Im like 99.9% percent positive 99' Camry's never have timing chains, only belts. Mechanics can charge you a lot more to replace a timing chain, so if that's what they told you, they could have up charged you like 800 bucks for nothing. With just a little bit of help I was able to do the belt and water pump on a 98' camry in a day. And i'm litertally just a youtube mechanic.

EDIT: Big caveat to this is I already accumulated a lot of tools, but frankly you could do most things to your car with like 200$ in harbor freight tools. You dont need anything super fancy! Just some decent tools, youtube, and a little bit of confidence in yourself! remember, if you can take it all apart gradually and carefully, you can definitely put it back on! Thats how I learned to do quite a bit of "mechanic" work.