"MY road and that of your Uncle!". A loop over all the varied and green terrain of the Northwest (Bac Bo): Mai Chau-Son La-Dien Bien Phu-Lai Chau-Sa Pa-Mu Cang Chai-Tu Le, then the sinuous and steep road Dong Van -Xin Cai. A relatively small but rich territory of the largest concentration of ethnicities in the world with fifty-four ethnicities. Passing from one village to another, we change minorities characterized by the color of traditional women's costumes. One day in March 2011, at the top of the Thung Khe pass overlooking Mai Chau with the hamlet Pom Coong as a backdrop, on the historic Hanoi-Dien Bien Phu road, Mr. Bang surprised us with an enthusiastic “That's it. MY way and that of your uncle [General Dam Quang Trung]!” Rather worthy of his twenty years.

Shock waves. But his roads, sometimes strewn with pitfalls and dangers, provide us with memorable memories. We are aware of this, witnessing the greatest fear of our life: along the laces up to Dong Van-Meo Vac, in the northern province of Ha Giang. Suddenly noises are heard, amplifying, exploding, sending shock waves to us behind our backs. The driver, an old army trucker, with a controlled start, without giving us time to come to our senses, said:

 — Oh dear ! This is huge! It happens because of tiny animals ... They dig the moist ground under the rocks in search of tender roots to eat. Over time, the bedrock becomes unstable. And, one day, it's the fall ... I had never seen one like it before ... Stay there ... I'll take a look.

As he walks away, we lower the window to fix the image of the truck leaning against the side of the hill, near rock scree ... After a long moment, he comes back walking quickly:

 — It was really impressive… The road is completely rutted. Fortunately, no casualties ... The driver had a lot of cold blood sheltering his truck against the mountain ... Let's go. Our road is still long, he concludes.

Higher up, from a bend suspended in the sky, we see a van immobilized against an electric pole, axles in the air.

Horn and explosion. Another time, between Dien Bien Phu and Lai Chau, the road menders block the road, order us to stay in the car, saying that there is a few minutes… that lasts more than a good hour. Far ahead, others are busy at the entrance of a bend ... Suddenly, a blow of the horn followed by an explosion and a big cloud opaque white smoke ... Finally, we are told to descend and walk in single file. Mr. Bang rolls up the hem of his pants, lifts them up, leads the way with a determined step, avoiding the patches of water.

Landslides and stagnations. So in thirteen years, on the roads and tracks often littered with potholes, bumps that often surprised the driver and sometimes made us jump, sometimes toss our heads back, sometimes made us cry, we have witnessed some landslides and have experienced stagnation at the edge of the ravine, despite a 4 × 4 vehicle.

Despite these unpredictable conditions, we have never given up on our mission. We then remembered this refusal by the executive of a major Parisian company which has an office in Hanoi: “Sorry. We are not being able to support your project. It is very innovative, but our manager will never go until this area to check the work. "