BoonMeePakNam

In my Issan village, people rarely ask. That's because the answer would never be anything but yes. Someone digs up a bit of galangal and and the next day someone has dropped off a bag of corn.

I'm in the process right now. First I enquired at the banks and was told I needed my name on a house registration (tabien bahn) to open up a bank account. Then we visited the local administration, and were told I needed to have a yearlong visa to have my name on the registration. Then we visited Immigration. They called the local administration and explained that I couldn't get a yearlong visa without the bank account and hence the tabien bahn. They issued me a new 3 month visa so that I would have time to complete the process. About 6 weeks and 8 visits later, I was issued a yellow tabien bahn and a pink Thai ID card for non-Thais. A few of the visits took the entire afternoon and you'll need family members and the local village chief to visit and verify who you are. I've opened a bank account at Kasikorn (only Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn will open acccounts for foriegners) and am in the process of transferring money $2000 a day until I reach the THB400,000 I need. If your wife has a Thai bank account you might look into transferring the money to Thailand before you leave and save yourself a lot of fees. I may need to get another 3 month visa as there is less than 2 months left on mine. It's getting closer. Hope the info helps