A wall covered by moss in Da Lat.

Many visitors miss out on the mossy charm of Vietnam’s most eclectic mountain town.

The city is remembered by travelers for many things: Winding mountain roads that twist and turn through lush valleys, crop fields and orchards.

Cold gusts of wind at dawn, patches of wild yellow sunflowers, canopies of pink peach blossoms and hillsides covered with mimosa flower carpets.

Mysterious streets steeped in vanishing fog, roses by a hedge or the branch of a tree tilting down a slope.

But few take a second to stop and admire the moss. Sounds silly, but its beautiful.

If you look closely, you’ll also see bright green moss creeping up the cobblestone stairwells and alleys that navigate the city’s backstreets.

You’ll see the fuzzy green designs crawling up walls along marketplaces and old shop houses.

Moss grows on rock throughout the city, sometimes turning from green to bright yellow or bright red.

It’s like a smooth velvet carpet on the town’s small hilly roads, sharing space with ferns, weeds and flowers alike.

It climbs up the walls of century-old houses and tiled roofs. It enjoys both traditional Vietnamese houses as well as historic French villas and sparkling new mansions.

It clutches to the feet of the pines, plum trees and peach trees.

Such is Da Lat, a city built into the forest, where the forests’ moss has gently taken some of it back.

Reported by Phan Huy Tram