World's Most Dangerous Roads
Digby was contracted by the BBC to guide the producer of a TV show called the World’s Most Dangerous Roads down the most challenging sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. It was the wrong time of the year and very wet, so there was a lot of tumbling off the motorbike he drove her on, but they made it, and the route was greenlit. The same producer later rode the Trail on a pink 50cc Honda Cub, which Explore Indochina pimped for her, and wrote and very good book about it called “A Short Ride in the Jungle”. Recommended reading for anyone thinking about riding the Trail with Digby.
Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent's A Short Ride in the Jungle
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
A month or two later the entire crew, along with Sue Perkins and Liza Tarbuck, turned up in Hanoi and they headed off. Digby was hired officially as the Trail guide and expert
The two-week shoot was a classic, the crew were awesome, and the presenters did well, considering they were driving down a rough dirt road in 35+ degree Celsius heat in an unconditioned 4WD with tonnes of UXO (unexploded ordinance) on either side. They had to drive across some pretty deep rivers and sleep rough.
Digby led the film crew to many famous places along the Trail, like Mu Gia Pass, Ban Phanop Village, Sepon, and Muong Nong, and bottles of bootleg Johnny Walker Black rewarded each day’s hard work. UXO de-mining teams showed them 500 lb. bombs that had just been found, local ladies were filmed hunting for UXO scrap with metal detectors, villages containing live bombs were explored, and two American fighter jet pilots were interviewed at the base of the infamous Mu Gia Pass.
The show is good, so click here, sit back, and enjoy the drive.
