I made this observation while in our Palawan beach trip. My kids probably spent 4 days on the beach. I could only spend 2 days. My skin burned hot red after 2 days so I copped out and rested the next 2 days. My wife and my kids though tanned out really well. Even my eldest child who is the lightest skinned, but not as light as mine, got tanned really well and never got burned. None of us used sun tan oil, we don’t believe in that commercial chemical junk.
It would seem that the Ilocano blood my wife carries and passed on to our children gave them good skin protection and good skin color when tanning. My wife looks more beautiful with all that sun on her skin. I on the other hand have my Chinese, Malay and Spanish heritage which seems more sensitive to the sun. I did not tan… I just got burned red.
I remember a long time ago, a business partner of mine was Chinese and he said that his family does not really enjoy going to beaches and getting soaked under the sun. He said they just easily burn red painfully… they do not get tans. Maybe this applies to me too?
During regular days in Manila in the morning I would stroll out with the kids bare chested and walk around under the morning sun. But in Palawan, maybe the sun shone brighter, hotter, with less haze, and we were in the beach mid-morning and afternoons.
Until today I’m peeling off sun burned skin on my shoulders. My children and my wife don’t have sun burns. Ah, it must be genetic.