The morning crowd from Malaysia usually consisted of housewives.

They jumped onto rickety wooden boats from Bukit Lata, in northeastern Kelantan state, for a two-minute ride across the filthy Golok River to Pekan Mundok town in Thailand's insurgency-hit Narathiwat province.

But the housewives have stopped coming in recent days after Malaysia tightened its border, and business in this dusty, once-bustling Thai village has gone quiet.