The Road to 40 Day 106/365: Monster Truck Day!

We booked our tickets to Monster Jam’s return to Singapore earlier this year for Vino, but as the show went on, it felt more for me than for him.

First things first, no, I did not skip a day. I realized earlier today that I had two Day 97’s, so I had to backtrack the days. As Che said, not like anybody noticed, but since I did, I had to do it.

Anyway, we woke up early for a doctor’s appointment for Vino. When we last went to the dentist, we were advised to see an ENT doctor. He sometimes breathes through his mouth even if he doesn’t have colds, and the dentist said it could alter the growth of his front teeth. Hence, getting a look from an ENT doc could give us a better idea of what’s going on with him. 

We pried Vino off the bed early so that we can catch the 9:30am appointment. We were a bit late, but it was not too much of an issue for the clinic.

Vino’s nose and tonsils were checked, and we saw that its a bit swollen – signs of allergy, she said. There’s no direct cause of it, so it could be the environment. We were given a nasal spray and some medication to try if it could help lessen the swelling. Otherwise, there could be surgical solutions in play in the future.

After our appointment, we headed off to The Shoppes at MBS for brunch. We stopped by a shop to get something Che preordered before going to Ippudo at Vino’s request.

We went to Angelina for dessert as we waited for the pit party time at the National Stadium for Monster Jam.

We took the train to Stadium and found our way to our gate. There were A LOT of people. It was surprising that it was crowded already that early.

Vino has been fascinated by monster trucks since he was younger. He may not be too into it now, but like most boys, he had a phase of being into toy cars. I knew that Monster Jam held shows here before, so I constantly checked when it would happen again.

Earlier this year, I saw that there was going to be a show in the second half of 2025. Naturally, Che and I set our alarms for when the tickets were going to be available and jumped at the opportunity to buy them once they were.

Of course we made the most out of it, so we added the pit pass.

It was a good experience, as we saw the cars up close. We queued up to meet some of the drivers. Iron Man was the first car we saw, so we got a photo with him.

Next was Grave Digger – an iconic truck driven by one of the most popular guys in Monster Jam. It was a long line when we got there, but it was even longer after we left, so it was a good thing that we got that done.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to save his digital signature on the photo I took of him with Che and Vino. I only realized it after we left, so we weren’t able to get a re-do.

We passed by Digatron, one of the newer trucks. The queue wasn’t too long, so we decided to join in and get another photo op. This paid off later on.

Before we left, we took the opportunity to snap a photo of El Toro Loco, one of the more recognizable trucks out there.

The lines were a bit tiring, so we decided to just leave and go back to MBS and see Steph and James for a bit. We’ll see each other tomorrow, but since they were nearby, why not see them already?

I wasn’t able to take our photo together, but it was a nice quick afternoon snack with them.

We went back to the Stadium to watch the main show. Vino and I sometimes watch it on YouTube when he was younger, but we had no idea what was going to happen.

The first part was a stepladder race, with all eight trucks paired together. Digatron picked up the win for this event.

Next, it was a skill game. Trucks were tasked to do two tricks. Most of the trucks were trying to pull off the same move – front wheelie, go back and do some kind of a moonwalk. Some tried and failed, but a couple of them actually pulled it off cleanly. This stage of the competition was won by Black Panther.

At this point, Vino was a bit bored, and there was a 20-minute break before the trucks are back. That’s when the motorbikes came to play.

They were doing some big air off a ramp, and Vino was just super excited to see them. Now that the show got his attention again, he was ready to party.

The next part of the competition was freestyle. It had a lot of “ooohhh” and “aahhh” moments, and it was really fun to watch.

I kept telling Che that I was really enjoying it. I didn’t grow up to monster trucks, but I do have fun with them when playing with Vino. I even play Monster Jam on PS5, which helped give me a bit of an idea of how the scoring went.

The freestyle event was won by the crowd favorite, Grave Digger. He had an incredible run capped off by a flip that almost went south before he saved it.

In the end, Digatron was declared the overall winner after he scored a total of 20 points at the end of three events. It’s nice because we had him sign our picture together.

We felt there were a lot of people, so we decided to wait a bit. Suddenly, a mother and child came towards us. I told Vino to give them space until the person identified herself. She was a college friend, but I did not recognize her immediately. I apologized profusely, but she was nice as she has always been and tried not make me feel embarassed for not recognizing her.  

As we exited, we tried to figure out how to get home. We chanced upon a beach volleyball place, and Vino asked to tick off a wish by playing with his monster truck on the sand. 

We rode a bus to somewhere and decided to take a Grab ride from there. It was a good idea, the driver said, because he would have cancelled if he knew he was going to pick up from Stadium.

We still had some leftover food from the night before, so I told Che we should finish those instead of ordering more food.

After dinner, I washed the dishes and took a bath. When I returned, Vino was clinging on to Che as they slept on the sofa.

It was a long day for us, with my homebody wife pointing out that we were out for over 12 hours.

I let them sleep on the sofa and just waited for when they needed help to move to the bed. For people who would rather choose to stay home, this was a lot of work for them today, so it was good that they fell asleep early.

Related Content