We’ve been somewhat off the grid for a while now, spending the last eight days in Pemuteran in Bali’s distant northwest corner. We enjoyed a wonderful week there with our old neighbors of 15 years — Bart and Ann and Wil. We barely had any Internet, but we sure did get in a lot of card playing, world problem solving, and general catching up.

Our villa was ideal for the five of us, with wonderful open spaces, a lovely warm pool, and beautiful views of lush green mountains and the Bali Sea in the distance. Kudos to Bart for finding such a perfect place.

Perhaps best of all, we felt like we were surrounded by some pretty genuine Balinese life. The nearby ‘town’ offered a small scattering of nice restaurants, tranquil beaches, and cheap massage. Getting there required a fifteen-minute walk past loads of ordinary houses, temples, and farms. And along the way we enjoyed the endless greetings from the warm and friendly locals.

Our eight days together gave us ample opportunity to preach our own newfound gospel of learning to relax and take it easy — a skill especially alien to Bart, though he may have picked up just a little. We also worked in a little time to hike through some stunning mountain scenery, visit an island and a waterfall, and do some great snorkeling.

We’ve now returned to Temple Lodge in southern Bali to spend our last three days on this amazing island. As we said goodbye to our old neighbors this morning, we’d already starting plotting where we might meet up the next time we all need a serious cards fix.

From Lombok we took an hour-long boat ride to Gili Trawangan, one of the little cluster of “Gili Islands” off the northwest corner of Lombok. Gili means “little island,” and these are idyllic little havens of palm trees, sandy beaches, and turquoise waters — but no motor vehicles.

The road along one side of Gili Trawangan is a bustling enclave of backpackers, beach bums, and all the bars, beach shacks, dive centers, and tattoo parlors they require. But walk just a few minutes off that main road and it feels like rural Indonesia.

After a blissful week in Bali we hopped a quick 25-minute flight to the neighboring island of Lombok. Here we checked into a pleasant resort for four days. Four days later, we can report something quite unusual for us: We’ve never left the resort.

For four days we’ve looked at the scene in the picture above. Who needs to leave that? On occasion we do actually get up from our loungers to cool off — sometimes in the pool and sometimes in that beautiful turquoise sea. It can be hard to decide.

We usually like to leave hotels and wander into town, at least for dinner. But this place is a little too perfect to even bother. We have breakfast at little tables set right at the edge of the sea. We have a pleasant lunch at one of the two elegant but reasonably-priced restaurants. And every night we’ve eaten in the bar, where they offer an amazing multi-course Thai dinner that changes each night. With a bottle of cheap Balinese rosé, it’s a formula worth repeating.

We have a total of 6 1/2 weeks in Indonesia, so in theory we would move east and visit lots more islands in this huge archipelago. But in reality we don’t think we’re going to get much beyond Bali and Lombok. Today we will wander slightly further to spend four days on Gili Trawangan, a tiny island just off the coast of Lombok. And then we think the main question will be whether to linger on in beautiful Lombok or head back to magical Bali. We can’t think of a compelling reason to do anything else for a while.