Buffet Crashers!! Today I had organized to meet up with another Couchsurfer visiting Siem Reap: Ele from Italy. I was up early and downstairs for the great free breakfast of fried eggs and fresh baguette, fruit and tea before packing a bag and making my way to the city to meet Ele. We walked around the market together and I got to learn a bit about Eles trip: 2 years living and travelling around Australia (really inspiring). I brought some fresh soy milk drink and a famous savory snack from Cambodia called a Khmer cake: a small cake made from the root vegetable Tarro and consisting of beans, vegetables and even some dried fruit up top all deep fried. Although the cake was good it was far too oily and did have me feeling a bit sick of afterwards. We walked around some more, chatted and discussed each others life's and travels. I said goodbye to Ele mid afternoon and then went to get some lunch in the central market; finding these delicious rice paper spring rolls with green vegetables, prawns and mint dipped in a sweet peanut sause for just 20 cents a piece; absolute bargain and delicious!! It then started to rain heavily so I decided to use the time to finally do some souvenir shopping; I walked around getting price ideas and bargaining a little to see how much I could get some pure silk tablecloths for and after 3 hours went in for the kill - so to speak getting a good price on two tablecloths. It was then back to my hostel for some yoga and a quick rest before making my way back into the centre to meetup with Ele again. The night market was pumping again and already by 6pm there were loads of people around: we walked around, people watched and then decided to head down to the famous Koulem 2 dance show and buffet for a look. For about $15 you get an all you can eat buffet and dance show with local food and dance; on arrival we saw the 100s of people cramming into the place and walked in to ask about the price; only to find no one stopped us and next thing we found ourselfs at the buffet table. Thinking this was a sign and honoring our goodluck we both took small bowls and started sampling the vast array of foods. There was allocated seating and staff were seating people but Ele and I just walked around constantly sampling little pieces of everything for nearly an hour with no need to seat. The food was quite good but certainly not worth the $15 price tag. Some of my favorites were the fish amok (fish cooked in coconut sause), spring rolls and all the wonderful desserts of which Cambodia is famous for. There was a huge amount of people crowding the tables but our little system of taking a desert bowl and just sampling tiny bits of each worked a treat; however switching between savory foods and desserts soon had my stomach cramping a grumbling. After an hour or so we figured a plan to get out before we had over-gorges ourselfs and literally walked out the front door pretending to be going for a smoke. We couldn't believe our luck and hi-fived on the adrenaline rush of crashing a buffet resteraunt; trying tons of local foods for free and not getting caught. The typical after buffet/gorge yourself feeling came and we both became super lethargic and had to rest a while but then a second bout of energy came and we were up and off exploring again. Turns out Ele is one of the most interesting and coolest chicks I have met in a while - fancy that; after 4 years finding a nice girl close to home. However this scared me in the end and after a wonderful night I did the typical paranoid act of pushing her away and justifying in my mind she wasn't right for me or that she would break my heart.