Is It Quicker To Get To KL From S'pore By Plane Or Car? To Find Out, This Couple Turned It Into A Competition

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Here’s one way to spice up date night: turn it into a cross-border race from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore-based content creator Sean Aw and his girlfriend Karen Chan did exactly that. Their mission: To find out if it's quicker to get from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur via car or plane.

Starting off from Changi Airport at 5am, they each had to make their way to a restaurant in KL for their date via plane and car respectively. The last person to get there would have to pay for the meal. 

Karen stuck to the conventional (and arguably more comfortable) option, a 7:40am AirAsia flight, while Sean would drive across to KL. 

The idea, Sean told 8days.sg, came from a disagreement the day before.

“She didn’t want to drive up because she said the plane is faster and more comfortable. I didn’t want to take the plane as I felt like it was spending more money, and I felt like I could reach KL faster than her,” he said.

Cue what felt like a real-life episode of The Amazing Race.

“Last one to KL will pay for the date, and it’s not going to be me,” Sean declared confidently. Karen, unimpressed, shot back: “I think he is overestimating his car and underestimating my flight.”

Sean hit the road, but not without a pit stop or two. After crossing the Causeway, he paused for coffee and petrol before realising he might be cutting it a little too close.

“My estimated arrival time is 10:08am, and I need to cut that down by half an hour,” he said.

Meanwhile, Karen was living her best airport life.

While waiting to board, she picked up a bottle of perfume, stopped by the SATS lounge for breakfast, and even squeezed in a shower before her flight.

To make things more interesting, Sean had a checklist to complete before meeting Karen — to buy her flowers, chocolates, and a gift.

Karen's challenge, on the other hand, was to get ready for the date on the plane. While she managed to do her make-up on the plane, she didn't manage to change her outfit. 

Why not do it in the airport lounge earlier, we asked. 

“One of the challenges for us was that she had to get ready on the plane! And she was busy enjoying herself in the lounge,” he told us.

Midway through the journey, Sean ran into potential trouble.

“The engine temperature gauge spiked a little bit. If I go too fast, it might overheat and I’ll lose. But if I go too slow, I’ll still lose,” he said.

Both also faced delays upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur. Sean got caught in traffic and still had his “date prep” errands to complete, while Karen was slowed down at immigration and briefly got lost in the mall.

“In Malaysia, level two is not really level two. This place is huge!” she said in the video.

In the end, Sean pulled through and won the challenge — by a comfortable 40 to 45 minutes too, he told us. 

“I even had time to get changed and wait another 20 minutes at the restaurant,” he laughed.

Sean later shared that he spent about RM156 (S$50.40) on petrol for the trip in his 2016 Nissan X-Trail, which, he admits, isn’t exactly the most fuel-efficient ride.

Still, for him, the drive is part of the appeal.

“I genuinely enjoy driving up. It’s nostalgic because my family used to do it when I was a kid. It feels like more of an adventure,” he said.

Since posting on April 9, the video has clocked over 927K views, with netizens thoroughly entertained by the unconventional date.

One even poked fun at Sean: “At this petrol price, you can do this kind of challenge ah?”

While Sean replied that this will probably be the only time he would attempt something like this, a netizen hopped in on the thread and wrote that petrol in Malaysia was still more affordable.

Another jokingly said Sean gave Karen a head start.

“Starting at the airport was definitely unfair,” read a comment. In response, Sean said: “I wanted to demonstrate the superiority of the car.”

Photos: sean_aw/IG