Heaven Gate is also known as ‘Bag Bom’, because tens of kilometers of passes are the focus of the attack of the US Air Force. The road is unique, dangerous, when being beaten, I don’t know where to go.
Located along the Vietnam-Laos border, running from Western Thanh Hoa to Quang Nam, Truong Son is the longest mountain range in Vietnam as its name suggests.
The average height of the Truong Son is 2,000 m, with many heights of over 2,500 m like a wall of citadel in the western border of the S-shaped strip of land. Throughout its length the Truong Son meanders and at times it seems that it wants to come close to the East Sea leaving only a thin strip of plain like rice leaves and the thinnest place is Quang Binh. Sticking to that thin strip of plain, the roads through Vietnam were easily blocked by the US air force. Therefore, in order to bring soldiers and goods to the South of the transport roads of the 559 line, it was compulsory to go round to Laos. But in order to get to Laos, people had to cross the top of Truong Son. Heaven Gate is one of those streets. Heaven Gate – surely it must be very tall to have that name “arrogant”. Standing at the bottom of the slope, looking up could not see the top, only seeing the mountain pass. Its ascending dimension alone was nearly 30 km. Heaven Gate is also known by another name – that is Monkey Pass – probably because it is too craggy and dangerous, only descendants of Emperor Sun Wukong live and pass here (?). Heard that there were many wheelchairs down the cliff from a height of thousands of meters. Heaven Gate is also known as “Bag Bom” because tens of kilometers of passes are the focus of the attack of the US Air Force, the road is unique and dangerous, when being beaten, it is impossible to avoid where to go. It is said that there are dozens of air raids of all types of aircraft, including the B-52s. I don’t know how bad the reality is, but looking up, I only see the sores like the stone age … I just heard it, I’ve seen it creepy. […] 17 o’clock. Mountain mist has spread to the table. In the sky the marker had flown south and disappeared. Company leader Than gave the order to set off. The sky darkened, the more difficult the way to go: The towering cliffs seemed to just collapse on the road, below is the abyss. The road is narrow, just two tank chains, there is a place where the borrowed land has been raked up and rushed down the cliff, the bends of the sleeves also appear more and more. The driver’s back of the shirt was wet with sweat, eyes strained to look at the road, both hands tugged the steering wheel continuously, then shifted gear, downshift. Binh muttered: – The road with nothing but only cows number 1, number 2 like this. Unexpectedly, company leader Than heard him, he reminded: – Just keep up the speed. Remember to stick close to me on narrow roads. About an hour away an almost upside-down slope appeared, again tied up like a bottleneck and folding crabs. Carefully ordered to stop the car for everyone to get off, he used a flashlight to signal behind to let the cars know, then got off the bus and asked Binh: – What is the temperature of the cooling water and oil? Binh looked down at the dashboard and said: – It’s all up a hundred degrees, but I guess I can still walk. – Then keep going. I’ll walk in the middle of the road, just look at my white shirt. Carefully take off the jacket and throw it in the driver’s door for Binh. Answer: – Yes! In front of Hien with Tinh, Dat, Trang is walking. Page carried a stone, his mouth said: – See if this is deep! Saying that he rolled the stone down, one stone dragged the other rock and hurled endlessly. Page stick out tongue: – Must be a few hundred meters, not a few. Show: – According to my estimate, this place is only about three hundred meters high. Haven’t eaten yet, this peak should at least be over a thousand meters. They both shook their heads and stuck out their tongues. Behind, according to the shadow of the company captain, Binh tried to keep the car right in the middle of the road, he was always sticking with him, so the mud shield sometimes bumped into the cliff and hit “uỳnh” once. Binh estimated that the slope should be approximately 30 degrees, it is impossible to go number one but the engine temperature roars (!). When the walking wing reached the top of that narrow slope, the tank just crawled to the middle, the teachers and students sat and rested for the car to arrive. It took three times to get off the bus to walk to the top of the slope. Strangely enough, thinking that the top of the slope had to be very choppy, it turned out to be a fairly flat and spacious road. The line-up of cars snuggled up on the edge of the road for a break and checked the technique to prepare to go downhill. Trang and Dat pulled each other to the edge of the road to look down, but saw nothing but a cloud, they rolled on a stone but only saw the same as last time, did not know where the bottom was. It turns out that the previous images of the downward direction of Heaven Gate were completely wrong. Everyone thinks that the slope is so steep, so dangerous, its downward direction must be “relative”. But not! The Heaven Gate slope in the West Truong Son is quite pleasant compared to the eastern half, it is gentle and short, probably at the foot of the slope is a plateau with an altitude of several hundred meters above sea level. Over the top of the slope a few kilometers, the front station was already on the way to enter the army camp. To enter the army camp today, we had to follow a stream. It is the dry season, so the stream has little water, the stream bed has different large and small shiny black rocks lying around. It was almost morning, everyone wanted to quickly hide the car. […] All about the vehicles quickly dissipated. The sound of an engine let out for a moment, then the silence returned the stillness of the forest. It was just morning too.
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