The Art Of Connecting People With Mandala Club's Ben Jones

For the past few years, Mandala Club has been the site of some of the greatest parties and social events. We look at what makes the social club so brilliantly... social.

- SUFFIAN HAKIM

I DON’T THINK there has been a single occasion that I visited Mandala Club and didn’t have a good time.

The social club at Bukit Pasoh has been one of the foremost names in just about everything cool. Delicious epicurean delights? Check. Dope parties? Check. Enlightening masterclasses? Check. Vibrant, diverse community? Double check.

It’s a refreshing change from what social clubs used to be at the turn of the century, when they were widely considered to be stuffy, pretentious and exclusive – in the worst way possible. They perpetuated social bubbles, in which members, who tended to be demographically homogenous, only interacted amongst themselves.

Modern social clubs tried to change all of that but none have done it quite with the panache of Mandala Club. Consider the things that they’ve conjured this year alone, such as the gorgeous pop-up Mandala Club Niseko in the Japanese ski resort town Niseko from January to March, during which they brought in the likes of Chef Benjamin Cross (of Bali’s Mason fame) and Australian Masterchef George Calombaris to give members epicurean treats amidst Japanese alpine majesty.