Romanian Dictator’s Lodge Open to Tourists

A luxurious hunting lodge built by the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was ousted and executed two years ago, is now available for vacations or conferences. The rental price in a country where the average worker earns $50 a month: $875 per day. Included in the price are the lodge’s three apartments, each with accommodations for three people; three meals a day, including wine and spirits, and access to a hunting ground for bear. Wolves and foxes are optional prey.

Sherman Oaks writer Tom Tugend reports that the lodge, called Cas Covasna, was constructed seven years ago for about $7 million. During all those years, Ceausescu and his wife Elena visited the place twice, each time for 48 hours, and no one else was allowed to use it. However, a full-time staff was always on duty. One servant was assigned the task of turning the calendar pages on Ceausescu’s desk. The calendar remains open to Dec. 22, 1989--the day he was overthrown and fled Bucharest after a 25-year reign.

Reservations can be made through George Plasko or Darby Line at Ad International, Inc., in Lawrenceville, N.J.: (800) 288-3242.

Travel Quiz: How many countries still drive on the left-hand side of the road? a) 8. b) 15. c) 23. d) more than 40.

Bugis Street Blues: Singapore’s Bugis Street, the infamous district that was demolished in 1985 to make way for a subway station, reopened in January in a new location, directly across the street from its former spot. But it’s a clean, orderly and safe-after-midnight version with its most famous attraction--the transvestites--yet to return. A night-life district that some have likened to New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, Bugis Street was a haunt for soldiers and sailors on leave from the Korean and Vietnam wars, and for tourists in search of authentic sleaze and all-night, open-air food stalls.

The new street, developed for a reported $15 million by Bugis Street Development Ltd., has tried to recapture some of the old atmosphere by using Chinese cinema posters, billboards, old roof tiles, windows, doors and street lamps salvaged from old shop houses due for demolition, to help evoke the original mood of the 1950s. Even the old public toilet on the roof of which the transvestites would climb to stage impromptu shows has been rebuilt. Yet some fear that the re-made area will be too antiseptic to be attractive.

The real question is whether the transvestites will return to perform and bring missing tourists with them. An official of Bugis Street Development held out faint hope that the drag queens might reign once more. He said transvestites are not allowed to perform because the tenants did not apply for public entertainment licenses. “We are still discussing with the authorities, including police, if the transvestites should be allowed. They have not so far said yes or no.”

Quick Fact: Spring break is one of the busiest periods for ATM transactions each year--in large part because of increased use by college students. The places where the spike in activity occurs: Southern California, Texas, Arizona and Mexico (for students from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota), and Daytona Beach and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (for students from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio), according to a spokesman for Plus System network, a company that operates ATMs in all 50 states and 16 countries.

Less Than Zeros: The Mexican government will likely set the legal wheels in motion this spring to lop three zeros off the peso, a government official said. Since galloping inflation hit Mexico in the 1980s, financial calculations have become increasingly difficult: With an exchange rate of about 3,000 pesos per dollar, calculating the cost of anything can be confusing to tourists as well as to residents.

The expected action is not a devaluation, but a simplification measure that should not alter the exchange rate or the cost of commodities such as hotel rooms, according to a tourism industry spokesman. A hotel room that cost 150,000 pesos per night ($50), for example, would cost 150 pesos (still $50) under the new system. New money would be printed and existing peso bills, which have an average life of eight months, would not be renewed. At first, temporary bills would be printed. A 2,000-peso note, for example, would become a 2 “n” peso note, with the “n” representing “new.” By the beginning of 1994, the final new bills would begin to circulate. And what is now the 2,000-peso note would become, in the final stage, a plain two-peso note.

It’s Post Time: The 30-room Post Ranch Inn, the first hotel to be built in Big Sur in nearly 20 years, will open May 1. Situated across Highway 1 from the Ventana Inn, it will face the Pacific coastline and offer rooms in the $300-to-$450 range. Some units are built into trees and others into the hillside, and some sport unobstructed north and south views. The hotel has been developed by a partnership that includes Bill Post, owner of the land and one of Big Sur’s best-known residents.

No Stopping ‘Em: Two more airlines have joined the ranks of those with nonstop flights to faraway places. Delta Air Lines will begin daily nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport and Frankfurt, Germany, on May 9. And last week, Swissair began offering nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Zurich (four a week) and Geneva (three a week).

Comparatively Speaking: Average cost of an eight-ounce package of snack food in Cologne, Germany: $3.73. Sao Paulo, Brazil: $2.14. Islamabad, Pakistan: $1.98. Los Angeles: $1.01. (Source: Runzheimer International.)

Fair Warning: Fabulous hats worn by women, men, children and pets will be part of the seventh-annual La Jolla Easter Hat Parade, at 2 p.m. April 19, at the corner of Prospect and Girard streets. There is no entry fee for the sidewalk promenade that usually draws 200 participants and even more spectators, but more othan 100 prizes, including stays in La Jolla hotels, will be awarded. For more information, call (619) 454-2600.

Quiz Answer: d) more than 40. Many are, or once were, British territories or protectorates.