PARADISE YONDER

We snorkel, we throw back endlessly refilled watermelon juice and we forget to reapply sunscreen at Banwa Private Island, which, for what it's worth, isn't a terrible place to do all three.

- JOEY WONG

It's something of an unexplainable North Star, the way sea turtles return to nest on the very shores they once shuffled over as brand-new sand-strewn hatchlings on their way out to sea. This short jaunt, riddled with anxieties, is the maiden obstacle that will invariably define whether their lives extend to an impressive 50 years or an abbreviated 50 seconds, as unfortunate foodstuff for predators much higher up on the food chain. And once flipper hits frothy wave, there's nowhere to go but out. And under. And through. And, fast-moving currents asunder, down... down... into the deep.

It's Mother Nature's missive to go with the flow, which I, admittedly, lack the joiede vivre to accomplish with any kind of ease.

And still, it's this image of a waddling baby sea turtle, all soft and sinewy and not yet fully formed, that I've thus committed to memory from Banwa Private Island's glossy bank of press photography as our Transformer of a speedboat - an Iguana amphibious yacht that, yes, also rolls on to land - soared through the Sulu Sea off Palawan in the Philippines. As our destination drifted into sight and, in doing so, casting Banwa's staff, who all stood aligned in uniformity and waved, and smiled, and sung, under the picture-perfect glow of an incoming sunset ... well, going with the flow doesn't seem a task too arduous under these circumstances.

"Wait till you meet George," Banwa's commercial director Pamela Balce teases, as we're handed still-warm hand towels and hand-made leis, strung around each of our necks in welcome.

George ... Clooney? 

To preface, Banwa Private Island, once marketed as the world's most expensive resort - no longer; it's now available on a per-villa booking taking up to 36 guests at a time, as opposed to its foregone island charter - is 6 hectares of lush island living; a secluded slice of indulgent paradise nestled in the Phillipines' "last ecological frontier".