Jacob: At the end of 2016, right before the New Year,
I was hit by a drunk driver in Thailand and ended up at the hospital
fighting for my life.
This was the closest I had ever gotten to dying
and even though I had to undergo a 4-hour long plastic surgery,
I felt extremely happy and grateful to be alive.
I'm extremely happy. I'm very, very, very, very, grateful...
and humbled by the whole experience.
Once I left the hospital, I promised myself to live every single day
as if it was my last and that is what made 2017, the best year of my life.
The first thing after leaving the hospital was going a really crazy travel adventure,
where I visited five different countries, in three continents, in just five days.
I went from Thailand, to Egypt, to Cyprus, to the United Arab Emirates, and to Indonesia,
where I celebrate my new year's like this, and like this.
I spend the next one month traveling all around Indonesia,
jumping into awesome waterfalls, climbing to the most epic volcano ever;
"At this moment, I might be the tallest man in Indonesian."
Motorbiking, making new friends, exploring beautiful caves, going on boat trips,
and obviously hanging out with the common of dragons.
Dude, you're my heroes!
- You can be a hero, too. [Laughing]
Jacob: ♪ You can be my hero, baby! ♪
♪ You can kiss away the pain ♪
As much as I enjoyed my time in Indonesia, it was time for me to go down south,
to the one and only, Australia,
Where he went on a really awesome road trip with a few my friends.
During which we camped out on the beaches, went hiking,
sand surfing, clift jumping, and so much more.
Unfortunately though, I only got to spend two weeks in a Australia. Why?
Because I was on my way to fulfill one of my biggest dreams in life.
To travel all around New Zealand.
When it landed in New Zealand, I bought a very old, but very cool travel car.
It's 7:45, which means that I had to wake up an hour and a half ago.
[Chuckles]
And throughout the next six weeks of my life,
I took that car all around both of the two islands of New Zealand,
which was a road trip of almost 8,000 kilometers (4,971 miles).
The reason why New Zealand is one of my favorite countries in the world
is because you can find anything there.
Anything from really tall mountains and volcanoes,
to large rivers or lakes, to lush forests, to small villages
and- and big cities, to caves and hot springs and,
absolutely anything else you can imagine.
So Good!
I kept wondering whether this was real. Whether, I wasn't actually dreaming.
It's 7 A.M. now just; a regular Saturday morning in New Zealand.
Nothing special. Nothing special at all.
It was such an incredible road trip that...
I will definitely remember it 'till the day I die.
It's just a remarkable place.
This country never stops eh, surprising me.
I mean every day, there's something new to see, and to explore, and to rejoice.
Its just crazy.
It definitely has to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world, hands down.
Even though I've really enjoyed my time in New Zealand, after those 6 weeks,
I felt really exhausted, and I really missed Asia.
So I decided to go to Hong Kong for a couple of days
I'm currently boarding my plane out of New Zealand, and I don't know, it feels very strange.
So many things have happened there.
I'm gonna miss it. [Laughs]
Where I did umm- quite a bit of a rooftoping?
Then I decided to take a little break from traveling,
so I took a plane to this really nice country called Taiwan, rented an apartment.
It is nearly 2:15 A.M.
Look at this beauty though
And simply live there for a month and a half.
I build myself routine, where I would read books every day, do some sports every day,
do a lot of work, and obviously be hanging out with my friends.
Jacbo: Who has the best helmet?
Lee: I! Jacob: I!
- Me! Lee: I do!
- Me! Jacob: No.
And Lee has the worst
[Slow mo Laugh]
Jacob: My days in Taiwan were really nice.
I uh- celebrated my 23rd birthday there.
[Someone Singing Cline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" through a Karaoke Machine]
Jacob: Then I summited the tallest mountain in all of Taiwan
and just had a really great time taking a break from traveling.
Eventually, staying at one place got a little bit too boring.
I feel... a little bored, but very very happy with everything that's happened because
I'm not tired anymore.
So I took another plane to South Korea, where he traveled all around the country for 10 days,
then I made my way to Nepal,
where I spent a couple of days exploring the country with my sister.
Then I brought some hiking gear because I had absolutely nothing.
"This is to pur-
This is to purify my water.
Very important stuff."
And terked all the way to base camp of the mountain in the world, Mount Everest
Greetings from the Everest base camp, eh?
It feels fresh.
After Nepal, I took a plane to the capital of India, New Delhi,
where I met with two of my friends and the three of us
decided to motorbike the highest motor-able road in the whole world,
up there in the Himalayas.
We got into a crazy snowstorm!
How you're feeling? Good?
This is the greatest bike ride of my entire life, man.
I can't feel anything, we need to stop every one second.
[inaudible]
It was so cold, my- my fingers still shivered when- when I think about it.
We feel terrible at this very moment
But I know that a year from now, five years from now,
ten years from now, when I look back to this day,
I'll think it was a hell of a trip, and that is exactly why
these tiny doubt signs or huge is how that sides even
are worth it.
I'm just gonna go to that hot shower.
I've dinner with my friends and be happy,
and be happy with today.
A couple of years back during my very first visit in India,
I spend two days exploring the slums of Mumbai.
I still had so many questions that I needed answers to
So now that I came back to India, I decided to go back to Mumbai
and actually spend five days living in the slums of Mumbai.
Every single day, I went all around the area and those five days,
they were just mind open.
I once again got to learn so much about the life in the slums.
I realized that it's probably not as bad as most people imagine, even though
there's obviously tons of problems that need to be addressed
and I made friends with so many of the local people who turned out
to be really, really, friendly and actually very positive
I mean a lot of them seem to be quite quite happy with their lives
and- and didn't see as many problems as we might in some other place.
[Music playing]
When he left India, I decided to take another break from traveling.
So I spent one month living in Bangkok.
(140 km/87 miles away from Bangkok) This waterfall is insane,
and it's so early in the morning
there's hardly any other people in here.
Which is...
Which is just nice!
Which eh- once again, got quite boring.
WOOO!!!!
So I took a plane to Indonesia where I celebrated my good friend's wedding,
then made my way to this remote island called Sumbawa
and motorbiked over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) all around the island,
which was a very nice experience because during the whole time there,
I didn't need a single other tourist.
It was just me, the nature, and the local people.
High-five?
Sumbawa's a beautiful place, eh? And recommended.
Such a nice place.
Such nice nature, everything's perfect!
Eventually, I went back to Bangkok where I took
my very first Muay Thai classes, and this is what happened:
Yeah, so apparently I- I had to leave the country because,
I didn't want to get my face smashed! [laughing]
So, I spend two weeks traveling all around Iran and learning about
that country and its history which was fascinating 'cause
I really didn't know much before I went there.
This is so beautiful, oh my goodness!
Look at that!
Look at this!
Wow!
What do you think about it, Hassan?
Hassan: Wow! Amazing!
Jacob: Amazing!
Then I went skydiving in Dubai, with some really epic views; I would have to say.
Eventually, I made my way to Oman, where I rented a 4x4
and spend the next ten days of my life traveling all around that country
I spent most of my time in the nature, either in the desert or in some oases,
or obviously bathing on those really beautiful white sand beaches.
There's no one on the beach,
there's no one on [inaudible],
and there's on one in the water
[Whispering] Maybe some sharks!
Every single night, I would sleep in my car.
Check out the view from my Hotel Room.
Its so beautiful.
And had an absolute blast
Just- AHHH!!! Ha!
That's some water!!!
Then I made my way to Jordan,
and Jordan was a very nice place to visit
because they had Petra, which is one of the craziest sites you'll ever see in your life.
[Announcer Speaking in Arabic]
We all swam the Dead Sea which is one of the weirdest feelings you will ever feel in your life.
So apparently you cannot really sing here 'cause it's so salty.
Let's- let's try it out. It seems to be working though.
Oh!
Oh! Dude it's working!
Look at this!
[Inaudible]
And the all-said Wadi Rum, which is probably the closest thing you can find to Mars on Earth.
Look at the surrounding views.
It's insane, bruh!
Wooo! Woo!
Two weeks in Jordan were a total blast. That's for sure.
After Jordan, I took a plane to the last country that I visited in 2017, which was Turkey.
A few weeks before I went to Turkey, it was my parents 28th wedding anniversary
and so we hopped on a call and I told him
"Hey guys! I bought you a one week long trip to Turkey!"
But I told him that I was very busy, and I couldn't make it.
The next day, I hopped in another call with my dad and I told him that I was coming,
so the two of us decided to surprise my mom.
I came to Turkey one day before them
and when my parents came, my dad made my mom opened the door.
And when she opened the door, she saw this:
Jacob: After one week of traveling in Turkey with my parents,
all of us came back to Lithuania,
which is a country that I was born and raised in.
Here goes my first step!
Go! Open! Open! Let's go!
Yay! [Laughing]
Ah, Dude
This feels so weird, man. This feels so weird.
And there, I had a blast meeting with my friends, and singing on trains,
and, obviously celebrating the New Year's.
[Cheering]
And, so - so I guess that's it.
That's everything I did in 2017,
and even though at the very end of 2016, I almost lost my life.
I- I think I made the most of it, and had the best year of my life
Summertime and the living is easy.
I love it, man
So I guess the two biggest takeaways from- from this year is:
First off a lot of the obstacles we face in our lives
are actually blessings in disguise because whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
And the second takeaway is:
Life's short! Why waist a second?
Oh, and uh- one last thing before I go,
eh- if you've been watching my videos for a while now,
you will know that I'm a really slow editor.
I mean for most of those trips that I told you about right now
I haven't really made any videos and-
and the reason is that when I travel full time and work full time,
It's really hard to find the chance to edit videos as well,
but it's my problem and I'm working in it.
However, if you want to get real time of days for my travels,
check me out on Instagram at
eeehhhh...
@JacobAukaitis
I- I'll- I'll put the link in the description box below as well.
And that being said, thank you very much for watching.
And have an absolutely amazing 2018, because we live only once. Eh?
Why not make it great, and fun, and interesting, and exciting,
and spontaneous, and adventurous, and everything else?
Thank you very much. See you later!