The wife an I moved here in 1996. We opened a joint bank account at BB Khon Kaen. We deposited a cashiers check for $40,000. The check cleared in 30 days. We found some land we wanted to buy and the bank let us have Bt 200k even before the check cleared.
The interest on a savings account then was 13% !!! We took most of the money out to build a house. The exchange rate at the time was 25Bt to the dollar. A year later it was Bt 52 to the dollar! No crying over spilt milk, it was still the best thing we ever did.