My friend Aaron and I walked a loop through the Tavaksay Gorge last Sunday. You can see the difference between the late fall and mid-spring views. We were amazed at the abundance of growth and flowers at the bottom of the gorge. We couldn’t recognize the place we had walked just a few months prior. The Kazakhstan border is 15-20 kilometers away and instructs people in the area to show their identity documents “to internal affairs organs and DXX (the State Security Service, Uzbekistan’s intelligence agency) representatives.” We struggled walking along the steep, grassy hillsides on the way up the canyon and then got a bit disoriented on the way back near the river in the middle of the gorge.
The term “say” or “soy” in Uzbek means a rocky, seasonal stream valley. I visited this gorge, or say many times in my time in Uzbekistan, and I always come back feeling better than when I drove out of the city.
Bill's Blog 