Student convinced family she was on trip around Asia - despite NEVER leaving her bedroom

A STUDENT convinced her family and friends she was on a five-week trip around South East Asia - but, in reality, she had never left her bedroom.

Zilla leaving before and after[Caters ]

After waving goodbye to her family at the airport, Zilla Van Den Born, 25, went to extraordinary lengths to fool her friends into thinking she was travelling through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos by mocking up photographs of exotic food and tourist attractions. 

Little did they know Ms Van Den Born, from Amsterdam, was actually sat on her sofa.

To carry out her ruse, she had faked Skype calls to her parents under Christmas lights and a Thai umbrella, while also sending texts in the middle of the night to add to her credibility.

Zilla in her set up cafe on Skype [Caters ]

My goal was to prove how common and easy it is to distort reality. I did this to show people that we filter and manipulate what we show on social media

Zilla Van Den Born

The backpack of lies was all part of her university graduation project, to show how social media does not always reflect reality.

She said: "My goal was to prove how common and easy it is to distort reality.

"I did this to show people that we filter and manipulate what we show on social media." 

Amazingly, pictures of the Dutch student snorkelling in turquoise water with tropical fish around her were taken at a local swimming pool and then digitally altered at home. 

Ms Van Den Born even photoshopped herself onto tuk tuks, beautiful beaches and luxury resorts in the 42 days she spent hidden in her Amsterdam apartment with her boyfriend - the only person in the know.

The freelance graphic designer also took photos of tropical aquariums at Amsterdam's Artis Zoo, went to a butterfly garden, bought exotic Asian souvenirs at a market and cooked up Thai meals in her own kitchen.

Before and after: Zilla pictured on the beach [Caters]

Zilla in her fake Ocean image [Caters ]

She even spent time in tanning booths to get a healthy holiday glow and sent postcards, which no-one noticed were stamped with Dutch postmarks.

"We create an online ideal world which reality can no longer match up to," she added.

"Everybody knows that pictures of models are manipulated but we often overlook the fact that we manipulate reality in our own lives as well.

"A picture is perhaps one of the most layered and contradictory objects that we can see around us.

"It represents the reality, but also falsehood. It is a fact, but also an opinion. It is technology, but also an art form."

Pictured at the temple in Amsterdam- before and after [Caters ]

The fake holiday was only discovered when she revealed all to her family and friends and filmed their shocked reaction.

To chronicle her adventure, Ms Van Den Born has now put together a book called 'Sjezus say, Zilla' - 'Oh God, Zilla' in English - to give readers the chance to see her pictures before and after they were edited.

Readers can scan the pages with the augmented reality app 'Layar' to see the before and after versions.

Ms Van Den Born revealed her fascination behind the project. 

The student even edited herself in to snaps of a group of friends [Caters ]

"There is a constant battle going on between the two considerations: the photographed object being as beautiful as possible and it telling the truth," she added.

"What a picture really shows is not the exact situation as it really was, but what it represents. 

"This ambiguous relationship with reality makes photography so fascinating to me. It raises questions about the representative power of pictures and reality itself."