I was so pleased to meet you on Wednesday night Bhante @Akaliko and listen to you Dhamma talk. I thought you were from WA tho; are you in Sydney a lot?
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Yes I’ve been based in WA but I’m originally from Sydney so I come back whenever I can to visit family, friends and dhamma communities. 
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Thanks for the lovely photo! It does illustrate one problem of modern pindapata, though: so much plastic!
I’ve been thinking of ways to get around this. If you put rice and wet curries and fruit and so on in a bowl, it all gets messy quickly. It doesn’t worry me, but donors don’t like it.
Maybe take tupperware, and get restaraunts to fill them, rather than getting disposable plastic containers?
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Yes it’s irksome to have the plastic. But now at least with the plastic bag ban there’s less bags. I wish that we could just receive food straight into the bowl but that’s not the custom. The idea of taking reusable containers is nice but I think the donors would find it odd. It would certainly mean much more interaction than i usually do, just standing in silence eyes downcast and not talking. My small comfort is that the containers are recyclable at least…
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Yes, it would need more interaction. Actually taking to people, wow! I was thinking it could be done if we were to go somewhere on a more regular basis.
The containers are recyclable, it’s true, but seriously, does anyone need that many? I wonder … maybe like a food charity, meals on wheels or something, would they use them?
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We did a two weeks Tudong last year in Germany where we would rely solely on alms:
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In Myanmar the custom is that monks who go for alms with novices receive only rice, while some novices carry tiffins to receive the curries, and similar curries are put together. Monks going on solo alms rounds sometimes take small round metal cups/boxes, as the ones seen on this photo: https://l7.alamy.com/zooms/8a924737ae394acea9add4b369a1e20f/buddhist-alms-bowl-with-orange-strap-and-rice-cups-cyaw3t.jpg
The cups are kept on top of the bowl lid and when filled with curries are placed inside the bowl with the rice. That way the curries stay separated from each other and from the rice and thus can be shared more neatly with others when back in the monastery.
But as far as I’ve seen, Thai bowl lids don’t have a rim like the Burmese bowls do, so it might not be feasible for you to place those boxes on the lid.
I’ve also seen some monks going with bowl plus tiffin, but I’m doubtful whether there isn’t a problem with vinaya that the larger tiffin bowls would be considered an extra bowl?
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But as Bhante Sujato suggested, wouldn’t it be possible to “educate” one’s donors to just put the curry in the bowl directly?
When I go for solo-alms here (Myanmar), I don’t use those boxes mentioned above and sometimes people aren’t sure where to put the curry since I don’t have a container, so I just smile and nod my head pointing to the bowl and usually then it’s fine for them.
But yeah, in Bhantes Akaliko and Sujato’s case one might aditionally first have to verbally educate to change the established custom.
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Bhante Agga kindly took some photos of his Thai bowl, which was modified here by welding a rim onto it. That way one can put something on top of it without it slipping off, or even put the lid upside down for more capacity
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For what my two cents are worth RE the plastics issue: whenever I get horrified by the waste of the daily alms round here in Thailand, I console myself by remembering that however bad the waste is here in the generosity economy, the (material as well as human) waste in the “normal” capitalist mode of living is much worse. Simply by owning less clothing, not having a car or tv, and refusing to exploit others or let ourselves be exploited for profit, we are doing our part to restore sanity to the global economy. And if it makes the donors happy to see their rice and curry segregated in neat little plastics ¯_(ツ)_/¯ okay. As long as we aren’t picky we’re doing our job and I think it’s important to recognize and celebrate that. 
In short: y’all are amazing and I love you so much and don’t let anyone tell you you’re not doing enough 
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Update
Bhante @sujato and I went for Pindabat today for the first time in the Harris Park area of Sydney.
At first it seemed we would not be eating afterall and I remembered the Dhammapala verse 200:
Happy indeed we live, we who have nothing. Feeders on joy we shall be, like the Radiant Gods.
But we were very fortunate to meet kind people and also had some (big) help from a dear Dhamma friend. And so we were still joyful but also belly full . 
We will be going for Pindabat in the Harris Park and Parramatta areas on weekdays for the foreseeable future. 
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Thanks for sharing, Bhante! Do you two have a planned route or will it be sporadic? I’m just wondering if eventually people will know to expect to see you.
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We are still trialling routes and timings as it’s just our second day. We will probably end up having regular supporters meet us near the end of our route on the way back to our Vihara, as that should be pretty predictable.
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Maybe their alms bowls could have GPS chip? That would be wonderful use of technology:)
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Or FindFriends on the iPhone. One could share during alms.
Another one is Glympse for GPS sharing.
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I’m glad the chip would be in our bowls not our brain, but actually, good ideas for modern times, thanks!
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Thank you Bhante. Actually, that was my first thought (to chip monks)
There could be Pali Canon, Pali translator and meditation application on it. An algorithm would plan the alms rounds for you using statistics of Buddhist population in the area, face recognition software and weather forecast… but maybe it is too far fetched:)
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There’s a young monk in New England (USA) who wanders year-round on his own through the forests and towns of the area, ala the Thai tradition (e.g. Ajahn Lee). Here’s where I first learned about him:
Subsequently Pamutto Bhikkhu was a fellow student at a week-long teaching gig I attended at BCBS (Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Massachusetts, USA) – topic “Self, Non-Self, and
Contemplation of Death” , with teachers Sayadaw U Jagara (aka Martin Boisvert) and his brother, Mathieu Boisvert, an Indic scholar.
Rather quiet, unassuming fellow, and always seemingly content and cheerful.
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Thanks for sharing this, @cjmacie. I actually just spent a week on retreat where Pamutto was one of the teachers. He’s returned to lay life as an Upasaka, and he shared a lot about his experiences as a wandering monk. It’s clear monastic life had a deep impact on him—I found him to be super insightful, kind, and dedicated to the Buddha’s path.
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Did he say why he left monastic life?
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