By: Tri Artining Putri (Tempo Media)

With little writing on my laptop, I was very reluctant to answer the phone from my boss that night. Understandably, I was on deadline. The unfinished writing made me parno asked this and that. For some reason, after ringing for a while, I immediately felt that the call was rather important. Not just a matter of writing deadlines.

I finally answered the boss's call. He ordered me to cover Kendari. It was unusual that he asked about my availability. ""You live on a ship, I'm afraid you'll get drunk,"" he said on the other end of the phone.

I was assigned to cover #XPDCSULTRA, an expedition led by WWF-Indonesia. Of the twelve days of the expedition aboard the Menami, I somewhat regret that I was only able to join on the last five days.

As someone who had never been on a boat for more than thirty minutes, I had no idea whether I would get seasick or not. So, I followed all the instructions on the invitation I received from my boss. Starting from plastic bags, rubber bands, dry bags, fins, masks, snorkels, to hansaplast, I prepared.

Afraid of inconveniencing people. And I don't like the sea. The water sticks to my body. I set off arrogantly. Just bring the snorkeling equipment first, if you want to, you can just dive in, but if you don't have to, you don't have to, I thought.

What happened 48 hours later was that I snorkeled voluntarily. No one required it, let alone forced it. It was the scenery and the sea of Southeast Sulawesi that drew me into the water. Getting into the sea was like being in another world.

A colorful world that is super beautiful and not noisy. In contrast to the world above the water, which is noisy. At sea, I can get away and greet the fish with a wave of my hand. Hopefully they understand I don't mean to disturb them.

The waters and beaches of Southeast Sulawesi are magical for someone who rarely goes to the sea like me. The water is crystal clear, the underwater scenery is amazingly beautiful, the beaches are still a lot of virgin. At least, they haven't been touched by tourists. So I took a lot of pictures with my camera. Simply because there was nothing worth missing with my camera. Everything has to be captured.

Writing the coverage of Menami actually won't be enough in this article. For me, who only stayed there for four days, Menami was more than just a home. The crew there was extremely, extremely friendly. Everyone greeted me with a smile.

Not to mention the friends I met there. The divers and researchers who seemed to live to fight for the fate of the marine life that I said had a colorful world. They were all amazing.

I have to be honest. I fell in love with the sea from then on.