“Fun and sunshine, there's enough for everyone,” says a neon sign before me at the discotheque Club Tropicana on Boracay , a four-square-mile island at the heart of the Philippines . The lyrics are from a buoyant 1983 song, also called “Club Tropicana,” by Wham!. But tonight's playlist is cribbed from the 2010s. As midnight nears, Jennifer Lopez's voice sounds over the speakers, “If you're a party freak, then step on the floor.” So I twirl under a disco ball with gleeful strangers in bikini tops, cargo shorts, and Havaianas flip-flops, beers and gin and tonics in hand.

The effect is transportive. I'm flung 10 years into the past, back when Boracay was the locus of an exuberant, if at times debauched, nightlife scene on the creatively named White Beach. Crowds raved until sunrise and woke up on some of the world's softest sand. They had budget hostels and three-star inns, 24-hour shops, water sports and boats, and eateries of all stripes to keep them entertained until nightfall.…