a really crappy museum and zoo, fishing harbors, and the markets in Tanjung Pandan, the main town. You also will probably meet hardly any foreigners living there permanently and also find a general lack of interesting culture whereas in Bali you will be inundated with culture. So in my opinion Bali is a lot better and more interesting than Belitung. Of course, it is better to head up north in Bali, near Ubud or Candidasa or even further north if you want to see the real Bali.