My gmail contacts don't show up in my iPad Contacts app. I had this problem both on my 2gen and 3gen. I've added my gmail as an exchange account as well as a gmail account several times, but it doesn't solve the problem. Sometimes the names will show up, but not the email address.
I finally figured it out just now. I followed your recipe, but the contacts still didn't show up. I went to my gmail account and it turned out that a majority of my contacts were filed under 'other contacts' rather than 'my contacts'. As soon as I moved them to 'my contacts', they all showed up on my Ipad. Your link was still very helpful, because I didn't know that solution existed, or that it was recommended. Thanks