From the bus station, we made our way a few kilometers to Thuy's house through crazy traffic, which you could see in the video. There, Thuy found us a hotel on the internet called New Sun Hotel (the site is down, per Vietnamese custom), located at 9B ngo 67 Van Cao, Ba Dinh district.
By the way, there are "only" 6.5 million residents in Hanoi, and even then, the majority are in the surrounding villages. The city was founded in 1010.
Hotels here are relatively expensive — about 20 bucks a room, or even per person. True, the quality is also a bit better — everything is tidier, fewer broken things, cleaner, an LCD TV, toilet paper in a box that protects it from the shower. But the toothbrushes are exactly the same — impossibly flimsy.
The next day we were heading to Ha Long Bay, so we only needed the room for one thing — just to crash until 4-5 AM.
