This was taken in 1945 by the late Geoffrey Clark (of the 4th Regiment Signals Troop). Here we have 3 dulang washers, complete with their wide hats and long sleeved shirts, working hard along the river.
On the reverse of the photo he identified the place as Ipoh and guessing that this was taken from a military vehicle, it is interesting that the land was so wild.
Where are those wide coolie hats now? Maybe they are in the same place to which the Japanese “invasion” bicycles went. I wish we could find examples of both!