Look at that tree — it stands on top of Blanco Museum, in front of the Zest

When I walk through Ubud, which is possible every now and then thanks to the moderate climate, my path leads me constantly past monumental trees. They seem to love the Balinese weather. Such wild growth in all directions can hardly be found at home in Europe. A diameter of 20-30 metres can be reached quickly. These tree giants amaze me, they remind me of the home tree of the planet Pandora from David Cameron's film. For me, these trees are an allegory of wild joie de vivre, and they remind me every day why I am running the Trees Project.

Since we have worked a lot in the Hub lately and in this last week of March my 50-hour account is almost used up, we have taken a break today, went to the Zest for lunch and limit ourselves to emails and a few small things, Facebook posts, sorting data, going shopping, things that one otherwise procrastinates.

The Zest between Jalan Raya Campuhan and Penestanan, right at the beginning of the hill overlooking the Blanco Museum and the river, is unique. Ubud is hilly, it's always up and down, but because it's so crowded, you rarely get the feeling of being exposed and having a bit of a clear view if you don't have the perfect domicile. The best example so far is the Ubud Yoga Center, where I had a terribly exhausting Intro in Ashtanga class, from whose terrace you have a breathtaking view. But the Zest isn’t bad either. Light and open, it looks down into the valley towards the river, and even though the road below is very busy, it is still peaceful and quiet up here. The garden with a multitude of statues, ponds and plants seems so cozy that at almost the same moment we four developed fantasies of having a living room like this.

The garden with the entrance to the Camphur — The garden with the entrance to the *Camphur*

In the middle of the garden we enter a camphur, a private residential complex with a temple-like entrance, as there are so many here in Ubud. Apparently they also offer rooms there, because we saw guests coming out. It was right for us that the Zest was full, as thus we came to the only garden pagoda with very comfortable sofas, instead of being exposed to the busy activity inside. However, I have to say that the interior is fantastically beautiful. At first sight, one already feels in the mood for cocktails. Exertion and stress, if present, melt away from you.

A friendly waitress handed us an ambitious menu, which somehow showed that eating and drinking for the Zest was almost completely reinvented. The requirements: healthy, organic, exotic, unusual and cruelty free. Purely vegetarian. Unfortunately I'm out of the game myself with such beautiful menus, allergies and gallstones make sure of that, but I like to look at them. I also like to watch others eating beautifully arranged things. Unfortunately there was only one dish for me, wraps of fermented rice dough, filled with salad, avocado and onions, refined with a paprika cream and a sweet tamarind sauce for dipping. A few more chilli flakes. My companions had green curry and a collection of small tapas consisting of papaya salad and other treats.

Drinks: lime juice, beetroot juice, coconut water and a special cocktail of tangerine juice, herbs, tumaric and sparkling water. Everything was beautifully arranged and quite sophisticated. As so often in fancy vegetarian and gluten-free places with high demands, the whole thing also seems a little “over done”, more fancy than everything else. When it comes to cooking, good intentions are something really great, but of course it's also about the fact that the food is really tasty and has aroma. Unfortunately, I have to say that my wraps tasted rather stale, it only worked thanks to the tamarind sauce and hot chillies. The papaya salad was also more pretty than a real feast, only the curry fulfilled the expectations, but also only then, when the second delivery of finely cut hot chillies arrived.

We are convinced of the location, the service was fantastic, we will certainly come back to have a drink at sunset. But we will probably have our meal somewhere else. Fortunately there are enough excellent restaurants in Ubud. It wasn't bad, well noticed, but what comes along as fancy and pricy must also be able to cook wonderful, at least we think that.

On my way home, which I liked to do on foot, I continued to look for trees. Opposite the Blanco Museum I found another huge tree, the type of which I don't recognize of course, which stands above everything towards the Bukit. Unfortunately I only had a wide-angle lens, which makes everything flatter. A tele lens would have given the tree more grace. But anyway. Past the taxi stand and up the stairs to Penestanan and to the Flower cafe and a plot of land that nature is about to take back, I returned home to our wonderful Roots, up the steep stairs and into a cozy afternoon looking forward to today's floods of rain.

More Trees and a Fancy Balinese Spot