globetrotting: yes, i'm going to india

I've referenced it a couple of times in this blog, but I guess I've never come out and said it:

I am going to India on January 1, 2009.

I figure that's a good way to meet a New Year's resolution.

I leave straight from Milwaukee at 1:17 p.m. (damn can't do the Polar Plunge this year--it's on my list of "Wisconsin To-Dos"), fly through Newark and arrive in Delhi at 9:20 p.m. on January 2nd. A car service picks me up at the airport and deposits me at the hotel where I will pop an Ambien (thank you Dr. Bonner) and wake up the next day when my travel companion Jason joins me after his independent trek through the northwestern part of the country. After a day of Delhi we'll head to Agra and the Taj Mahal, and then in a day or so, travel to Varanasi, where we apparently have a super-deluxe room overlooking the Ganges. Then it's back to Delhi for a couple of nights. I leave Sunday, January 11 (my 29th birthday) at 11:35 p.m.

I can't wait to fill in that itinerary with stories and photos.

Have you been to this part of India? What do you recommend? What don't you recommend?