The stalactite — my only way out of this predicament — hung tantalisingly out of reach.

As the mid-afternoon sun beat down remorselessly, sweat dripped off into the void beneath. The hot rubber of my climbing shoes seemed to melt and smear across the rock. It was all that was keeping me stuck there — a fragile spider on a gigantic window pane.

The only way to continue upwards was to bridge across onto the stalactite, which should have been easy . . . if I hadn’t been as high as Canary Wharf, with nothing but air between me and the very distant beach below.

For decades, travellers have made the pilgrimage to the islands off the east coast of Thailand to learn to scuba dive. It’s not difficult to see why: it is cheap, the water is warm and the reefs are totally tropical. But, more recently, the western beaches of Krabi have been stealing the limelight for a different reason — they are the best place in the world to learn to rock climb.

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I’m not saying this out of hand. Climbing is my passion, and over the past decade, I’ve climbed on every continent bar Antarctica. Without a doubt, the Railay Beach area cannot be beaten.

With the passage of titanic time, drips, waves, wind and the deposition of tiny marine organisms have formed an epic limestone karst landscape. Remember the mushroom-shaped rock in The Man with the Golden Gun? Just a boat ride away.

There’s no sense of being in the lair of some despotic multinippled villain in Railay, though. These beaches are tranquillity itself. At the back of the sands, palm trees shade drowsy beach bars, where you punctuate your sunbathing with fine Thai food and fresh fruit juices. Most of the world’s best rock jocks pass through Railay regularly, posing upside down like geckos on limestone ceilings, with crystal-clear water or white sand beneath them, taking a break every hour or so for a banana shake in the nearby bars (filled with disbelieving spectators).

But it’s for first-time climbers that Railay really rocks. The many climbing schools here can take a vertigo-blighted layabout and turn them into a confident lead climber in just a few days, and for less cash than a night out in London.

I write this laid up at home from a broken back suffered while climbing, and I’d understand some readers thinking this a good enough reason never to give it a go. However, there are many different kinds of climbing, and the beginners’ courses focus on the super-safe kind. It’s called sport climbing, secured with bolts drilled into the rock face, and it’s as safe as rock climbing can be — safer, in fact, than learning to scuba dive.

By the end of your instruction, your fingertips will feel as if they have been put through a lathe, and your back and shoulder muscles will be bunched with exertion, but you will have learnt more in your one- to five-day course than you would in a year studying at your local climbing wall.

Women needn’t worry about their lack of upper-body strength, either — climbing is all about balance and using your legs. Seasoned climbers watch knowingly as beginner couples take their first crack at the rock faces — burly lads burn themselves out in minutes, and after the first hour, the girls are putting them to shame.

Where you sleep in between your climbing endeavours is of critical importance. Railay itself has the sort of posh international resorts that keep the tan-topping celebs happy. One beach along is Tonsai, where you can get a clean, thatched-roof bungalow for a few pounds. The world’s best Thai massage and a plate of barbecued lobster-sized shrimp are yours for a few more pounds. I’d stay in Tonsai every time.

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