Woman FAKES Amazing 42 Day Vacation

a woman and a child sitting on a ledge

It really is amazing what stories could be told using Facebook and Photoshop and not all of them are what they seem.

Imagine telling your friends and family that you were going on an amazing 42 day Southeast Asia vacation and then posting photos during your trip to Facebook. Imagine doing this all without leaving your home town.

That’s exactly what a Dutch woman, Zilla van den Born did. 

According to CTV News, “Dutch student Zilla van den Born used Photoshop and Facebook to chronicle a 42-day journey through Southeast Asia that never happened, all to point out the artificiality of social media”.

She posted faked pictures to Facebook and even had Skype conversations from her apartment (she decorated her room to look like hotels) in Amsterdam all while her friends & family thought she was away exploring Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

a man standing in the water

Van den Camp had some help from a photographer and post-production specialist for what the article says is a university project. When she went out around town in Amsterdam she dressed in disguise so she wouldn’t be recognized.

To get the desired fake photos, Van den Camp took photos of food at oriental restaurants and used a community pool for a snorkeling and then had some fish photoshopped in!

Besides posting photo-shopped photos, Van den Camp also took videos to show how she planned and faked her trip.

After reading the CTV News article I googled Zilla’s name and came up with a Buzzfeed article which had more details (as well as the photos included in my post).

palm trees on a beach

Van den camp sent her friends and family videos showing how she faked her Southeast Asia vacation adventure.

Here is a quote from the Buzzfeed post which shows how she felt about her fake vacation project: “If I had the chance to do it again, I don’t think I would do it again,” van den Born said. “I really underestimated the impact of the project on myself and the people around me!”

I’d love to know if any friends or family members got mad at Zilla for taking her fake-ation?

Do you think you could ever pull off such a stunt? I definitely don’t think I could.

Find out more in the CTV News article here and the Buzzfeed article here. 

5 thoughts on “Woman FAKES Amazing 42 Day Vacation

  1. Points With A Crew- Besides keeping busy on her fake trip I can’t imagine how she got out much without running into somebody she knows!

    Joey- It is a pretty impressive travel- scam that she pulled off!

    Fred- I really have no clue what other bloggers do in terms of travel. I can only vouch for myself…

  2. I think some of the bloggers here are doing the same thing. Some even telling us they took x number of vacations and y number of weeks this year. When I added the x and y together I got more than 365 days. Wow, amazing.

  3. I personally can never do that. In a way, I think it must have been harder for her to disguise herself in Amsterdam — even to her own family — than to fake this vacation!!!

  4. That is hilarious. What I wonder is what she actually DID for those 42 days?!!? I mean she couldn’t just wander around Amsterdam at her usual haunts, right? Too much risk of someone that she knew seeing her and saying “Hey aren’t you supposed to be in Asia?!!?”

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