FEW visitors make it to this sleepy group of islands off the north coast of Central Java, accessible by ferry or light aircraft, a place where the traveler can step back in time and experience Outer Island Indonesia only 90 kilometers northwest of Jepara. Compared to Bali and Lombok, facilities are limited. The islands are, in fact, everything that Java is not.

A pirate’s nest at the turn of the last century, of the 27 coral-ringed islands tha