My husband and I were in Spain, a country close to our hearts as we honeymooned here 18 years ago. 

This time, we were there as soccer parents to our son whose team from Shanghai competed in IberCup, an international football youth tournament.

We spent a week in Lloret del Mar, where all the tournaments were held. 

It's a beautiful coastal town by the beach in Girona where one of the scenes from the movie Game of Thrones was filmed.

If you look at the both of us, you might think we holidayed in different countries.

He is burnt like charcoal while I look pretty much the same shade.

Travellers come from afar to bask in the Mediterranean sun so they can return with a tan and flex that they have had a beach summer vacation.

Not middle-aged Asian women though.

Especially not a Singaporean who has been living in China for a while.

It was the thick of summer in Spain with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees and the air was salty with sunscreen, sand, and sea.

Everyone was dressed in as little as possible to maximize covering every real estate of their skin with the summer’s rays in the shortest possible time.

Sun worshippers with their bodies greased with tanning oil were sprawled side by side on the beach trying to achieve the perfect evenly roast.

Me?

I made sure every inch of my skin was marinated with sunblock, complete with my three-piece armour:

1. Straw hat

2. Long sleeve linen men’s shirt

3. Linen long skirt.

You see, I come from Singapore, which is situated near the equator and has a tropical climate.

This means we have no lack of sunshine.

There is only one season, and that’s summer every day with temperatures averaging at 31 degrees.

For 365 days a year, it’s either the sun or the rain beating down on us.

Global warming has caused temperatures to rise even higher, so Singaporeans spend our lives dodging the sun and I suspect most of them can’t live without air conditioning blasting at 18 degrees.

This is the Singapore side of me.

Then there is the China side of me.

The Chinese have taught me that the number one beauty habit you can do is to avoid the sun.

Science backs this up too - that prolonged time spent in the sun causes sunburn, wrinkles, pigmentation (especially for Asian skin) and skin cancer.

In my younger days, I too have been lured by the healthy bronze of a freshly sunkissed tan as I loved beach holidays in neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. 

I have paid numerous prices with painful burns, uneven tan lines, mysterious dark spots and flaky charred skin that took me months to reset and recover.

Nobody talks about the aftermath of a sunbathe when trying to wear your bra hurts and the uneven patches serve as painful reminders of the spots you missed when applying sunblock.

It’s like being a new parent.

Everyone extols how cute a newborn is, but nobody tells you that a cute newborn can also be a terror.

Lloret del Mar in Girona, Spain. 

Source: Kathy Hall

Source: Arthur Ang ‍‍‍‍‍

Source: Maki Hirose

I want to talk about the uneven patches for a bit - the most annoying experience of a suntan.

Seriously, how do you get the rest of the paler skin to catch up with the sun-kissed ones when it’s a race that both can never win?

It’s a Catch-22 situation.

Solution 1: You try exposing both areas to the sun.

Outcome: Just when you think the paler skin is catching up, the sun-kissed parts now take on an even darker shade.

Solution 2: You try shielding both areas from the sun.

Outcome: Just when you think the sun-kissed parts are slowly returning to the same original shade as your paler ones, you can’t help but continue to notice the faint dividing tanned lines.

Based on my experience, the two shades never converge until maybe many, many months later and that is if you take time to care for your skin by moisturizing daily and avoiding the sun altogether.

Also, the truth hurts, but I will serve it to you nonetheless:

The older we get, the longer it takes to recover from sun damage.

Don't get me wrong. ‍‍

I am not anti-sun. 

Taking daily solitude walks in the outdoors for my dose of Vitamin D is a self-care treat I look forward to as sunlight lifts our spirits, boosts our mood and makes us happier.

I highly recommend it. ‍

However, as with all good things in life, there is a fine line between doing and overdoing. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

My three-piece armour

Source: Arthur Ang 

Source: Arthur Ang 

Besides me, there was another Asian mom on this Spain trip.

Like me, she was conservatively dressed and didn’t pack a swimsuit either.

Curious, I asked if she avoids the beach because of the sun.

She beamed and replied, “I love to look at the beach.”

Her words and confidence struck me.

There are so many ways to enjoy the beach.

Ours is admiring from afar while wearing our protective armour.

And you know what? 

It makes us very happy too.