North of Canggu's main drag, rice fields stretch between the villas and cafes in a patchwork of green and gold. The contrast is jarring and entirely real: you can be eating avocado toast at a minimalist cafe and look out the window at a farmer knee-deep in a paddy. The fields are most beautiful in the morning light and at their most vibrant green in the weeks after planting.
A walk or cycle through the fields takes you out of the tourist zone quickly. The lanes between the paddies connect to small village temples and family compounds that predate the surf tourism by generations. Several cafes have positioned themselves in the middle of the rice fields — some genuinely atmospheric, others mainly Instagram traps. The subak irrigation channels that run through the fields are still in use; the sound of water running through them is the Canggu that existed before the beach clubs.