Sungai Golok, Thailand ? The porous border along the Golok River shows why Thailand is a terrorist hideout, where fake documents and passports are big business and people don’t question strangers.

At Sungai Golok, a major border station, police scrutinize passports from Malaysia, Thailand and other nations, having sharpened their vigilance since last month’s arrest here of Hambali, Asia’s most wanted terrorist. Yet along the river, travelers can slip into the country on a boat.

“See that?” said Police Capt. Arun Duangmak, pointing to a ferry on the Malaysian side of the Golok. “The boat operates around the clock and costs only 25 cents per ride. We wish the Malaysian guards were as tough with the outgoing passengers as they are with the arrivals.”

Police said Hambali, alleged mastermind of the bombings that killed 202 people on Bali last year, was able to enter Thailand using a fake Spanish passport and make repeated trips to Cambodia and Myanmar over more than a year before being arrested.

After maintaining for years that Thailand and terror don’t mix, government officials are finally tightening security — at borders and throughout the country — after the Aug. 11 arrest of Hambali, an Indonesian linked to al-Qaida whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin.

Police have erected highway checkpoints. Immigration officials carry “most wanted” photos in their pockets. Intelligence operatives are probing arms smuggling rackets and unusual financial transactions. Even plastic surgeons are being alerted to the possibility that fugitives may seek their services.

“I think terrorists will not use Thailand as a springboard to attack other countries or target Thailand itself, but instead use it as a hiding place, a place to buy fake documents like passports and so on,” Defense Minister Gen. Thammarak Isarangura na Ayudhaya told The Associated Press.

Authorities are concerned about Thailand, a country of 62 million people, as a terrorist target during next month’s gathering of 21 leaders, including President Bush, at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

But the longer-term concerns focus on how easy it might be for Islamic terrorists to become embedded in Thailand’s live-and-let-live society and whether they would find supporters, or even leaders, among the country’s nearly 3 million Muslims.

Thais have a welcoming and friendly attitude to strangers, which political scientist Chidchanok Rahimula says makes the country a perfect terrorist haven.

“We usually don’t ask questions when seeing a stranger in our community simply because there has never been terrorism in our lives,” said Chidchanok, from Prince of Songkhla University in southern Thailand.

Muslim students protest against the United States outside the Central Mosque in Pattani, Thailand, in this April 3 file photo. Authorities are taking a second look at Thailand as a possible terrorist hangout following last month's arrest of Hambali, Asia's most wanted terrorist.