Darren Lim travels 2,700km on motorbike just to return to Singapore before Malaysia's lockdown

The Malaysia lockdown had Singaporeans scrambling to return home before March 18 and celebrities were not spared either.

When the movement control order was announced on Monday, local actor-host Darren Lim was out on his "epic motorcycle trip". In an Instagram post on March 2, the 47-year-old announced that he was going to ride from Singapore to Laos and cover 7,000km in 23 days.

In an effort to return to Singapore before the lockdown was implemented, Darren drove nearly 2,700km in 51 hours just to make it back from Thailand. It's unclear exactly which part of the country he was in when the announcement was made but from a post on March 10, Darren indicated that he was in Chiang Rai.

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Upon his return to Singapore, Darren uploaded a screenshot of the route he drove on Instagram. He wrote: "In order to come home before Malaysia locks down its borders, I rode straight home. Longest distance in my life — 2,700km in 51hrs."

Celebrities such as Jacelyn Tay, Dawn Yeoh, Belinda Lee, and Lee Teng left their well-wishes on his comments section and said they were glad to see that he was home safe.

MARK LEE COULDN'T GET PLANE TICKETS HOME

News of the lockdown also caught Mark Lee off guard while he and his family were in Ipoh on a vacation. In an Instagram post on March 17, Mark explained that the trip was supposed to be a four-day, three-night stay. However, they had to shorten it by a day to try and catch a flight home so they could arrive before 11.59pm on March 17 — just before the lockdown kicked in.

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Alas, he couldn't snag any but a friend in Ipoh managed to arrange a car for them to drive back to Singapore.

Mark wrote: "The children didn't want to leave but we didn't have a choice. It's better to return home as soon as possible."

STUCK IN A JAM FOR EIGHT HOURS

Star Search 2019 winner Zhang Zetong found himself caught in an eight-hour jam on Tuesday (March 17) on the way back to Singapore. He was in Johor Bahru visiting his parents when the news broke.

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Speaking to Lianhe Wanbao, the 26-year-old said: "The lockdown doesn't affect me that much because I live in Singapore. If I have time, I'll visit my parents in Johor Bahru. But after the lockdown, I can't go home and see them for now."

As for the jam, he said: "Frankly, it was quite unbearable. I didn't think it would be that long and thought it would take four hours at most. In the end, we were in the jam for eight hours and the car barely moved.

"Thankfully there were a few friends who were also headed to Singapore so having people to talk to made the trip less lonely."

bryanlim@asiaone.com