This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos.
My parents were both born in Laos but came to the UK in the 1970s. I was born in Hackney in East London. Having visited Laos twice (once 8 years ago and most recently earlier this year), I am increasingly interested in finding out more about my Lao roots and doing what I can to build links between the UK and Laos.
I ended up spending a bit of time in Vientiane in January this year after taking time out from competition in Australia. I was injured and my parents had gone back to Laos for 3 months so I decided to join them there.
During my visit, I was asked by the Lao Tennis Federation to do a tennis clinic with their young players. Some Lao follow my tennis so I am relatively well-known in Lao tennis circles. The experience reminded me a lot of how I started out playing tennis, with very little, just playing on public tennis courts in parks in East London. It is nice to do what I can to help them to achieve what I have, but professional sport, particularly tennis, is still very much in its infancy there.
My family links with the Lao sporting world also stem back to London 2012 when both my father and my sister were involved with helping the Lao Olympic Team during their stay in London. My father worked with the Lao National Olympic Committee to plan the stay of the Lao athletes in the UK and my sister was the Games Maker assigned to the Lao team!
I also met the Lao athletes who competed and particularly remember a couple of 100m sprinters they had and a swimmer.
I remember when I was younger attending reunions of Lao people at the Vietnamese Lao and Cambodian Society (VLC) in Hackney, including parties to celebrate Pi Mai.
There are not that many Lao people in the UK so my family tend to know most of them, and my parents are still very much part of that community. I travel so much for my tennis that I don’t have the chance to get as involved. For example, I was playing in a tournament in Argentina at the time of Pi Mai this year so I missed the celebrations in Hackney.
It’s great news that we now have a British Embassy back in Vientiane. Perhaps there’s chance for a game of tennis on that Embassy tennis court next time I visit…?