you open the account in Thailand but once you come back to the United States, you can send money to your account in Thailand through the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. It is not a retail branch where they have walk-up service and things like that. It’s a commercial bank, but all you have to do is call them and get their routing number, you send them the money and they will forward it to your account and Thailand. When I called the New York branch to get the routing number and the instructions for sending money to my account in Thailand they were very helpful so make sure you do that.
I normally send money to my account with Bangkok Bank to the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. That way your transfer is less than the international fee is. Of course that is, if you are from the US.