When one says Geylang, images of sleazy alleys and girls pops to mind. But there's more than meets the eye - places of worship dot the landscape, and football fans get a regular fix at their favourite hawker centres.

On a Friday night, worshippers can be seen seeking solace within the walls of the Khadijah Mosque at Geylang Lorong 29.

So how does one handle the "distractions"? Karaoke music blares from nearby bars, noisy chatter from nearby coffee shops fills the air, and honking car horns threaten to disrupt the serenity inside the mosque.

"I'm not bothered about the surroundings because it is about finding that place of peace, deep within ourselves wherever we are at," said Hussain Abdur Bapary, 27, a Bangladeshi worker.

Just beside the 76-year-old mosque is a recently renovated food haven.

The smell of Chinese food and spices oozes out from the new hawker centre located at Yinchuan Building, No. 2 Geylang Lorong 29 where the customers are mainly elderly folk.

By supper time, all eyes were fixed on a huge projection screen which hung on a wall. The projection screen was the only thing dividing the mosque from the hawker centre. A repeat telecast of a football match was being screened.

Those who frequent the nearby mosque are unperturbed by the sound of crowds cheering for their favourite football teams coming from next door.

"Although people find the idea of having a place to worship in the middle of red-light district terrible, I find it to be of good balance", says 46-year-old Izhar Bin Ibrahim, who emerged from his Friday evening prayers to start his night shift as a taxi driver.

Just like how in Bangkok, there are as many as entertainment venues as places of worship, it is not as if these two kinds of places cannot co-exist, he explained.

"If you walk further down to Lorong 11 you will find more places of worship - two temples and another mosque."

The first temple that you'll pass by is Poh Tiong Kiong temple at Geylang Lorong 25A. Other places of worships Izhar mentioned are Haji Mohammed Salleh Mosque and Shan Yuan Tang Temple, at Lorong 11.

Mr Mohammad Nannu, a regular worshiper of Haji Mohammed Salleh Mosque also has no issues with visiting places of worship in the middle of red-light district.

The 30-year-old Bangladeshi who lives at Kallang, rides his bicycle to Geylang Lorong 11 almost every night, and finds the location of the mosque convenient.

Perhaps it is the focus that devotees bring with them that helps them to rid themselves of all distractions - even in the middle of Geylang.

And so you find devotees who flock to mosques and temples, and devotees who frequent hawker centres to worship the gods of the football pitch on TV.

It makes you look at Geylang in a slightly different, not-so-red light.

Text by Zaty Safwaty of Republic Polytechnic.

This is a final-year project by Republic Polytechnic students in conjunction with AsiaOne.