A mother and child encountered on the main highway running south west from Phnom Penh, a ...

A mother and child encountered on the main highway running south west from Phnom Penh, a dangerously potholed and undulating dirt road, which runs to Kompong Speu and ultimately through the Chuor Phnum Damrei (or elephant mountains) to the coast at Kompong Som. The mother is wearing a krama (a traditional scarf) and both are carrying bamboo poles over their shoulders. The road from Kompong Som was used as a supply route for the Viet Cong during the last years of the Vietnam War and was carpet bombed by America's clandestine B-52 bombing campaign of the late 1960s and early 1970s which shattered Cambodia's social, economic and farming infrastructure and killed an estimated 150,000 civilians. This image was taken in the general vicinity of the building seen in P03258.184, .185 and .186.