Book excerpt: "Using direct observations of the surrounding landscape and the tangibel artifacts of the city, its topography, streets, temples and other stunning architectural monuments, Barry Bell carries out a progressive investigation into Bangkok's urban sensibility and its central mythologies - the more mysterious perceptual realms of allusion and illusion, arguably the real Bangkok, implicitly present within its deceptive exterior. In spite of the knowledge that, for many people, order seems alien to the city, the author searches for conceptual coherence. He strives to link the city's hectic urban sensibility to its more elusive and hidden character - the dream of Bangkok that is prompted by angelic allusions"--P. [2] of cover.