Learn About IRTouring: This is Our Story
How it all started …
In 2009, I was working full time in Bangkok. I got a full-time job and get my salary on-time, just like everyone want it all began, however, i wasn’t fully happy with 8-5, 5 times a week working and wanted a change and challange. Then I fly out to Saigon for Tet holiday and later this become the adventure im forming today.
Here is how it all started, a life in Vietnam, marriage and a family.
- Hamid, IRTouring
What Makes IRTouring Special?
IRTouring is the brain child of Hamid, the motorcycle tour company he wished had existed when he first ride a soviet Minks in northern Vietnam back in 2009. It’s now his business & his passion, and the tours, the bikes, and the service are being refined.
My advice to you (put the company aside) but, from a rider point of view, is to check for yourself. There are plenty of motorbike rental shops and companies, but they aren’t all the same. Many aren’t even located here in Vietnam.
I want to do different, as a long-established travel company with a full-time team, my own bikes (i sometimes rent as well), and intimate knowledge of Vietnam, it’s people & culture.
However, this simply isn’t the main difference.
When you ride with IRTouring, you are riding with me, Hamid. I lead every ride from the front, in blazing sun, the rainy season and the thick fog.
I meet you on arrival, brief the ride with you and will be with you till the departure transfer to the airport. I’m 40 now (not sure if im old yet) and been ridding over a half a million KM (all around the world) and done with over 400 guided motorcycle tours since 2013 and that means you’ve got covered.
I worked all my life in tourism and understand the kind of service you expect. This is critical when westerners travel to places like Vietnam and Laos.
Simply because i want to make sure that you get what’s promised. Of course, IRTouring isn’t for everyone. We ride together. We eat together. We share drinks and stories and laughs together.
These are real adventures, not the mainstream tours to sit back and relax.
The support team on the ride
I speak about real adventures, then it needs a solid and real support as well.
I ride on every tour, but I’m backed up by a dedicated team of mechanics and local connections. These guys are experienced and will add a great support on each ride.
Your bike can stuck, break down or get flat tyre, we know the solution and we get it fixed till you sit and enjoy an iced tea with a few uncle at the corner of just about anywhere.
My Story
Do you remember your first motorbike trip?
From the beginning, i liked freedom, nature and long journeys always make me feel great. I remember i watched “Diarios de motocicleta” back in 2008 and from that moment i was like, i need a motorbike trip around the world.
That stuck in my head till i moved to Thailand later when i got my first job abroad and after a few month, i started to ride high cc motorbikes and this was a tick off of my life, that was how it all began…
Then visited Vietnam in 2009 for the first time for a motorbike ride from Saigon to Sapa, and then moved and lived in Vietnam by late 2013 and that was the time i formed a company, started with tailor-made private tours and slowly forming motorbike trips.
And, i connected with mountain roads, the distance and the ocean along the way.
I was very much obsessed with motorbike trips. Road bikes, adventure rides and specially when i watched videos of guys riding across Africa on a motorcycle. All of it. But i was looking to do it here in Vietnam, simply because i feel like it’s where i belong. So then, i started working on tour business, i didnt want to be a millionaire guy, i just wanted to earn enough to live happy and help those in need, if i help anyone in need, when i see them smile and look at the sky, that universe satisfaction means a world to me.
Vietnam in 2009 was extraordinary (even it’s not long ago). Raw, beautiful as always. Smiling locals. That was the time i felt i need to run motorbike trips, just something small, private and special.
Riding around Vietnam, from north to the south, coastal town to the back country roads, frontier trails to the lush countrysides, it tuned the whole experience. The Motorcycles. Mechanics. Hotels. Noodle shops. Every single corner making me happy (i complain too).
And it lasted eight amazing years to work on tourism and ride motorcycles, led people on adventures and in 2022, right after the Covid time, i met a beautiful local girl who is now my wife and now i can “Em yêu Việt Nam, even more.
That’s when I set up my travel business and focus on incoming tours, then expand it to motorbike trips, not just offering off-road and dirt trail rides (like pretty much how all tours are in Vietnam). I had a simple demand on myself. Be the different one. simply Be the ‘Go-To’ guy for the premium, small group adventure, for those who want to experience Vietnam, everything include culture, daily life, people, not just jump on a two stroke bike and rev it up the mountains of the north.
I ride with you, we ride together. We eat together. We share drinks and stories (i love history and politic) and laughs together. It’s great to see people remember what it is to have some good fun and that’s why i want my tours to be different.
There are hard days on the road. You’ll be tired, or cold, or get soaked up in rain. These are adventures, it makes you to get out of your comfort zone and times to make you remember your ride in Vietnam.
At IRTouring these are more than just a story to share.
My motorbike adventures aren’t for anyone, they are for those who want an experience, a friend in Vietnam and a name to remember.
Join the IRTouring’s club
So you’re also thinking of an adventure in Vietnam and or Laos, or perhaps both in a single ride?
Explore tours available for small group departures and or request a private customized rides of your own destination, either one, i will be more than happy to help you plan it and ride these amazing trails your way.
All the best, Hamid.
Chat with me