Wanderlust inspires the perfect vacation.
© Zilla van den Born

When Wanderlust and Imagination Meet

Zilla van den Born had always wanted to see Southeast Asia—the crystal blue waters of the Indian Ocean, the vine-encrusted temples, and the bustling streets bursting with color and the energy of daily life. Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos called. Her wanderlust answered.

She set off on a 42-day adventure—a vacation of a lifetime—the envy of her friends and family.

The Dutch graphic designer was soaking up the sun on pristine beaches, snorkeling eye to eye with exotic fish, sampling spicy Asian food, visiting ancient monuments, and traveling in rickety rickshaws.

A taste of Thai
© Zilla van den Born

Like any good friend and family member, she was letting the folks back home experience her adventures—providing photos and updates so that they could travel with her via social media and texts.

The only catch—none of it was real. She never left her home city of Amsterdam. The trip was an invention . . . of the most imaginative kind.

Illusions of Reality

Her goal was to prove “how common and easy it is to distort reality.” She wanted to show that we all most likely stretch the truth for our social media persona and that, with the right media manipulation tools, we can make anything seem real.

The beauty of a pristine beach
© Zilla van den Born

Don’t We All Want An Awesome Life?

The project seeds were sown as she scrolled through her own Facebook timeline.

“I was feeling jealous of the apparently awesome lives others live in comparison with mine,” she admitted.

“I realized that we tend to forget that people filter what they show on social media. We’re creating some sort of ideal world that reality can no longer meet.”

The adventures begin . . .
© Zilla van den Born

Let the Adventures Begin

Zilla set out to create a virtual vacation—the ideal adventure—keeping the secret from everyone but her boyfriend.

She researched meticulously. “I read blogs of other travelers so I knew what problems others run into and how to fix them,” she explained. “I even looked up train and flight schedules so that I wouldn’t make any mistake in my fake story.”

A Master of the Virtual

Zilla photoshopped herself into travel photos she found on the Internet, texted the day’s highlights based on her research (cleverly timed to reflect her fake time zone), and posted Facebook updates according to her phony itinerary.

She created some of her “alternate” realities by photographing herself at the Buddhist temple in Amsterdam, jumping into her apartment swimming pool with her snorkeling gear, buying Asian souvenirs to place in the background of her Skype calls, and cooking (and photographing) Thai meals in her own kitchen.

Visiting a Buddhist Temple . . . in Amsterdam
© Zilla van den Born

She completed the deception by getting her “beach tan” at the neighborhood tanning booth.

When asked which “distortion” was the most fun, Zilla answered thoughtfully. “Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of fun. It was much more difficult than I had thought to have to lie to all the people I care about. It was a very stressful experience. I enjoyed the ‘coming home’ part most. That was such a relief.”

The art of distorting reality
© Zilla van den Born

The Deception Revealed

How did people respond when they learned the truth?

“They were shocked at first, confused and angry that they were worried for nothing,” Zilla admits. “My mother stopped speaking to me for a week. In the end, everyone understood why I did it, and I have won their trust back.”

Zilla’s “set” for her Skype calls home, decorated to look like an Asian locale
© Zilla van den Born

Oh, I See: The Real Thing

What’s better than a virtual vacation? The real thing of course. Zilla did finally make the trip to Southeast Asia.

“Even though I got to ‘see’ the highlights and landmarks by searching online, nothing beat the experience of really going there,” Zilla said upon returning from her real journey. “It was amazing.”

Nothing beats REALLY being on this beach.
© Zilla van den Born

Zilla proved several points in her wanderlust experiment, but the lasting lessons for her were:

• It’s a good idea to be cautious about believing what you see online (or in photographs) and
• A real adventure trumps a virtual vacation 100% of the time.

“Oh, I see” moments of the best kind.

To see more of Zilla van den Born’s work and her book “Sjezus zeg, Zilla” (“Oh God, Zilla”), visit her website. To see her new project “Ctrl Alt Repeat,” where she manipulates her own self-portrait in post processing in as many different ways as her imagination will take her, visit her Facebook page or view ctrl_alt_repeat on Instagram. 

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