Student Traveling Through South East Asia Worries Her Parents with Confession

All around the world, It’s pretty common for students to go on a backpacking trip to different places around the globe. In many countries, after finishing high school or college, students go on a ‘gap year’ or on a long trip somewhere in the world. The trip is either a celebration of the next step they’re about to take, or just a way of postponing ‘adulting’. Common places include South America, a Euro trip, Southeast Asia and Africa.This experience was no exception to Dutch student Zilla Van Den Born, but her story had a little twist.

A Travelling Enthusiast

When the Amsterdam native decided to go by herself on a trip to Southeast Asia, she felt absolutely euphoric. She had always wanted to see different places and experience different cultures from around the world, and the Asian continent had always fascinated her.

Ever since she was a young girl, she had decided that as soon as she was able to, Southeast Asia would be her first ever trip. After saving every penny she could, she finally had enough money to go on a six week trip around different places in Southeast Asia.

The Power Of Social Media

She told her family that this would be the trip of her life, and promised to stay in contact on a daily basis through social media. But nowadays, the thing about social media is that it can be a great tool for easy communication with family and friends, but it can also easily distort realities.

Anyone who owns a smartphone has access to tools such as photoshop and editing apps, which don’t always easily share the truth. So while Van Den Born kept her promise and updated her family regularly with breathtaking pictures, they had no idea that she was hiding a really important detail. But eventually, they found the truth behind Van Den Born’s solo backpacking trip.

An Amsterdam Native

Van Den Born was 25-years-old, and was born in Amsterdam. She lived her whole life in the city of bicycles, but managed to travel around the Netherlands quite a bit. The young woman had been drawn to the travelling world since she was a little girl. Her parents recall her sharing how much she wanted to be able to see the world as soon as she was able to.

But her beautiful and young looks were noticed by a model agency when she was only 16, so she started modelling for a number of companies. The gigs were good, and allowed her to save money towards her dream.

Studying Graphic Design

During that time, she noticed that editors constantly edited and modified her appearance before publishing her pictures, and she became completely fascinated with it. This inspired her to study graphic design when she started college. There was something about graphics, photo editing, and perfectioning pictures that was really intriguing for her.

She enrolled in the Art Academy of Utrecht in her hometown. Her studies came easy to her because she was so interested in what she was studying. Her passion only grew stronger by the day, and her skills increased considerably with time. Since her love and yearning for travelling was still there, she decided it was time to combine her two passions.

Making The Big Decision

She thought that travelling would be the perfect opportunity for her to document it all, and to use the editing and graphic skills she was learning in school. When the excitement could no longer wait, Van Den Born decided to break the news to her family. She had decided to take some time from college in order to travel the world.

She thought that six weeks was the perfect amount of time to recharge her batteries, and to practice her photography and documenting skills. When she had to choose her travelling destination, Southeast Asia was pretty obvious to her. Cambodia, Thailand and Laos would be her main destinations, and she couldn’t be more ecstatic.

Sharing The News

When she was completely sure of her decision, Van Den Born told her family, friends, classmates and college professors that she was going on a solo month-and-a-half long epic trip to Southeast Asia.

Because she was loved by her family and friends, it was completely normal that everyone felt a little bit anxious about her decision to travel alone to so far away. Yet, they were all supportive of her, and really proud of her determined character.

Preparations Started

They knew she was a responsible young girl, and would manage just fine by herself. Ultimately, trust was key, and they trusted her. They knew she would make the right decisions, and wouldn’t put herself in any situation that threatened her safety.

She booked her ticket in April 2014, and started preparing everything she needed for her trip. She wanted to travel light, because that would make things easier while backpacking. So she packed a large backpack with all the essentials she needed, nothing more.

Packing Light Was Key

The cool thing about backpacking was that she would be easily able to move through different places without having to worry about huge suitcases. Additionally, one of the biggest advantages of the destinations she had chosen, was that most places were full of sandy beaches and with a sunny weather.

That made packing light much easier for her, since she only had to take light t-shirts and shorts, a bikini or two, toiletries and she was ready to go.

Documenting Everything From Start

Because she had decided to document every step of her trip, she captured her packing process with her camera and shared it with her followers and friends on her various social media accounts. Before everyone realized it, it was time to go!

The day of her trip had finally arrived, and although her parents were worried about their little girl’s safety, they were also really excited for her. On a beautiful morning at the end of April, Van Den Born’s parents drove her to the train station that would take her to the airport.

Sharing Her Itinerary

Everyone said their goodbyes, and Van Den Born reassured them that she would stay in contact, and would share every step of her experience. She also made sure to write up a full itinerary of her trip to leave with her parents, so that they could follow all of her steps.

While this gesture calmed her parents’ nerves, they had no idea she had kept very important details from the itinerary. They said their goodbyes, and she was off.

Sharing Her First Photos

Once Van Den Born arrived at the airport, she decided to share the first of many traveling photos. She snapped herself holding her passport and boarding ticket in her hands, and shared it on her social media account.

She also took another ‘obligatory’ backpacking photo, by capturing her backpack and gear at the terminal just before she checked in. Just a couple of minutes after she posted the pictures, her social media accounts had tons of positive and encouraging comments.

Reassuring Her Parents

Everyone was so excited that she was pursuing her dream, that her comment section had tons of ‘good luck’ and ‘live your best life’ comments. She checked in and headed to the boarding gate, where her 6-week adventure was about to begin.

But before she boarded the flight, she sent her parents a text message letting them know that she was about to board and that she would let them know as soon as she arrived. Until that point, it was impossible for her parents to suspect that some things didn’t add up.

The Arrival

After a 15 hour flight, the plane finally landed in Thailand. It was time to update her parents and social media account again. She posted a picture that documented her arrival and sent her parents a message right away.

As soon as she arrived at her first hotel, she started a Skype call with her family. She gave them all an enthusiastic tour of her room and shared what she was planning to do in the next couple of days.

A Full Cultural Immersion

She would start with diving fully into the culture that had fascinated her since she was a little girl. She had planned to start with visiting one or two holy temples, trying out local cuisine and she really wanted to experience a little bit of nature.

She again reassured everyone that she would share all pictures with them, so they could experience a little bit of her fun adventures with her. She hung up the Skype call and got ready for her first day of the trip of a lifetime.

Her First Visit To A Temple

After getting some rest, off she went! Van Den Born started her trip with visiting one of Thailand’s famous temples. During her visit, she approached a Monk and asked him if it would be okay to take a picture with him.

After he approved, he asked a bystander to capture the moment and shared a photo with her followers right away. In the picture, she was seen sitting next to the Buddhist Monk in the temple. With the photo, she shared the caption: “Thailand, the land of Smiles”.

Her Next Destination

She also shared photos of the temple itself, and other statuses that could be found in and around the Buddhist Temple. She seemed happy and ecstatic, and everyone commented on how happy they were for her. She was fully immersed into the unfamiliar culture and hinted towards her next destination.

Her plan was to rock up at the well-known sandy beaches of Bangkok and to soak up in the sun for as long as she could. So after seeing some beautiful temples and trying delicious food, she was ready to explore Thailand’s beaches.

Palm Trees And Local Friends

Van Den Born kept posting photos with updates of her journey every day, like she had promised. She went snorkeling in Phuket Island and posted an underwater photo that was to die for. Once again, her followers, including her friends and family kept writing positive and excited comments.

Weeks went by with her posting every part of the journey. Selfies on palm trees, photos next to the local friends she had made, snapshots of really yummy thai dishes, and tens of posts that shared her incredible vacation. For everyone back home, everything looked completely real.

A Postcard From Laos

Once her journey in Thailand ended, Van Den Born headed to Cambodia and Laos. She continued documenting her journey and made sure to let her parents know every time she changed hotels. She would always Skype with them from her new locations, so they could feel like they were right there with her.

To make things even more original, when she arrived in Laos, she decided to send her family a postcard. Social media and Skype were great, but there was nothing quite like a postcard like the old days.

Time To Return Home

But because every journey had to end, Van De Born’s six-week trip was coming to an end. While she shared that she was excited to return home, she was also sad that the trip of her life was ending, and reality was about to kick back in. She had to go back to college in order to finish her studies and to follow up with her other responsibilities.

When she finally arrived back home, everyone was thrilled to see her again. They were all excited to see more pictures and videos of her trip, so Van De Born decided to invite them over.

Time To Tell The Truth

What her friends and family didn’t know was that Van Den Born was hiding something from them that whole time. They thought they were merely going for a photo and video session of her journey, but they were in for a much bigger adventure.

Before she started her journey, Van Den Born had filmed a video where she explained everything she did, and why she did it in detail. She was nervous and concerned that they wouldn’t react well with the fact that she had lied to them.

Coming Clean To Everyone

When everyone arrived at her apartment, she pressed play and her video started. No one could believe that what they were seeing was true. In the video, she explained that during the past 42 days she had been in Amsterdam in her own apartment the entire time.

She had never set foot in an airplane, let alone Southeast Asia. All of those updates, pictures, and videos were a lie. The whole room was in silence, and no one knew what to say to her. They were in shock, confused and feeling a bit betrayed by the whole situation.

Staying In Her Apartment

She then started explaining everything. She told her parents that after they dropped her off at the train station, she waited until they left and returned back home. During a month and a half, Van Den Born only left her house to buy essentials and some groceries, but the rest of the time was spent working on her elaborate plan.

Whenever she left the house, she wore a hat and sunglasses so that no one was able to recognize her. Her entire apartment had been transformed into a place full of props so that she could photoshop all of her pictures. She did it all without telling anyone, with the exception of her boyfriend who supported her social experiment. Her family and friends had mixed feelings towards her story.

It Was All Worth It

Although she explained that she had done everything as a social experiment, they felt betrayed and couldn’t quite understand how she could’ve lied to them for so long. She had it all planned beforehand. For the underwater photos, she had snapped them at her local pool and photoshopped the fish into it.

For the temple, she actually went to a local temple in her neighborhood, which she decided to visit and to take a picture with a real monk. She explained that the reason behind why she deceived everyone, was to prove that social media has the power to create a completely wrong reality of the world. Even though her friends and family didn’t react the way she had hoped, her story grabbed a lot of attention from people from all over the world, and she ended up proving her point.