There were many different ways to get around in Indonesia. Most of the locals relied on their own two feet, or perhaps a bicycle. A few lucky families might have had a small motor scooter, and it was quite common to see a husband and wife, with an infant, a toddler and some shopping bags, zipping along on a single scooter. If you had to haul something, or someone, you might have used an old wooden cart, or perhaps, a beca (pronounced betcha), which is kind of like a rickshaw with a bicycle attached.
This beca is carrying a woman to market, though you can barely see her for all the chickens -- chickens that are all still very much alive.
If you needed to go a very long distance, you might have traveled by bus, as long as you were ok with it running on a very loose schedule, and with very irregular regularity. Did I mention that Indonesia operates on "rubber time"? It is much more flexible than what most Americans are accustomed to.
When international companies began doing business in these out-of-the-way locations, they needed workers, and the workers needed a way to get from their kampungs (villages) to the work site, in a semi-timely manner, so along came the "mini-buses" -- small trucks with camper shells on back. The trick here was to see how many guys you could stuff into that one small space.
Judging from all these mini-busses that are lined up on the other side of the demolished bridge, I'm guessing this must be how John and his coworkers were transported the rest of the way to work, for all those weeks, until the bridge was repaired.
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